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Charlton Heston on October 4, 1924), is an American film actor noted for heroic roles, and his long involvement in political issues.

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Heston was born in Evanston, Illinois to Lilla Charlton and Russell Whitford Carter. Before he was 10 his parents divorced. Some years later, his mother married Chester Heston. The new family moved to well-off Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois, where young Heston (his new name) attended New Trier High School. He enrolled in the school's drama program, where he performed with such outstanding results that he earned a scholarship to Northwestern University for drama in 1942. There he played in the 16mm amateur film adaptation of , in which Heston played Marc Antony.

In 1944, Heston left college and enlisted in the United States Army Air Force. He served for three years as a B-25 radio operatergunner stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the Eleventh Air Force, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant.

When he returned from service in World War II he moved to New York City, where he met actress Lydia Marie Clarke, whom he married in 1947. The two lived in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, where they worked as models. Seeking a way to make it in theater, they decided to manage a playhouse in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1947, they went back to New York where Heston was offered a role in the Broadway play , for which he earned acclaim. He also had success in television, playing a number of roles in CBS's Studio One, one of the most popular anthology dramas of the 1950s. Clarke died on November 19, 1969.

"The artist's rendering of Heston as Moses was bulked up to modern physique standards when the DVD of The Ten Commandments was released" The artist's rendering of Heston as Moses was bulked up to modern physique standards when the DVD of

Heston felt the time had come to move to Hollywood and break into film. In 1950, he earned recognition for his appearance in his first professional movie, , a part he was chosen for reportedly because director Cecil B. DeMille thought that he bore an uncanny resemblance to the statue of Moses by Michaelangelo. He has played leading roles in a number of fictional and historical epics—such as —during his long career. He once quipped, "They seem to think I have a Medieval face!" He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1959 performance in the title role of inspired the Bills, a Congolese youth cult who idolized Western movies.

Heston also starred in various science fiction films and disaster movies, some of which, like , which were hugely successful at the time of their release, and have since become cult classics.

Heston fought at times for his artistic choices. In 1958, he maneuvered Universal International into allowing Orson Welles to direct him in , and in 1965 he fought the studio in support of Sam Peckinpah, when an attempt was made to interfere with his direction of . Heston was also president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971.

In 1971 he made his directorial debut with , an adaptation of the William Shakespeare play that he had performed during his earlier theater career.

Starting with 1973's , Heston began playing an increasing number of supporting roles and cameos. Despite this, his immense popularity has never died, and he has seen a steady stream of film and television roles ever since. Heston has an instantly recognizable voice, and is often heard as a narrator.

Heston was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, and it went into remission the next year following a course of radiation treatment. In August 2002, Heston publicly announced that he was diagnosed as suffering from symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. In July 2003, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, from President George W. Bush at the White House. In March 2005, various newspapers reported that family and friends of Heston were apparently shocked by the rapid progression of his illness, and that he is sometimes unable to get out of bed.

In his earlier years, Heston was a Democrat, campaiging for Presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. He was also a civil rights activist long before it became fashionable for other celebrities to do so, accompanying Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963. In 1969 Heston was asked by some Democrats to run for the California State Senate, a move that would have likely had bipartisan support in the state. He declined because he wanted to continue acting.

In the 1980s, however, Heston began to support more conservative and libertarian positions on such issues as affirmative action and gun rights. He has campaigned for Republican candidates and Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

He is an honorary life member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), and was its president and spokesman from 1998 until his resignation in 2003. As NRA president he is perhaps best known, while raising an antique rifle over his head at the 2000 NRA convention, for saying that Al Gore would take away his Second Amendment rights "from my cold, dead hands". (In announcing his resignation in 2003, he would again raise a semi-automatic rifle over his head, this time repeating only the famous five words of his 2000 speech.) Heston has been harshly criticized by opponents of gun rights. Michael Moore interviewed Heston in his home in the 2002 documentary film asking questions of him regarding an NRA meeting held in Littleton, Colorado shortly after the Columbine shootings. Although many of the festivities and activities of the convention were cancelled, an annual meeting was still held in compliance with NRA bylaws [1], much to the shock of the Littleton community.

Heston also served on the National Advisory Board of Accuracy in Media (AIM), a conservative media watchdog group founded by the late Reed Irvine.

According to his autobiography , Heston also recognised the freedom of speech of others and the First Amendment. He is also an opponent of McCarthyism and racial segregation, which he sees as only helping the cause of Communism worldwide. He was opposed to the Vietnam War and considered Richard Nixon a disaster for America.

"For an actor, there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. ... For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring to my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway.""Sam is the only person I've ever physically threatened on a set." - On working with director Sam Peckinpah."If you need a ceiling painted, a chariot race run, a city besieged, or the Red Sea parted, you think of me.""Here's my credo. There are no good guns, There are no bad guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a good man is no threat to anyone, except bad people."

Heston has written several books, including autobiographies and religious books: