Charlton Heston was larger than life

Most mortals would be intimidated by meeting the actor who played Moses, Judah Ben-Hur and John the Baptist. But Charlton Heston was an extraordinarily genial and accessible gentleman who made you feel comfortable in his presence.

Michael Moore took advantage of this quality when he trapped Heston with a series of questions about gun control in the 2002 documentary, “Bowling for Columbine.” No matter what you thought of Heston’s right-wing politics or his enthusiastic promotion of the National Rifle Association, the ambush backfired; Moore ended up with more egg on his face than Heston.

It’s not a moment that Heston fans prefer to remember, yet the “Columbine” episode does say something about the graciousness of the man, who clearly didn’t have to invite Moore into his home. In interviews, Heston was almost always receptive, interested, willing to talk about his failures as well as his successes. Rarely did he let loose with a flash of ego, yet he was proud of his accomplishments.

Humble beginnings
Perhaps this even-handed quality was the inevitable result of his humble beginnings in the 1940s, when Heston was dealing with shoestring budgets, appearing in near-amateur productions, trying to make the best of desperate situations. By the time he became a Hollywood star in the 1950s, appearing in several of that era’s showiest blockbusters, he’d experienced such a wide range of showbiz hits and misses that he took nothing for granted.

He made his movie debut at the age of 16, playing the title role in a silent student production of “Peer Gynt” that was filmed on the shores of Lake Michigan, not far from the Chicago suburb where he was born on Oct. 4, 1924. “Charlton” was his mother’s maiden name. His father was a lumber-mill operator, Russell Whitford Carter, though when his parents divorced and his mother married Chester Heston, he was given his stepfather’s last name.

Video   Charlton Heston dies April 6: Screen legend Charlton Heston dies at the age of 84. MSNBC

Taking drama classes at Winnetka’s New Trier High School, he decided he wanted to be an actor after seeing a school production of “Twelfth Night.” Shakespeare would remain his favorite writer. He appeared in two film versions of “Julius Caesar” (one of them directed by David Bradley, who had cast him in “Peer Gynt”), he directed himself in a little-seen 1973 movie of “Antony and Cleopatra,” and he turned up as the Player King in Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 version of “Hamlet.”

At Northwestern University, Heston met another actor, Lydia Clarke, who would marry him in 1944 and stay with him for six decades. After his stint in the Army Air Corps, they moved to New York, where he appeared on Broadway in “Antony and Cleopatra” and she played Lady Anne in “Richard III” off-Broadway.

Television ready
Heston’s reading of Marc Antony’s speech from “Julius Caesar” so impressed Franklin Schaffner (who later directed him in “Planet of the Apes”) that he was cast in a series of late-1940s television productions based on the classics: “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights,” “The Wings of the Dove” and “Macbeth.” Because “Macbeth” became CBS’ first nationwide broadcast, it was noticed in Hollywood.

“I’m very lucky I was there when they were inventing television,” Heston wrote in his 1995 autobiography, “In the Arena.” “Of all the choices I made, as well as the things that just happened to me, this was the most valuable.”

Producer Hal Wallis, who made stars of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, was impressed with Heston’s television performances and cast him as a disgruntled war veteran in the 1950 film noir, “Dark City.” The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther praised his “quiet and assertive magnetism (and) youthful dignity.”

The publicity tour for “Dark City” was grueling — 14 cities in 23 days — but the crash course in promotion helped establish his relationship with critics and reporters. “I learned something that is crucial to an actor — how to do interviews,” Heston wrote in another memoir. “No doubt that was reflected in the good press we got out of it.”

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