Charlton Heston was larger than life

DeMille's three-ring circus
William Wyler, who would later direct Heston in “The Big Country” and “Ben-Hur,” considered him for the leading role in a film version of  the play, “Detective Story,” in which Lydia was appearing on Broadway. He was disappointed when the part went to Kirk Douglas, but just as Heston was leaving town, Cecil B. DeMille spotted him on the Paramount lot and cast him as a circus manager in “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

It was only Heston’s second Hollywood movie, but DeMille’s three-ring  extravaganza made a fortune, and it won the Oscar for best picture of 1952. It also led DeMille to cast Heston in his most popular role: as Moses in “The Ten Commandments” (1956). The top-grossing theatrical release of the 1950s, it eventually became an annual network-television event that still draws huge ratings every Easter season.

While DeMille was preparing his magnum opus, Heston appeared in nearly a dozen mid-1950s films that are much less fondly remembered. But they did help to connect him with historical roles — President Andrew Jackson in “The President’s Lady” (a role he would repeat in 1958’s “The Buccaneer”) and William Clark in the Lewis & Clark epic, “The Far Horizons” — and gave him a chance to play comedy (“The Private War of Major Benson”) and demonstrate his sex appeal in a steamy King Vidor drama (“Ruby Gentry”).

Larger than life
DeMille, who noticed a resemblance between Heston’s profile and Michelangelo’s statue of Moses, claimed that “I was never in any doubt about who should play the part of Moses.” Some critics felt that Heston was miscast, too young and inexperienced for the role, yet it’s now difficult to see anyone else in the part.

Rock Hudson? Richard Burton? Gregory Peck? It’s easy to imagine each of them wrecking the film. Heston’s steady, sincere performance, on the other hand, emphasizes the magnetism and dignity that Crowther noticed. It meshes with DeMille’s own fervent belief in what he was doing and almost silences criticism of the film’s cornier elements.

What to do for an encore? Heston’s choice was a low-budget 1958 film noir, “Touch of Evil,” which he agreed to do only if Orson Welles, his co-star, would be allowed to direct it as well. Welles was considered a risk in Hollywood at the time, but Universal Pictures wanted Heston so much they would agree to almost anything. Unfortunately, the studio recut the film and marketed it so poorly that it never had a chance. Only years later was it regarded as one of Welles’ (and Heston’s) best pictures.

Also in 1958, Heston somewhat reluctantly accepted a supporting role in William Wyler’s all-star Western, “The Big Country,” mostly because he would finally get a chance to work with the man he regarded as Hollywood’s finest director of performances. Wyler rewarded him with the title role in “Ben-Hur” (1959), which would earn Heston the Academy Award for best actor.

If “The Ten Commandments” represented old Hollywood’s version of the Old Testament, “Ben-Hur” suggested a fresh take on the New Testament. The role of the fictional Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince betrayed by a Roman friend, paralleled the life of Jesus. Wyler hired Gore Vidal and Christopher Fry to rewrite the script and give it a human dimension. The result, which won an unprecedented 11 Oscars, was widely acclaimed as the first Biblical epic for adults.

Heston would never be nominated again, though he certainly got the pick of the great epic roles of the 1960s. In “El Cid,” he played what was surely the most heroic role of his career: Rodriguo Diaz de Bivar, a selfless, compassionate Castilian aristocrat-warrior who could have ruled Spain but remained loyal to his king.

“I had the idea of the Cid as a Job figure,” he said when the film was reissued in 1993. “He is exiled, his wife (played by Sophia Loren) becomes his enemy, yet he remains loyal to the king who banished him. He’s the man who endures.”

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