Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He’s best known for his roles in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), with Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Cedric Hardwicke, Vincent Price, and John Carradine; and William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959), with Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell, and Sam Jaffe – the latter winning him the Academy Award for Best Actor; Franklin J. Schaffner’s Planet of the Apes (1968), with Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly, and Linda Harrison; Boris Sagal’s The Omega Man (1971), with Anthony Zerbe and Rosalind Cash; and Richard Fleischer’s Soylent Green (1973), with Leigh Taylor-Young, Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly, and Robinson.

Films in the early 1950s include William Dieterle’s Dark City (1950), with Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger, Don DeFore, Ed Begley, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan; DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), with Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, Henry Wilcoxon, Lyle Bettger, Lawrence Tierney, Emmett Kelly, and James Stewart; King Vidor’s Ruby Gentry (1952), with Jennifer Jones and Karl Malden; George Marshall’s The Savage (1952), with Susan Morrow and Peter Hansen; Henry Levin’s The President’s Lady (1953), with Susan Hayward; Jerry Hopper’s Pony Express (1953), with Rhonda Fleming, Jan Sterling, and Forrest Tucker; Charles Marquis Warren’s Arrowhead (1953), with Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Brian Keith, and Milburn Stone; Irving Rapper’s Bad for the Earth (1953), with Scott and Dianne Foster; Byron Haskin’s The Naked Jungle (1954), with Eleanor Parker, Abraham Sofaer, and William Conrad; and Secret of the Incas (1954), with Robert Young, Nicole Maurey and Thomas Mitchell.

Films in the mid to late 1950s include Rudolph Maté’s The Far Horizons (1955), with Fred MacMurray, Donna Reed, and Barbara Hale; The Private War of Major Benson (1955), with Julie Adams, William Demarest, Sal Mineo, and Tim Hovey; Robert Parrish’s Lucy Gallant (1955), with Jane Wyman, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest, and Wallace Ford; Three Violent People (1957), with Baxter, Gilbert Roland, Tom Tryon, Tucker, Bruce Bennett, and Elaine Stritch; Touch of Evil (1958) with Orson Welles (who also directed), Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, and Marlene Dietrich; The Big Country (1958), with Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, and Chuck Connors; Anthony Quinn’s The Buccaneers (1958), with Brynner, Charles Boyer, Claire Bloom, Inger Stevens, Henry Hull, E.G. Marshall, Lorne Greene, Ted de Corsia, Ed Hinton, Douglass Dumbrille, and Majel Barrett; and Michael Anderson’s The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), with Gary Cooper, Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker, Richard Harris, and John Le Mesurier.

Films in the early 1960s include Anthony Mann’s El Cid (1961), with Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, Geneviève Page, John Fraser, Gary Raymond, Herbert Lom, and Douglas Wilmer; Melville ShavelsonThe Pigeon That Took Rome (1962), with Elsa Martinelli; Guy Green’s Diamond Head (1963), with Yvette Mimieux, George Chakiris, France Nuyen, and James Darren; and Nicholas Ray’s 55 Days at Peking (1963), with Ava Gardner,
David Niven, Flora Robson, John Ireland, Leo Genn, Robert Helpmann, Kurt Kasznar, and Paul Lukas.

Films in the mid to late 1960s include George Stevens’ The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), with Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, José Ferrer, Telly Savalas, Martin Landau, David McCallum, Donald Pleasence, among many others; Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee (1965), with Harris, Jim Hutton, and James Coburn; Carol Reed’s The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), with Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews, and Alberto Lupo; The War Lord (1965), with Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth, Guy Stockwell, Evans, Niall MacGinnis, Henry Wilcoxon and James Farentino; Basil Dearden’s Khartoum (1966), with Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, and Ralph Richardson; Tom Gries’ Will Penny (1967), with Joan Hackett,
Pleasence, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern, and Slim Pickens; Ralph Nelson’s Counterpoint (1967), with Maximilian Schell, Kathryn Hays, and Leslie Nielsen; and Number One (1969), with Jessica Walter, Dern, John Randolph, Diana Muldaur, Mike Henry, G.D. Spradlin, Al Hirt, Bobby Troup, Steve Franken, Roy Jenson, Richard Elkins, and Ernie Barnes.

Films in the early 1970s include Ted Post’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), with James Franciscus, Hunter, Evans, and Harrison; The Hawaiians (1970), with Tina Chen, Geraldine Chaplin, and Mako; Julius Caesar (1970), with Jason Robards, John Gielgud, Richard Johnson, Robert Vaughn, Richard Chamberlain, Diana Rigg, Christopher Lee, and Jill Bennett; Antony and Cleopatra (1972), with Hildegarde Neil, Eric Porter, John Castle, Fernando Rey, Carmen Sevilla, Freddie Jones, Peter Arne, Douglas Wilmer, Julian Glover and Roger Delgado; John Guillermin’s Skyjacked (1972), with Yvette Mimieux, James Brolin, Jeanne Crain, Roosevelt Grier, Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Uggams, and Susan Dey; Ken Annakin’s The Call of the Wild (1972), with Michèle Mercier, Raimund Harmstorf, George Eastman, and Maria Rohm; Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (1973), with Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York, Frank Finlay, Lee, Chaplin, Simon Ward, and Faye Dunaway; Airport 1975 (1974), with Karen Black, George Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Susan Clark, Sid Caesar, Linda Blair, Dana Andrews, Roy Thinnes, Nancy Olson, Ed Nelson, Myrna Loy, Augusta Summerland, and Helen Reddy; and Mark Robson’s Earthquake (1974), with Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal, and Walter Matthau.

Films in the mid to late 1970s include Midway (1975), with Henry Fonda, Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ed Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, James Shigeta, Pat Morita, John Fujioka, Robert Ito, and Christina Kokubo; Larry Peerce’s Two-Minute Warning (1976), with John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Jack Klugman, Gena Rowlands, and David Janssen; Andrew V. McLaglen’s The Last Hard Men (1976), with Coburn, Barbara Hershey, Jorge Rivero, Michael Parks, and Larry Wilcox; Crossed Swords (1977), with Reed, Ernest Borgnine, Welch, George C. Scott, Harrison, and Mark Lester; and Gray Lady Down (1978), with David Carradine, Stacy Keach, Ned Beatty,Stephen McHattie, Ronny Cox, Dorian Harewood, Michael O’Keefe, and Christopher Reeve.

Films in the 1980s to early 1990s include The Mountain Men (1980), with Keith, John Glover, and Seymour Cassel; Mike Newell’s The Awakening (1980), with Susannah York, Jill Townsend, and Stephanie Zimbalist; Mother Lode (1982), with Nick Mancuso and Kim Basinger; Solar Crisis (1990), with Tim Matheson, Peter Boyle, and Palance; an uncredited role in Almost an Angel (1990), with Paul Hogan, Elias Koteas, and Linda Kozlowski; George P. Cosmatos’ Tombstone (1993), with Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Robert Burke, Dana Delany, Sam Elliott, Stephen Lang, Joanna Pacula, Bill Paxton, Jason Priestley, Michael Rooker, Jon Tenney, and Billy Zane; and James Cameron’s True Lies (1994), with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, Paxton, Eliza Dushku, and Grant Heslov.

Later films include John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness (1995), with Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, and David Warner; Alaska (1996), with Thora Birch, Vincent Kartheiser, and Dirk Benedict; Hamlet (1996), with Kenneth Branagh (who also directed), Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, Michael Maloney, Richard Briers, Nicholas Farrell, Robin Williams, Gérard Depardieu, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, Rufus Sewell, Richard Attenborough, Judi Dench, Gielgud and Ken Dodd, and Brian Blessed; Gideon (1999), with Christopher Lambert, Carroll O’Connor, and Shirley Jones; Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday (1999), with Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, James Woods, LL Cool J, Ann-Margret, Lauren Holly, Matthew Modine, John C. McGinley, Charlton Heston, Bill Bellamy, Lela Rochon, Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Berkley, Marty Wright, Jim Brown, and Lawrence Taylor; Town & Country (2001), with Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Andie MacDowell, Jenna Elfman, Nastassja Kinski, and Josh Hartnett; an uncredited cameo in Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes (2001), with Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Giamatti, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Kris Kristofferson; The Order with Jean-Claude Van Damme; and Rua Alguem 5555: My Father (2003), with Thomas Kretschmann and F. Murray Abraham.

TV movie and miniseries include Forbidden Area (1956), with Tab Hunter, Diana Lynn, Price, and Jackie Coogan; Chiefs (1983), with Keith Carradine, Stephen Collins, Danny Glover, Wayne Rogers, and Billy Dee Williams; Nairobi Affair (1984), with John Savage, Maud Adams, and John Rhys-Davies; A Man for All Seasons (1988), with Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Johnson, and Gielgud; Treasure Island (1990), with Christian Bale, Reed, Lee, Julian Glover, Pete Postlethwaite, and Clive Wood; The Little Kidnappers (1990), with Patricia Gage, Bruce Greenwood, and Leah Pinsent; The Crucifier of Blood (1991), with Johnson, Wood, John Castle, Edward Fox, Simon Callow, Susannah Harker, Stefan Kalipha, Kaleem Janjua, and James Coyle; A Thousand Heroes (1992), with Richard Thomas, Coburn, Bruce McGill, and Tom Everett; The Avenging Angel (1995), with Tom Berenger, Coburn, Fay Masterson, Kevin Tighe, and Jeffrey Jones; and Camino de Santiago (1999), with Quinn, Anne Archer, and José Luis Gómez.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

Peer Gynt (1941) – directed by David Bradley
Julius Caesar (1950) – directed by David Bradley
Dark City (1950) – directed by William Dieterle
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) – directed by Cecil B. DeMille
The Savage (1952) – directed by George Marshall
Ruby Gentry (1952) – directed by King Vidor
The President’s Lady (1953) – directed by Henry Levin
Pony Express (1953) – directed by Jerry Hopper
Arrowhead (1953) – directed by Charles Marquis Warren
Bad for Each Other (1953) – directed by Irving Rapper
The Naked Jungle (1954) – directed by Byron Haskin
Secret of the Incas (1954) – directed by Jerry Hopper
The Far Horizons (1955) – directed by Rudolph Maté
The Private War of Major Benson (1955) – directed by Jerry Hopper
Lucy Gallant (1955) – directed by Robert Parrish
Forbidden Area (1956) – directed by John Frankenheimer – TV movie
The Ten Commandments (1956) – directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Three Violent People (1957) – directed by Rudolph Maté
Point of No Return (1958) – directed by Franklin J. Schaffner – TV movie
Touch of Evil (1958) – directed by Orson Welles
The Big Country (1958) – directed by William Wyler
The Buccaneer (1958) – directed by Anthony Quinn
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) – directed by Michael Anderson
Ben-Hur (1959) – directed by William Wyler
El Cid (1961) – directed by Anthony Mann
The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) – directed by Melville Shavelson
Diamond Head (1962) – directed by Guy Green
55 Days at Peking (1963) – directed by Nicholas Ray
The Five Cities of June (1963) – directed by Bruce Herschensohn – narrator – documentary short
The Patriots (1963) – directed by George Schaefer – TV movie
What Is a Boy (1964) – directed by Gabor Nagy – TV short
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – directed by George Stevens
Major Dundee (1965) – directed by Sam Peckinpah
The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) – directed by Carol Reed
The War Lord (1965) – directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Khartoum (1966) – directed by Basil Dearden
All About People (1967) – directed by Saul Rubin – narrator – documentary
While I Run This Race (1967) – directed by Edmond Levy – narrator – documentary short
Will Penny (1967) – directed by Tom Gries
Counterpoint (1967) – directed by Ralph Nelson
Elizabeth the Queen (1968) – directed by George Schaefer – TV movie
Planet of the Apes (1968) – directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Number One (1969) – directed by Tom Gries
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) – directed by Ted Post
The Hawaiians (1970) – directed by Tom Gries
Julius Caesar (1970) – directed by Stuart Burge
King: A Filmed Record… Montgomery to Memphis (1970) – directed by Sidney Lumet & Joseph L. Mankiewicz – narrator – documentary
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) – directed by Don Taylor – archive footage
The Ωmega Man (1971) – directed by Boris Sagal
Antony and Cleopatra (1972) – also director, co-writer
Skyjacked (1972) – directed by John Guillermin
The Call of the Wild (1972) – directed by Ken Annakin
Soylent Green (1973) – directed by Richard Fleischer
The Adventures of Mowgli (1973) – directed by Roman Davydov – English dub narrator
The Three Musketeers (1973) – directed by Richard Lester
The Fun of Your Life (1974) – directed by John J. Hennessy – short
Airport 1975 (1974) – directed by Jack Smight
The Four Musketeers (1974) – directed by Richard Lester
Earthquake (1974) – directed by Mark Robson
The Last Hard Men (1976) – directed by Andrew McLaglen
Midway (1976) – directed by Jack Smight
Two-Minute Warning (1976) – directed by Larry Peerce
Crossed Swords (1977) – directed by Richard Fleischer
Gray Lady Down (1978) – directed by David Greene
The Mountain Men (1980) – directed by Richard Lang
The Awakening (1980) – directed by Mike Newell
Mother Lode (1982) – also director – uncredited co-directing by Fraser C. Heston
Chiefs (1983) – directed by Jerry London – miniseries
Nairobi Affair (1984) – directed by Marvin J. Chomsky – TV movie
Proud Men (1987) – directed by William A. Graham – TV movie
A Man for All Seasons (1988) – also director – TV movie
Original Sin (1989) – directed by Ron Satlof – TV movie
A Call from Space (1989) – directed by Richard Fleischer – short
Treasure Island (1990) – directed by Fraser C. Heston – TV movie
Solar Crisis (1990) – directed by Richard C. Sarafian (as Alan Smithee) & Arthur Marks (uncredited)
The Little Kidnappers (1990) – directed by Donald Shebib – TV movie
Almost an Angel (1990) – directed by John Cornell – uncredited
The Crucifer of Blood (1991) – directed by Fraser C. Heston – TV movie
Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232 (1992) – directed by Lamont Johnson – TV mobie
Noël (1992) – directed by Masaki Îzuka – TV short
Wayne’s World 2 (1993) – directed by Stephen Surjik – cameo
Tombstone (1993) – directed by George P. Cosmatos
True Lies (1994) – directed by James Cameron – uncredited
Texas (1994) – directed by Richard Lang – TV movie
The Avenging Angel (1995) – directed by Craig R. Baxley – TV movie
In the Mouth of Madness (1995) – directed by John Carpenter
Alaska (1996) – directed by Fraser C. Heston
Hamlet (1996) – directed by Kenneth Branagh
The Lord Protector (1996) – directed by Ryan Carroll
Hercules (1997)* – directed by Ron Clements & John Musker
Armageddon (1998) – directed by Michael Bay – narrator
Bagpipe: Instrument of War – Part 1 (1998) – directed by Patrick King – narrator – TV movie
Gideon (1998) – directed by Claudia Hoover
Bagpipe: Instrument of War – Part 2 (1999) – directed by Patrick King – narrator – TV movie
Camino de Santiago (1999) – directed by Robert Young – miniseries
Any Given Sunday (1999) – directed by Oliver Stone
Town & Country (2001) – directed by Peter Chelsom
Cats & Dogs (2001) – directed by Lawrence Guterman
Planet of the Apes (2001)* – directed by Tim Burton – uncredited
The Order (2001) – directed by Sheldon Lettich
Bowling for Columbine (2002) – directed by Michael Moore – himself – documentary
Ben-Hur (2003) – directed by William R. Kowalchuk Jr. – straight to video
Rua Alguem 5555: My Father (2003) – directed by Egidio Eronico

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