Judah Ben-Hur has left the building
Charlton Heston died last night at age 83. He was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois on Oct. 4, 1923, and derived his acting name from his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name. He won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941 and that started him on his road to fame. The 6-feet-2 actor didn't have a particularly fast start but a DeMille remake of the 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments , proved to be just what Heston needed to propel him to lasting success. Interestingly enough, Heston's son, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the infant Moses in the film. This began a series of several films in which Heston portrayed Jews of the biblical era. The aforementioned Moses, Judah Ben-Hur (for which he won the 1959 Oscar for leading actor), and John the Baptist. Ben-Hur was one of the first films that I remember watching on television. That was probably around 1965, 6 years after it was made. Movies didn't transition to t...