Calgary Public Library

Charlton Heston, Hollywood's last icon, by Marc Eliot

eng

other

Charlton Heston

by Marc Eliot

Hollywood's last icon

With unforgettable performances such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, the anguished astronaut George Taylor in 1968’s Planet of the Apes, and the eponymous Ben-Hur—for which he won an Academy Award—Charlton Heston cemented his place in the pantheon of twentieth-century Hollywood royalty. But his fame as an actor was matched by his political activism. A democrat in his early years, Heston became a staunch supporter of Richard Nixon and Reagan republicanism. He was also president of the National Rifle Association—an outspoken crusader for gun rights whose incendiary words, “from my cold, dead hands” incensed liberals and became a maxim for Second Amendment supporters. Eliot skillfully unfolds the complicated story of this iconic actor, illuminating his greatest achievements as well as his greatest failures and regrets. 2017

specialized