Charlton Heston: Hollywood's Last Icon

Marc Eliot’s extraordinary new biography, Charlton Heston, Hollywood’s Last Icon, is clearly the definitive work on my father’s remarkable life and times. With unprecedented access to the Charlton Heston Archives, his personal papers, journals and correspondence, extensive interviews with family, friends and colleagues, and my mother’s huge collection of her own photos––many of them never-before-seen––Eliot has crafted a meticulously researched, eminently readable and compelling portrait. My father’s was a rich, rewarding and complex life, dedicated to his art, his family and to public service, in which he achieved not only the pinnacle of his profession but a significant role on the nation’s political stage. There are a lot of great stories in this book even I had not heard before. If you think you knew my father, think again, and read this book!<br /><br />Eliot also happens to be a damn good writer––this book reads more like a novel than a biography––and like me, you won’t be able to put it down.<br /> -Fraser C. Heston<br />

In our divisive times, it is easy to pigeonhole Charlton Heston as the older actor who became President of the NRA and who thrust a rifle and the air and said provocative things but he was so much more. In this first rate biography by veteran Hollywood author Marc Eliot we see Mr. Heston in all his complexity. A lonely child from a broken marriage, a devoted husband and father a dedicated actor and truly one of the last icons of a bygone film era. He learned his craft on Broadway and a wave to Cecil Be Demill put him in his first major film : The Greatest Show on Earth. Epics particularly historical film became his specialty. Off course there was The Ten Commandments, his Academy Award Performance in Ben Hur, El CID and The Agony and the Ecstasy. But he reinvented himself many times. He became a Sci- Fi stalwart in films such as Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and the Omega Man. He starred in several disaster films such as Earthquake and Airport 1975. He and his wife were also active in live theater. He campaigned for civil rights and eventually he became involved in conservative causes. The Heston family cooperated with the author and he had access to Hestons diaries. This is a well written examination of a major actor and if you enjoy film this is for you.Charlton Heston was a multidimensional personality and this fine book brings him to life.<br />.

This is a straightforward, but quite interesting account of Charlton Heston's life that had me engrossed the entire way. I really enjoyed so many of his movies, so it was pleasant to read about each one: how he came to participate in the film, and some behind-the-scenes stories as well. I also liked reading about his marriage and his family, and how important they were to him. He had such an unusual marriage, in that it lasted over 60 years, which in itself is an achievement. He is to be admired for that, for his military service, and for other things. I didn't agree with his political beliefs during the latter part of his life, but that didn't detract from how much I enjoyed his films. His suffering with Alzheimer's Disease at the end of his life is sad, and I was angry at the cheap-shot, crude way Michael Moore ambushed him during an interview and then used that in one of his documentaries. All in all, a very well done biography of a Hollywood legend.

A well-researched, balanced biography. I learned a lot about Mr Heston - not all of it favorable. Definitely a man who stood by what he believed, and a good man for all that I disagree with some of what he stood for. <br /><br />Looking forward to reading more of Mr Eliot’s work.<br /><br />As usual, I wish the editing had been better - a few run-on sentences, fragments, typos, etc but minor in the scope of the work.<br /><br />I received a free copy of this book for review purposes.

I wanted so much to like this book (an alternative to Heston's own sizable biographies that might shed different light on him and his career) and I did enjoy it -- to a point. It's a beautifully-rendered account of his youth and early career, clearly aided by the assistance of his family. It's also very in-depth regarding many of the man's movies, viewpoints and socio-political conflicts. What kept me from completely appreciating the book was two things, one was omission and the other was blatant inaccuracy, which leaves no choice but to question the validity of anything else it has to say. <br /><br />First the omission, which is minor. There is no mention whatsoever, nothing, about Heston's 1980 film "The Awakening." Filmed by Mike Newell, who would late become a director of note, amid the real ruins of ancient Egypt and in the Cairo Museum (a first), it was an eventful shoot and a movie that had promise, though it failed. But it's failure is beside the point. There is no reference at all that it ever occurred!<br /><br />Then inaccuracy. There's a point in the late-'60s when the author states that Heston never has another significant box office hit... Um, he was the top-billed, headlining star of both"Earthquake" (fifth highest grossing film of 1974) and "Airport 1975" (eighth highest grossing film of 1974) and also "Midway" (the tenth highest grossing film of 1976.) Just because the author may have disdain for the disaster movie genre doesn't give him the right to act as if Heston was no longer box office. Because he was. <br /><br />Another raging inaccuracy comes in 1985 when the writer declares that Heston's guest role on "Dynasty" proved popular enough to spawn a spin-off of his own. That is sheer lunacy and even the most surface research would have demonstrated otherwise. Heston was the cornerstone of a very expensive spin-off ("Dynasty II: The Colbys") and had a full cast assembled around him. His appearances on "Dynasty" were nothing other than a way to introduce these characters to the parent show's audience in anticipation of a two-hour special event soon after. The entire show had been developed and was in pre-production long before Heston ever set foot in an episode of "Dynasty." The author clearly had contempt for the material and just glossed over/made up much of what he wrote about it. <br /><br />So what else was fudged? Who knows...?! So the book is marred in this respect. It's still an engaging read, especially for those interested in the key player, who was maligned by New Hollywood and people who either forgot or never knew the personal (and career) risks he took in order to stand up for the oppressed.

Pleasant bio of an actor that reveals more about his private family life and devotion to his family than to any in-depth look at his work, except for a few exceptions. Heston, as a man, was a mystery of sorts to this reader and always seemed that solid heroic presence of a mostly 'wooden' stature in emoting in his acting, but is revealed to be a true study of his parts and quite devoted to Shakespeare and his appreciation and friendship with actors and directors with whom he disagreed with politically. He was a Democrat and quite liberal early in his career and, sadly, the work he did in that cause is forgotten due to his quite feverish NRA activity at his end.

Great audiobook. Chuck Heston definitely had an interesting life. Three of my top ten classic movies are The Planet of the Apes, Ben-Hur, and The Ten Commandments, and it was fun to read about these movies being made. Also, it was interesting how Mr. Heston drastically changed his political affiliations, which definitely tarnished his reputation towards the end. I never knew that he had marched with MLK Jr and had meetings with him about SAG’s responsibility to include more blacks in the film business. I’m assuming most people of a certain age only remember his gun rants and fights with Democrats about changes to gun laws (especially the cringeworthy golden gun NRA viral moment, ugh). Definitely a great biography!

Although Charlton Heston wrote several excellent autobiographies (including "The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976" and "In the Arena"), Marc Eliot's hefty, compelling and intimate biography stands as the definitive portrait of the complicated and controversial Oscar-winning actor and political activist. <br /><br />Prolific biographer Eliot ("Cary Grant") creates a captivating portrait with the help of Heston's son and daughter (who had no editorial control) and new interviews with dozens of Heston's friends and foes. Eliot also uses the actor's files and unpublished journals. Surprisingly blunt about Heston's acting style, Eliot writes, "He played his characters literally, on their and his surface, at least in part because he was never asked to do more." And after "Touch of Evil"'s box office failure in 1958, "he would henceforth seek out the conventional, the mainstream, and the commercial, and resist films that were personal artistic statements." <br /><br />CHARLTON HESTON offers plenty of juicy, behind-the-scenes tales of the making of some of his classic films, including "Planet of the Apes," "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments" (where Yul Brynner and director Cecil B. DeMille kept their exhausting pace thanks to amphetamine injections and pills). Even more fascinating is Heston's political evolution: from a liberal Kennedy supporter, marching with Martin Luther King in 1963, to a disillusioned independent who eventually--right around the time his film career sputtered out in the 1980s--became a Republican gun rights advocate and NRA spokesperson. Eliot's CHARLTON HESTON: HOLLYWOOD'S LAST ICON is an absorbing, haunting and richly detailed portrait of the iconic actor. <br /><br />Fascinating and intimate, CHARLTON HESTON follows the enormously popular film star's evolution and offers a complex study in contradictions.

I greatly enjoyed this insightful biography into one of Hollywood’s classic actors. Charlton Heston led a fascinating life. One of my favorite films has always been Ben Hur, an outstanding production that showcased Heston’s charisma.<br /><br />Until this point I had not been aware of how integral Heston was in the early days of Hollywood. And even beyond that his involvement with key players and organizations during the 1960s. While the author examines much of his life in depth, my one complaint is there is far less of his personal life then there is of his show biz. There are excellent detailed accounts of the filming of such movies as El Cid and The Ten Commandments. I found these in size to be a lot of fun and they sparked my curiosity in other contemporaries to Heston.<br /><br />It is admirable that the author spent a lot of time interviewing people who really knew Heston, especially those of his family. But some of it does feel like an apology for the actors right wing views and his stances on some issues that I found appealing. I would’ve rather seen a celebration of his perspective than a deconstruction that sometimes seems to put it in a negative light.<br /><br />Overall this is a worthwhile read and I would highly recommend it.

No matter what you thought of Charlton Heston's politics, you can't help but admit that he made some terrific movies. This was a very entertaining read, full of all sorts of behind-the-scenes details and facts. There was no "dirt" on this guy because he led a very straightforward life, married to the same woman for over sixty years and a loving father, grandfather, and friend. I enjoyed it all and especially enjoyed the details about some of my favorite movies. Reading about how the famous Roman chariot race in BEN HUR was made was absolutely fascinating, and so were other interesting tidbits about some of those great movies from long ago.