Trivia of Charlton Heston

Trivia of Charlton Heston

*He played three roles that turned down by Burt Lancaster. In 1958 the producers of Ben-Hur (1959) offered Lancaster $1 million to play the title role in their epic, but he turned it down because he did not want to help promote Christianity. Lancaster also said he disagreed with the "violent morals" of the story. Three years later, in 1961 Lancaster announced his intention to produce a biopic of Michelangelo, in which he would play the title role and show the truth about the painter's homosexuality. However, he was forced to shelve this project due to the five-month filming schedule on Luchino Visconti's masterpiece The Leopard (1963). Heston starred as Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) and even in his autobiography thirty years later was still denying that the painter had been gay, despite all evidence to the contrary. Lancaster also turned down the role of General Gordon in Khartoum (1966).

*In his role as Judah Ben-Hur, Heston did almost all of the chariot riding himself. The chariot scenes were particularly challenging, taking 5 weeks spread over 3 months to complete. Heston had to wear special contact lenses to prevent the grit from entering his eyes. All in all, that scene alone cost a million dollars to film.

*In “The Ten Commandments” Heston not only played Moses, he supplied the voice of God. His son, Fraser, 3 months old at the time, played the baby Moses floating down the Nile in a basket.

*Had a fondness for drawing and sketching, and often sketched the cast and crew of his films whenever he had the chance to do so. His sketches were later published in the book "Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years in American Film".

*When America entered the war in 1941, the promising actor quickly enlisted in the Air Force. There, he was part of a B-25 Mitchell crew as a radio operator and aerial gunner. He was assigned to the Eleventh Air Force and stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. To keep his exact location secret, he would mail his wife Lydia quotes from Shakespeare. Lydia would then look up the quote to find the specific act and scene it was from. The resulting numbers would be the exact coordinates of his location.

*Very popular in Japan, where even his less successful films were generally well received.He also admirer of Toshirô Mifune.They met around 1960, he was extremely taken with the Japanese star and claimed that if Mifune spoke English "he could be the greatest star in the world". The two actors exchanged Christmas cards since their meeting until Mifune's death.

*When Heston asked director James Cameron why he wanted him to play Spencer Trilby in True Lies (1994), Cameron replied "I need someone who can plausibly intimidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.".