Early life

Heston was born John Charles Carter in No Man's Land,^[5] an unincorporated area between Evanston and Wilmette, Illinois, the son of Lilla (née Charlton) and Russell Whitford Carter, a mill operator.^[6] (However, the 1930 Census for Richfield, Michigan (see St. Helen, Michigan),^[7] where the family then lived, reports Russell Whitford Carter was a real estate salesman. Heston himself in his autobiography refers only to his father participating in his family's construction business.^[8]) Heston was of English and Scottish descent and a member of the Fraser clan.^[9]

When he was ten, his parents divorced. Shortly thereafter, his mother married Chester Heston. The new family moved to well-off Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. Heston (his new surname) attended New Trier High School.

Charlton Heston

Link to a blog story

Link to a blog

Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008)[1][2][3] was an American actor of film, theater and television.[4] Heston is known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Initially a liberal Democrat, he later supported conservative politics and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.