While driving into Paramount studios, an unknown young actor named Charlton Heston happened to wave to director DeMille. The film-maker liked the wave so much that he promptly cast Heston in his first major role, as the rugged circus manager in The Greatest Show on Earth. These days, the film has the added distinction of being the first movie ever watched by Steven Spielberg (aged four) Photograph: Cinetext/Paramount/Allstar
Heston’s supposed resemblance to Michelangelo’s statue of Moses led to him being cast in what was reported to be the biggest box office hit of the 1950s. It remains the role that fixed Heston in the public mind as the imposing, chisel-jawed bastion of integrity. “It’s hard living up to Moses,” he would later admit Photograph: Cinetext/Paramount/Allstar
Welles’ feverish Tex-Mex thriller was possibly the best film Heston ever starred in. In front of the camera, he gives a solid, nuanced performance as a liberal Mexican narcotics agent. Behind the scenes, he used his star muscle to secure Welles the job of directing the picture, despite the objections of studio heads Photograph: Cinetext/UI/Allstar
Burt Lancaster turned it down because he was uncomfortable with the script’s pro-Christian message. Paul Newman bailed out because he claimed his legs looked bad in a toga. Finally, the role of long-suffering Judah Ben-Hur fell to Charlton Heston. He suffered as a gallery slave, found fame as a chariot racer, was given a drink of water by Jesus Christ … and came away with the best actor Oscar Photograph: www.kobal-collection.com
Now firmly established as Hollywood’s brawny, mythic hero of choice, Heston took on the role of the great Rodrigo Diaz de Birar. Marvel as he romances Sophia Loren! Gasp as he rides his steed through 11th-century Spain! Tremble as he takes on the might of the invading Moorish forces (led by Herbert Lom in black-face)! Photograph: Cinetext/Allied Artists/Allstar
Heston’s role in Peckinpah’s troubled Civil War saga would signal a sea-change in the actor’s life. He went in as a Hollywood liberal and staunch supporter of Lyndon Johnson. He came out as a budding Republican and a firm fan of Barry Goldwater. Along the way he clashed so badly with Peckinpah that he once threatened the director with a sabre Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
“When will you make an end?” asks Rex Harrison’s testy pontiff. “When I am finished!” replies Heston’s bearded Michelangelo, preparing to daub yet another fresco on the roof of a Sistine Chapel lovingly recreated on the soundstages of Rome’s Cinecitta studios. But the critics were unimpressed by the star’s OTT acting style. “Heston hits the ceiling”, ran one typical review Photograph: www.kobal-collection.com
In middle-age, Heston adapted his muscular screen image to the sci-fi genre, kicking off with his powerhouse role as the imperilled astronaut who crash-lands on a monkey planet. Heston would reprise the film’s immortal final lines – “Ah, God damn you! God damn you all to hell!” during a brief cameo in Tim Burton’s 2001 remake Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Allstar
