John Wayne offered Heston the role of Jim Bowie in The Alamo (1960), but he declined due to the political implications of the film.
Laurence Olivier was so impressed by Heston's stage skills that he commented that Heston had a future on the stage.
A frail-looking Heston was presented with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, at the White House by George W. Bush in July, 2003.
A World War II U.S. Army veteran, he visited troops fighting during the Vietnam War in 1967. In fact, in one camp in South Vietnam's delta area, he was "initiated" into the GI's on-base club, by having to receive a kiss on the ear!.
Accepted the role in Ben-Hur (1959) after Burt Lancaster turned it down.
According to Gore Vidal, as recounted in The Celluloid Closet (1995), one of the script elements he was brought in to re-write for Ben-Hur (1959) was the relationship between Messalah and Ben-Hur. Director William Wyler was concerned that two men who had been close friends as youths would not simply hate one another as a result of disagreeing over politics. Thus, Vidal devised a thinly veiled subtext suggesting the Messalah and Ben-Hur had been lovers as teenagers, and their fighting was a result of Ben-Hur spurning Messalah. Wyler was initially hesitant to implement the subtext, but agreed on the conditions that no direct reference ever be made to the characters' sexuality in the script, that Vidal personally discuss the idea with Stephen Boyd, and not mention the subtext to Heston who, Wyler feared, would panic at the idea. After Vidal admitted to adding the homosexual subtext in public, Heston denied the claim, going so far as to suggest Vidal had little input into the final script, and his lack of screen credit was a result of his being fired for trying to add gay innuendo. Vidal rebutted by citing passages from Heston's 1978 autobiography, where t
After his starring role in the 1968 version of Planet of the Apes (1968), he had an uncredited cameo in the 2001 remake, Planet of the Apes (2001), as Gen. Thade's dying father.
After their son was born, they decided to adopt their next child so that they could be sure it would be a girl. Heston and his wife felt that one son and one daughter made the perfect family.
Along with Tony Curtis, Heston admitted to voting for Russell Crowe to win the Best Actor Oscar in 2001, saying before the ceremony, "I hope he gets it. He's very good."
Although he and Kirk Douglas differed greatly on politics (Douglas was a very liberal Democrat and Heston a very conservative Republican), Heston and Douglas were very close friends. Douglas spoke highly of their friendship; so highly, in fact, that after a viewing of the film Bowling for Columbine (2002) (and in particular the scene where Heston is grilled on his involvement in the NRA and asked to apologize for murder as a member of the NRA) Douglas said he would "never forgive" Michael Moore, the film's director and the man who conducted the interview) for the way he treated Heston.
Although he had supported Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey in the 1968 presidential election, in 1972 he openly supported Republican Richard Nixon.
Although Heston was a lifelong non-smoker, he did hold a pipe in some early publicity photographs because both Clark Gable and Cary Grant smoked pipes.
Alumnus of New Trier Township High School East, Winnetka, Illinois, where tennis was among his extracurricular activities. Other New Trier graduates include Ralph Bellamy, Rock Hudson, Hugh O'Brien, Ann-Margret, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Virginia Madsen and Liz Phair.
As president of the NRA, he would usually tell his audience in speeches that he had "marched for civil rights long before it became fashionable to do so". In reality he only attended two events, the first in 1961 and the second the March on Washington in August 1963. Due to his busy film career at the time, he was unable to appear more frequently to back the Civil Rights cause.
Attended the funeral of Lew Wasserman in June 2002.
Attended the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States of America, along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Ray Charles. (20 January 1985).
Broke his nose in high school playing football. He later commented that this was ultimately to his advantage as an actor because it gave him "the profile of an Eagle.".
Campaigned for fifty Republican candidates in the 1996 presidential election.
Cited Will Penny (1968) as his personal favorite film from his career.
Cited actor Gary Cooper as a childhood role model. Heston starred opposite Cooper in The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Heston commended Cooper for being able to perform his own stunts, such as being under water for long periods of time, despite being in poor health and getting older.