Charlton Heston’s Son Revealed Actor ‘Hated’ the Term ‘Movie Star’: ‘He Was a Gentleman’

Imagine if your dad was a chariot driver — and a real, live hero. Fraser Heston was only a toddler when his dad, actor Charlton Heston, was playing Judah Ben-Hur in the 1959 biblical epic. “I actually thought he was a charioteer,” Fraser recalls to Closer. “He’d come home every day in his chariot outfit. He’d bring me a sack of yellow sand from the arena to put in my sandbox, and he’d say, ‘Son, this is not just any sand, this is MGM sand!'”

One can see how a boy might be starstruck, but Fraser says he admires his dad, who died in 2008 at 84, for much more than his movie roles. “He hated that term — movie star,” explained Fraser, who years ago made the TV documentary Charlton Heston: The Man in the Arena. Through home movies, photos and journals the actor kept for more than 50 years, the film depicts how Charlton’s greatest legacy is “the sort of person he was,” Fraser says, along with the life lessons he taught his kids, Fraser and Holly. “He always used to say keep your promises and do your best,” Fraser imparted. “If you can do those two things, you will have a pretty good life and be considered a good man.”

Staying True to Himself

Charlton worked very hard at doing his best on Ben-Hur, which Fraser says the actor considered his best film, but it wasn’t easy. Directed by William Wyler, Ben-Hur, about a Jewish prince who is betrayed into slavery and fights his way back to freedom, forced Charlton, who’d already played Moses in The Ten Commandments, to really grapple with the character. “Wyler came to him one day and said, ‘You know, Chuck, you have to be better in this part,'” Fraser recounted. “And he said, ‘Gosh, Willy, tell me how, I was doing my best.’ And Wyler said, ‘I don’t know. You have to dig down deep and find this guy.'”

Charlton did just that and won a Best Actor Oscar for his efforts.

Finding the inner character of Ben-Hur was a testament to Charlton’s own promise to himself to do his best, and also to stay true to his own beliefs. Whether people agreed with his politics — he supported the NRA — Fraser said, “Even people who disagreed with him vehemently liked him immensely and respected him.” And Charlton could at times be a civic leader. “He cared about people who didn’t have a voice in our culture. He cared about giving minorities roles in the movie industry.”

In that way Charlton gained the respect not only of his fellow actors but those who would debate his politics, and most especially his family, including his wife of 64 years, Lydia. “His social and political beliefs are relevant today,” Fraser told Closer. “Any good belief is timeless.” And his dad’s legacy continues today through the example Charlton set. “He was a gentleman,” Fraser says, “a scholar, an artist, a patriot.”