I wrestled with featuring Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments on the Charlton Heston cachet.  Ben-Hur won out, but either would have been  appropriate.  Actually, Heston is renown for his roles in Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, and Planet of the Apes.  Sure, he starred in many other films, but those three are the biggies.  Why do actors and actresses refuse to go by their birth names?  It seems most choose to become someone other than the kid next door.   Charlton Heston was no exception.  Born John Charles Carter, he took his stepfather’s last name, Heston, after his parents divorced.  When his acting career took off, he then took his mother’s surname, Charlton, as his professional first name.  Oh, I know his name change wasn’t that much of a stretch, but what’s wrong with John Carter or even John Heston, or how about J.C. Heston?   Oh well, we all know him as Charlton Heston and can’t imagine anything other than that now, after all, he did part the Red Sea as Moses!   He had a commanding presence with his deep voice and pronounced physique.   Richard Corliss wrote in Time Magazine, “From start to finish, Heston was a grand, ornery anachronism, the sinewy symbol of a time when Hollywood took itself seriously, when heroes came from history books, not comic books.”  Charlton Heston, an Oscar-winning actor, also championed the cause of civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King, and participated in the 1963 civil rights march in Washington, D.C.  He also served as president of the National Rifle Association from 1998-2003... 

Read the article in its entirety in the September 2015 Bevil newsletter, which accompanies the cover.