Charlton Heston Movies

Want to know the best Charlton Heston movies?  How about the worst Charlton Heston movies?  Curious about Charlton Heston’s box office grosses or which Charlton Heston movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Charlton Heston movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Charlton Heston (October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) is known for his heroic roles in films such as 1961’s El Cid, 1956’s The Ten Commandments, 1968’s Planet of the Apes and 1959’s Ben-Hur, for which he won the Oscar® for Best Actor. At one point, Heston had starred in three of the top eight movies of all-time. Those movies were Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur and The Greatest Show on Earth. Heston remained a leading man from 1950 until the early 1980s. After that he started appearing in supporting roles in such movies as True Lies, Any Given Sunday and Tombstone.

His IMDb page shows 131 acting credits from 1941-2010. This page will rank Charlton Heston movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Charlton Heston in 1959's Ben-Hur
Charlton Heston in 1959’s Ben-Hur

Charlton Heston Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Charlton Heston Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Charlton Heston movies by his co-stars
  • Sort Charlton Heston movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Charlton Heston movies by yearly box office rank
  • Sort Charlton Heston movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Charlton Heston movie received.
  • Sort Charlton Heston movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Charlton Heston in 1968's Planet of the Apes
Charlton Heston in 1968’s Planet of the Apes

Possibly Interesting Facts About Charlton Heston

1. Charlton Heston was born John Charles Carter….Charlton’s name comes from his mom’s maiden name, Charlton, and his stepfather’s last name, Heston.

2. Charlton Heston turned down the role of “Police Chief Brody” in Jaws. Other movies he turned down over the years….John Wayne’s The Alamo, A Man For All Seasons, The Wild Bunch, The Omen, Deliverance and Stalag 17

3. Charlton Heston only received one Oscar® nomination in his acting career but he made it count as won the Oscar® for Ben-Hur…..luckily Burt Lancaster turned down the role.

4. Charlton Heston had two parts in The Ten Commandments……Moses and he provided the voice of God……years later he was hired by the F.B.I during the April 1993 Waco stand-off with cult leader David Koresh, to play the voice of God while communicating with him. However the plan was never used.

5. Charlton Heston played President Andrew Jackson twice in two separate unrelated films: The President’s Lady in 1953 and The Buccaneer in 1958.

6. Charlton Heston was also known for his political activism. 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. He was also president of the NRA from 1998 to 2003.

7. Charlton Heston was married to Lydia Clarke from 1944 until his death in 2008…they had two children.

8. In his 1985 autobiography “In The Arena” Charlton Heston wrote that 1972’s The Call of the Wild was easily his worst film, and hoped the public would never have to watch the film.

9. His line “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” from Planet of the Apes, is ranked by the American Film Institute as the 66th best movie quote of all-time.

10.  Two links from SteveLensman are highly recommended.  One is all about Ben-Hur and the other about all Charlton Heston movies.  Charlton Heston Movies

Steve’s Charlton Heston You Tube Video

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162 thoughts on “Charlton Heston Movies”

  1. HO STEVE:

    1 Turner movies [TCM] must have seen your series of B movies cowboys and decided to get in on the act for Arizona Territory (1950) starring Whip Wilson is showing on TCM this Wed morning. As the name implies Wilson used the bullwhip as well as the six-gun as a weapon in his movies. Whip almost missed the boat on the B movie cowboy craze for his short career from 1946-52 was near the end of the craze. However in 1955 Burt Lancaster hired him to instruct in the scene where Walt Matthau lays into Burt with a bullwhip and Burt gave Wilson an uncredited role in that film. He also had an uncredited part in the 1953 B movie The Silver Whip starring Dale Robertson, Rory Calhoun and Robert Wagner.

    2 Just as exciting Chuck’s The Naked Jungle about the ants is showing on TCM that same afternoon and is one of the most enjoyable movies that I have ever seen the big man in. Roll on Wednesday!

    Reply

    1. Marabunta! The Naked Jungle would make an interesting double bill with creature feature –
      Them!

      Bob, what was the name of that 1955 film with Walter Matthau?

      Reply

    3. Steve on the Heston page….never thought I would see it…next he will be hanging around the Julia Roberts page….lol.

      I knew the answer to your question but Bob got here first. Thanks for the feedback.

      Reply

      1. BRUCE:

        “Bob got here first” Sorry for stealing your thunder. You should maybe give me the advice that Enrico Caruso gave to his friend John McCormack when for one year only John’s record sales exceeded those of Enrico “Never let that happen again!”

        Reply

  2. JOHN

    Star Spangled Banner in my McCormack CD collection – brilliant recording when his voice was in its prime.

    Thanks for the response.

    BOB

    Reply

  3. 1 I felt that a second post today about your videos was obligatory as I had in effect pressed for one on Chuck. .For once three “great minds think alike” as you Bruce and I are all in broad sync about the Top 5. At least within the context of artistic merit, because I had greater opportunity down the years to watch and thus to derive more entertainment value from the string of B movies/ones of modest scale that Chuck made between 1950 and 1955 and therefore they will always have a more nostalgic appeal for me. The main ones for me were Dark City, The Naked Jungle Private War of Major Benson,,The Savage, Pony Express, Lucy Gallant, Secret of the Incas – and Arrowhead*** THE STORY OF A FORGOTTEN MAN -ED BANNON a tagline read.
    ***he debut of Kathryn Grant the later Mrs Bing Crosby

    2 OTHER COMMENTS (1) I think that you have included just 3 movies from my cherished early 50s era but you had a vast career to cover that was packed with great movies (2) great to see you and Bruce both totally appreciating Touch of Evil and Big Country (3) but True Lies a great movie but a Chuck flick? – come back Young Bull all is forgiven ! (4) for years I suffered because of Greatest Story Ever Told as cynics repeatedly mocked Duke’s delivery of “This man truly is The Son of Gawwd!” (5) never liked Major Dundee (6) my special likes among posters were Dark City, Agony and Ecstasy and of course 10C (7) surprised Earthquake was not higher.

    3….. I have told you that when Chuck first appeared we nicknamed him “Tweedie” as we boys thought that he looked like the Grandfather Tweedie of one of our number but we did not at that juncture envisage him as being more than another entertaining action hero .How wrong we were because the fact that some 66 years later he is still being discussed on this site is a testimony to his greatness and enduring legend. So let others have their Cary Grants, their Willises and their Sir Maurice Joseph Micklewhites you and I will always have – Tweedie!

    Reply

    1. Hi Bob, thanks for checking out my Mr. Epic video, Chuck has always been a favorite of the family. When I was a kid The Omega Man was my favorite movie, or one of my top favorites before being supplanted by the likes of Jaws and Star Wars, currently Ben-Hur holds the top spot on my favorites list.

      Earthquake was even lower on my chart and I gave it a slight boost, naughty Maltin did not like the film and gave it a ‘Bomb’ rating, tsk tsk, there are far worse films out there.

      I included True Lies and Tombstone mostly for fun and to show that old Chuck was still being cast in films late in life. In True Lies he was Arnie’s boss, a sort of American ‘M’ and in Tombstone he played Henry Hooker, ‘a prominent and wealthy rancher of the Old West’, according to Wikipedia.

      Thanks for checking these out. King Mongkut next in line…

      Reply

      1. Thanks for the explanation with regard to some of your Chuck/Ava selections. I hope Chuck gets the views he deserves.

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob and Steve….I am guessing Steve finally got a Charlton Heston video done. I will have to check that out later today. I am shocked that Steve had not done that before. Over the years of communicating with Steve…Heston and Steve are now bonded together forever in my head.

          Good memories from Bob about Heston. Never would have thought Chuck’s nickname would be Tweedie….but it works for me. Mumbles and Tweedie…too bad they did not make a movie together.

          As for True Lies….I like it is included……as well as Tombstone….yes the parts were small….but still having a legend like Heston in the movie was fun to see. Tombstone has the added bonus of a Mitchum narration at the beginning.

          Surprised Bob did not like Major Dundee….I have not seen it….but have heard generally good thing about that one. As for Earthquake….joins a group of movies that were massive hits but not liked by many…..Transformers seems to be that kind of movie too…..and I of course would have to include Armageddon as well….hey that might be a good page….the biggest box office successes with the worst critic audience rating.

          As always…your thoughts and memories on Heston are greatly appreciated.

          Reply

          1. 1 Another idea that you might like to put on the back burner is “comebacks”. At various times stars like Dietrich, Crawford and Katie Hepburn were considered “box office Poison”, Brando was regarded as a disaster in the 1960s and he personally said that had it not been for Godpop he was “down the Tubes”, and even Sinatra suffered a brief decline.

            2 It might be fun to look at how many there were like those star, hows long they were in the wilderness, who had the lowest grosses in the out-of-favour periods and how/why they bounced back. Even stars like Burt Reynolds and the Ex Mrs Willis who never resurrected themselves could be included in the exercise. Anyway keep it in mind if you think there would be some mileage in it for you at a future date. I would do it myself but I don’t have your information, research skills and interpretive powers.

            BOB

          2. 1 Yes ! I can’t recall Steve mentioning Chuck too often even on your site since I have paid attention to the comments and in fact it has been left to John to take up the cudgels on behalf of Heston being ridiculously excluded form Quigley’s Top 10.

            2 As either The Duke, Howard Keel or Chuck – I can’t remember which – said in a colloquial-spoken Biblical movie “A prophet is without honour in his own home town.”
            Though maybe when Steve saw that “The Marker” would not include Chuck in a Top 100 Great Stars Steve lost faith.

  4. JOHN:

    1 Apologies but we were at cross purposes as I didn’t immediately notice the quotation marks in your 13 Oct post and thought YOU had published a lsit and I was looking for it !

    2 My list is on the Richard Widmark page of this site as Widmark is my all time favourite entertainers. .

    Please forgive the confusion – am not getting any younger BOB

    Reply

    2. Thanks.

      John McCormack–my mom’s favorite singer. Sometime in the eighties I saw a CD on the shelves and remembered the name from my mom mentioning him. I got into him. He was a great singer of everything from opera and lieder to his Irish tunes. Catch his version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Best I have ever heard.

      Reply

      1. Hey John….Hmmmmm….John McCormack….his name keeps popping up….maybe I should do some research on him….thanks for the input.

        Reply

  5. Bob (or Cogerson)

    “I have just posted my selection of the 21 greatest male stars of all time.”

    Where is this post? I would like to look at it.

    Reply

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