Legendary Hollywood icon and humanitarian Charlton Heston was honored as the 18th inductee into the U.S. Postal Service’s Legends of Hollywood stamp series today. The event took place during a first-day-of-issue stamp dedication ceremony at the The Creative Life Chinese Theatre as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival.
“Acting was not Charlton Heston’s whole life,” said U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors Chairman Mickey Barnett in dedicating the stamp. “He was never afraid to stand up for his beliefs. In the 1960s, he believed so strongly in civil rights that he marched on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he called ‘a 20th century Moses.’ Later, he became a strong supporter of rights for gun owners and served as president of the National Rifle Association. No matter what kind of stand he took, you always knew his beliefs came from a place of true conviction. Beyond winning an Oscar for ‘Ben-Hur,’ he also received the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.”
Joining Barnett at the dedication were filmmaker Fraser C. Heston, son of Charlton Heston; Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Executive Vice President Gabrielle Carteris; and, American Film Institute President Emerita and former U.S. Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee Chair Jean Picker-Firstenberg.
“On behalf of my mother, Lydia, my sister, Holly Rochell, and the entire Heston family, I can say enthusiastically how deeply grateful we all are that my father, Charlton, has been honored with a ‘Legends of Hollywood’ postage stamp,” said Heston. “In many ways, a nation’s stamps are a cross section of a culture, its ideals and icons, in microcosm. As a fervently patriotic American, my father would be deeply moved to know that his image — based on one of my mother’s photographs — will be on a Forever stamp.”
Throughout his seven decade career of more than 70 films, Heston played larger than life roles from U.S. presidents to Ben Hur and Moses. He worked with the Screen Actors Guild to help others in his profession, serving as a board member and later as president from 1965-71. A civil rights advocate, Heston marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and led the arts contingent to the 1963 March on Washington.
Heston received the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 1971. He helped found the American Film Institute and received the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1978 for his philanthropic efforts. In 1997, Heston was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 2003, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.