(born 1923) Male actor. Heston’s career became identified with larger-than-life heroes/hunks, especially Moses in the Ten Commandments (1954) and Ben-Hur (Oscar, 1959). He also took this he-man persona into less likely ethnic castings as a Mexican policeman in Touch of Evil (1958), or the Spanish El Cid (1961) and to science-fiction apocalypses like Planet of the Apes (1968) and Soylent Green (1973). This image also has intersected with his conservative politics, including his role as active spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, of which he became president in 1998.