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. 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.”
Designed by art director Greg Breeding of
Charlottesville, VA, the stamp features a color portrait of the actor by noted
movie artist Drew Struzan of Pasadena, CA. The portrait is based on a photograph
taken by Heston’s wife, Lydia Clarke Heston. The area outside of the stamps is
decorated with an image of the actor from the 1959 movie Ben-Hur.
Originally shot in black and white, the photo was later hand-colorized. Heston
is shown wearing his costume from the film’s monumental chariot racing
scene.
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