Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor of film, theater an television. Heston is known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Initially a liberal Democrat, he later supported conservative politics and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.