Fraser Heston.Photo: Courtesy Fraser Heston
Fraser Hestonmay not remember acting in his first movie role, but the stories he has been told over the years have made him look back on the experience fondly.
The filmmaker and son of the late acting legendCharlton Hestonchatted with PEOPLE amidThe Ten Commandments' 65th anniversary and4K Ultra HD release, joking about how he’d gotten the job playing the infant version of his father’s Moses in the 1956 film before he was even born.
Fraser, who’s now 66, tells PEOPLE, “When I was born in February of 1955, the first telegram my mother got was from Cecil B. DeMille. It said, ‘Congratulations, he’s got the part.’ "
“That film is literally in my DNA,” he adds, joking, “And I got all my lines right, too.”
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Charlton Heston as Moses inThe Ten Commandments.LMPC via Getty
While Fraser didn’t get to keep the cloth or basket he was placed in for his film scenes, his family got a pretty incredible “consolation” prize: the “original staff” Charlton, as Moses, used in the unforgettablescene where he parts the Red Seaso the Hebrews can escape.
“He’s assured me that it happened once, it won’t happen again,” Fraser jokes, calling the prop a “pretty neat” addition to the family’s collection.
A director, producer and screenwriter himself, Fraser believes the movie “speaks for itself” in terms of the Hollywood “legacy” it has left — and that people only need to turn on their televisions for proof.
“There aren’t many movies that are played and rerun 65 years later,” he says, referring to howThe Ten Commandmentsfamously broadcasts annually around theEasterholiday.
As for the new 4K Ultra HD release, he adds, “Paramount has taken the trouble to make sure that the original VistaVision negative — which had two frames for everyone in it [and] is just aremarkable piece of early filmtechnology — that’s preserved, and now restored. They take the trouble to come out with a new 4K version, like they’ve done here.”
Charlton and Fraser Heston.Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard/Shutterstock
He considers himself to have “won the parent lottery” with Charlton and his mother Lydia Clarke Heston, who were married for 64 years until the actor’sdeath at age 84 back in 2008. (Lydia — a photographer, “adventurer” and “amateur archeologist” as her son describes —died 10 years later, at age 95.)
“I had a fantasy childhood,” Fraser raves to PEOPLE of his “wonderful” upbringing. “I grew up all over the world. I knew very early on that … people paid [my dad] to pretend to be other people, is the way he phrased it.”
Since Charlton’s death, Fraser says he doesn’t often watch his father’s movies. But when he does, he really sits down and takes in the “wonderful” process of “how he ages and changes, develops as an actor, as an artist and as a man” throughout thevariety of films Charlton starred inover the course of his decades-long career.
According to Fraser, watching Charlton now brings him comfort “in the same way that some people watch home movies.” He adds, “I guess my home movie isThe Ten Commandments.”
The Ten Commandmentsin 4K Ultra HD.Courtesy Paramount
He also hopes to do a documentary about his father’s life that covers everything from his storied film career to the “controversial, politically active” parts, such as his role as head of the National Rifle Association.
“In between two goalposts, if you will … was a magnificent life of art, of community service, service to this country, all of the marvelous plays he did on stage, five books that he wrote,” Fraser says. “He was a great husband, married to my mom for 65 years, and a wonderful father and grandfather.”
“That’sthe Charlton Heston youdon’t know that I’d like to bring to the screen someday soon,” he adds.
The Ten Commandmentsin 4K Ultra HD is available now onamazon.com.
source: people.com
