Charlton Heston

Heston studied drama at Northwestern University before serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, returning afterward to build a stage and television career that led directly into a run of major Hollywood historical epics.

Hollywood's reigning epic-picture star spent the early 1970s as science fiction's most reliable last man standing — the only actor of his era to headline three genre-defining apocalypses back to back. Already famous for his commanding presence in historical epics like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments, he brought that same larger-than-life gravity to considerably bleaker roles.

His late-career pivot into dystopian genre cinema remains one of the more unusual turns for a star of his stature, and he later became equally well known for his political activism later in life.