The renowned actor Charlton Heston and his wife, Lydia, had one of the most enduring and devoted relationships in Hollywood history.
While filming The Ten Commandments as the prophet Moses in Egypt, Charlton Heston created a journal filled with writing and sketches to share with Lydia, who was pregnant with their first child and unable to travel with him. "It was the first time he'd ever left her, beyond World War II," their daughter, Holly Heston Rochell, shares with Closer, noting that her father maintained the diary "to make [Lydia] feel included."
Charlton met Lydia Clarke during a theater class at Northwestern University in Chicago, and he instantly knew they were meant to be together. "I obviously found the right girl the first time out," he admitted in Charlton Heston: Hollywood's Last Icon, a biography by Marc Eliot. "And I had the brains to recognize that."
However, Lydia did not fall for him immediately. She remembered him as "arrogant and conceited and supremely self-confident," but eventually warmed up to his intelligence and sense of humor. After working together on a performance and going on a date, Lydia said, "I was insanely in love with him."
The couple married in 1944 but was separated when Charlton joined the Air Force as a radio operator and aerial gunner during World War II. He wrote heartfelt letters to Lydia daily, according to Holly, who says, "The two of them were great letter writers."
After returning from the war, Charlton's career took off when director Cecil B. DeMille cast him in The Greatest Show on Earth, which was the most popular movie of 1952 and an Oscar nominee for Best Picture. In 1956, The Ten Commandments solidified his status as a sought-after Hollywood star, creating challenges for Lydia. Holly explains, "He was a big movie star, internationally acclaimed, a sex symbol… He had all these actresses and civilians throwing themselves at him."
Yet, Charlton remained faithful, saying, "The reason I've never cheated and never wanted to is that I happen to like my marriage. Nothing would be worth jeopardizing it."
Their children, Fraser, 68, a film director and producer, and Holly, 61, a fine arts expert, remember their upbringing as idyllic. Holly describes her parents as "amazing" and recalls evenings spent reading, watching movies, or playing Monopoly together. Charlton and Lydia were married for 64 years before his passing in 2008.
Lydia, who became an esteemed photographer, eventually visited Egypt with her family. Fraser shares with Closer, "We went traipsing to the top of the Great Pyramid… Mom and Dad climbed to the top with me."