One can see how a boy might be starstruck, but Fraser said he admires his dad, who died in 2008 at 84, for much more than his movie roles.
“He hated that term – movie star,” explains Fraser, who years ago made the TV documentary Charlton Heston: The Man in the Arena. Through home movies, photos and journals the actor kept for more than 50 years, the film depicts how Charlton’s greatest legacy is “the sort of person he was,” Fraser said, along with the life lessons he taught his kids, Fraser and Holly.
“He always used to say keep your promises and do your best,” Fraser imparted. “If you can do those two things, you will have a pretty good life and be considered a good man.”
Charlton worked very hard at doing his best on Ben-Hur, which Fraser says the actor considered his best film, but it wasn’t easy. Directed by William Wyler, Ben-Hur, about a Jewish prince who is betrayed into slavery and fights his way back to freedom, forced Charlton, who’d already played Moses in The Ten Commandments, to really grapple with the character.
“Wyler came to him one day and said, ‘You know, Chuck, you have to be better in this part’,” Fraser recounted. “And he said, ‘Gosh, Willy, tell me how, I was doing my best.’ And Wyler said, ‘I don’t know. You have to dig down deep and find this guy.'”