Charlton Heston

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Barbara Stanwyck and John Huston in "The Furies" and Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart in "The Greatest Show on Earth," now available on the Blu-ray format.

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Susan Hayward presents an Oscar to Charlton Heston, during the annual Academy Awards show in Hollywood, Calif., on April 4, 1960. Heston was awarded best actor for his role in "Ben-Hur." (AP Photo )

Charlton Heston enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1944. He served for two years as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the 77th Bombardment Squadron of the Eleventh Air Force. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. Heston married Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clarke in the same year he joined the military. After his rise to fame, Heston narrated for highly classified military and Department of Energy instructional films, particularly relating to nuclear weapons, and for six years Heston the nation's highest security clearance or Q clearance. The Q clearance is similar to a DoD or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) clearance of Top Secret. Actor Charlton Heston displays one of his rifles at his home in Los Angeles, Calif. in September 1984. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)