Born and raised in Two Rivers, Charlton Heston's wife Lydia Clarke Heston dies at 95

TWO RIVERS – Who knew the wife of Moses grew up on the Lakeshore?

The Hollywood Reporter announced last week that Lydia Clarke Heston, an actress and the wife of actor Charlton Heston, died at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center in Santa Monica at the age of 95. She was married to Heston for 64 years until his death in 2008.

Lydia Heston was born in Two Rivers and the daughter of a high school principal, the report says. She met Charlton in drama class at Northwestern University, and the couple married in 1944 in North Carolina, right before he left to serve during World War II in the U.S. Army Air Force.

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The couple moved to New York after the war and began their acting careers. Lydia Clarke, as she called herself then, performed on Broadway, and in 1952, she co-starred with Gene Barry in her first feature film, “The Atomic City,” the Hollywood Reporter says.

Lydia had a small role in “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952, a movie that also starred Charlton. During production, she was asked by Cecil B. DeMille’s publicist to take on-set photos, and a new career was born. After the movie was complete, she dropped out of acting to concentrate on photography and raising a family. She was active in the civil rights movement along with her husband, the Hollywood Reporter says, and in 1963 they took part in the March on Washington.

Charlton Heston was best known for his roles in “The Ten Commandments,” “Ben-Hur” and “Planet of the Apes.” He died at age 84 in 2008.

Lydia’s survivors include the couple’s son, Fraser, daughter, Holly, and several grandchildren. A private funeral service was held in Pacific Palisades, according to the report.

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