Charlton Heston Dead at 84

Charlton Heston, world renowned actor, ex-President of the National Rifle Association died on Saturday, April 5^th 2008 at his home in Beverly Hills. His wife, Lydia, whom he married in 1944, was at his side. [BBC News] + [Chicago Tribune]

Wikipedia entry …

Heston was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois, the son of Lilla (née Charlton) and Russel Whitford Carter, a mill operator. Heston has stated the he was part Native American and a “blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. When he was ten, his parents divorced. Shortly thereafter, his mother married Chester Heston. The new family moved to well-off Wilmette, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago. Heston attended New Trier High School. Heston enrolled in the school’s drama program, earning a drama scholarship to Northwestern University … While in high school, he played in the silent 16mm amateur film adaptation of Peer Gynt made by David Bradley. Several years later the same team produced the first sound version of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in which Heston played Mark Antony.
In 1944, Heston left college and enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served for two years as a B-25 radio operator/gunner stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the Eleventh Air Force, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant.
While in the service, Heston married Northwestern student Lydia Marie Clarke in 1944. After the war, the two lived in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, where they worked as models. They have a son, Fraser Clarke Heston and an adopted daughter, Holly Ann Heston.
Seeking a way to make it in theater, Heston and his wife Lydia decided in 1947 to manage a playhouse in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1948, they went back to New York where Heston was offered a supporting role in a Broadway revival of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, starring Katharine Cornell. He also had success in television, playing a number of roles in CBS’s Studio One, one of the most popular anthology dramas of the 1950s.
… He cited Mister Roberts as one of his favorite roles, and trued unsuccessfully to revive the show in the early ‘90s. In 1950, Heston earned recognition for his appearance in his first professional movie, Dark City. His breakthrough came with his role of a circus manager in The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952. Heston was Billy Wilder’s first choice to play Sefton in Stalag 17 (1953). However, the role was given to Oscar winner William Holden. But the muscular, 6ft-3in, square jawed Heston became an icon for portraying Moses in The Ten Commandments, reportedly being chosen because director Cecil B. DeMille thought he bore an uncanny resemblance to the statue of Moses by Michelangelo.
Heston played leading roles in a number of fictional and historical epics – Ben-Hur, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Agony and the Ecstasy (as Michelangelo), and Khartoum. …
Heston was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971, the longest tenure of any SAG president. Between 1968 and 1974, Heston starred in a number of science fiction and disaster films such as Planet of the Apes (1968), Soylent Green (1971), The Omega Man (1973), and Earthquake (1974), all of which were hugely successful and have since become classic or cult films. In 1970, Heston portrayed Mark Antony again in a Technicolor film version of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. His co-stars in the nearly all-star cast included Jason Robards as Brutus, Richard Johnson as Cassius, John Gielgud as Caesar, Diana Rigg as Portia, Robert Vaughn as Casca, and Richard Chamberlain as Octavius. In 1971 Heston made his directorial debut with Anthony and Cleopatra … After receiving scathing reviews, the film never went to theaters, and rarely turns up on television. It has not been released on DVD.
Beginning with 1973’s The Three Musketeers (as Cardinal Richelieu), Heston was seen in an increasing number of supporting roles and cameos. From 1985 to 1987, he starred in the prime-time soap, The Colbys, his only stint on series television. With his son Fraser, he starred and produced several TV movies, including remakes of Treasure Island and A Man For All Seasons.
In 1992, Heston appeared in a short series of videos on the A&E cable network reading passages from the King James Version of the Bible, called Charlton Heston Presents the Bible. It was filmed in the Middle East and received excellent reviews, achieving great success on video and DVD. IN 1993, he appeared in a cameo role in Wayne’s World 2, in a scene wherein main character Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) requests that a small role be filled by a better actor than the performer currently filling it. That same year, he hosted Saturday Night Live. He subsequently had cameos in the films Hamlet, Tombstone and True Lies. As his film stardom declined, Heston continued to be a major drawing card in live theater … as Sherlock Holmes in The Crucifer of Blood opposite Jeremy Brett as Dr. Watson, …
In 2001. Heston made a cameo appearance as an elderly, dying chimpanzee in Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes. Heston’s last film role was as the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in My Father, Rua Alguem 5555, which had limited release (mainly to festivals) in 2003.
Heston campaigned for Presidential candidate … John F. Kennedy in 1960. When an Oklahoma movie theater premiering his movie was segregated, he joined a picket line outside in 1961. During the civil rights march held in Washington DC in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. In later speeches, Heston said he helped the civil rights cause “long before Hollywood found it fashionable.”
By the 1980s, Heston opposed affirmative action, supported gun rights and changed his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican. He campaigned for Republicans and Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Hector resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union’s refusal to allow a white actor play a Eurasian role in “Miss Saigon” was “obscenely racist.” He said CNN’s telecasts from Baghdad were “sowing doubts” about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War. At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigate the company for releasing an Ice-T album which included the song “Cop Killer,” which depicted the killing of police officers.
According to his autobiography In the Arena, Heston recognized the right of freedom of speech exercised by others. In a 1997 speech, he deplored a culture war he said was being conducted by a generation of media, educators, entertainers, and politicians against:
“…the God fearing, law-abiding Caucasian, middle-class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight- or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning- or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff- or even worse, male working stiff- because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media success is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?”
In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled Winning the Cultural War, Heston expressed his disdain for political correctness, stating “If Americans believed in political correctness, we’d still be King George’s boys – subjects bound to the British crown.” He stated “Political correctness is tyranny with manners.” He went on to say that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else’s pride.
Heston as the President and spokesman of the NRA from 1998 until he resigned in 2003. At the 2000 NRA convention, he raised a hand-made Brooks flintlock rifle over his head and declared that presidential candidate Al Gore would take away his Second Amendment rights “from my cold, dead hands.” In announcing his resignation in 2003, he again raised a rifle over his head, repeating the five famous words of his 200 speech. He was honorary life member.
In the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore interviewed Heston in his home, asking him about an April, 1999 NRA meeting held in Denver, Colorado, shortly after the Columbine high school massacre. Moore criticized Heston for the perceived thoughtlessness in the timing and location of the meeting, Heston, on-camera, excused himself and walked out on the interview. Moore was later criticized for his perceived ambush of the actor.
Actor George Clooney joked about Heston having Alzheimer’s Disease. When questioned, Clooney said Heston deserved whatever was said about him for his involvement with the NRA. Heston responded by saying Clooney lacked “class,” and said he felt sorry for Clooney, as Clooney has as much of a chance developing Alzheimer’s as anyone else.”
Heston opposed abortion and gave the introduction to a 1987 pro-life documentary by Bernard Nathanson called Eclipse of Reason which focuses on late-term abortions. Heston served on the Advisory Board of Accuracy in Media, a conservative media watchdog group founded by Reed Irvine.
In 1998, shortly after he was elected President of the National Rifle Association, Heston had a hip replacement. He was diagnosed with prostrate cancer in 1998. Following a course of radiation treatment, the cancer went into remission. IN August 2002, Heston publicly announced he was diagnosed with symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s disease. In July 2003, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House from President George W. Bush.

Charlton Heston was one of the major classic era actors and one of the best of all time. As a tradition, started by my father-in-law, we watch Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments every Easter. A great actor and a great American.