Screen legend Charlton Heston has died at the age of 84.
The actor passed away at his home in Beverly Hills last night with Lydia, his wife of 64 years, by his side.
Heston had been battling Alzheimer’s disease since 2002. After being diagnosed, he had said: “I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure.”
A statement from the Heston family praised the actor for taking on every role with “passion”. It went on to say: “We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humour. He served these far greater roles with tremendous faith, courage and dignity.”
Heston made 62 films in his lifetime, including The Greatest Show On Earth in 1952, Planet of the Apes in 1968 and The Omega Man in 1971. He was best known for taking on heroic roles, including Moses in 1956 film The Ten Commandments and Judah Ben-Hur in 1959 epic Ben-Hur, for which he received a Best Actor Oscar.
More recently, he had been known for his political activism. He regularly spoke about his right-wing views and in 1998, he became president of the National Rifle Association, continuing in the role until 2003.
0 Mark McIntire Apr 10th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
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April 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
- Remembering Charlton Heston: The Man In The Arena
by Mark McIntire
April 9, 2008 11:42 AM
Charlton Heston kept his promises. He was good to his friends. He believed in a merciful God, and he loved his country. As though that was not enough to separate him from today’s Hollywood elite, he was married, too, and lived with the same woman for over 60 years.
Chuck well may be the last iconic gentleman of his era about whom all of the preceding statements were true.
Many will recall Chuck’s epic stage, movie and TV triumphs, and think he actually was Moses or Ben Hur or Will Penny or Mark Antony. That would amuse as much as bemuse him. “My dad pretends to be other people for a living,” his only son, Fraser Heston, would tell his classmates.
Chuck was an actor’s actor whose only complaint was: “I never got it right. I always thought I could have done that role better.”
Some will recall meeting Chuck at a premiere, posh party, political convention, or just on the street. They’d be struck to find he had the same commanding presence and honest grit, and the same gentlemanly manners, on screen and off.
He was a gentleman’s gentleman. “Daddy lives by his principles, not by the costumes he wears in movies,” his only daughter, Holly, would tell all who asked what he was really like as a person.
Once a liberal Democrat who campaigned with Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, Chuck later became identified with the conservatism of his friend Ronald Reagan. “I didn’t change . . . my party did,” he’d explain to those who asked about his transformation.
Of all the things that will be written and said of Chuck now that he is dead, a most important key to his character will be overlooked. Charlton Heston derived his moral and political values from ethical principles that did not change over the course of his spectacular life. His detractors argued this only proves he was a fool. But when we look at what his detractors have accomplished in their lives by comparison, we are left with the suspicion that Chuck was no fool. He was a centered man, comfortable in his own skin.
At their 50th wedding anniversary dinner, some upstart (that would be me) had the impertinence to ask his beloved wife, Lydia: “How did you manage to stay married to that man for so many years?” In her typical serenity and graciousness, she replied: “Through Chuck, I learned to keep a center of my being to myself . . . else there would be no one there for him to love.”
The Holy Bible and the complete works of William Shakespeare were never far from Chuck’s fingertips in his study. It’s hard to think of my friend Chuck now without remembering these lines from “Romeo and Juliet,” Act 3, Scene 2:
“And when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars. And he shall make the face of heaven so fine, that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”
Mark McIntire, a Santa Barbara resident, knew
Charlton Heston for 27 years.
http://markmcintire.com