Farewell, Charlton Heston

                          

TWIT is sad to report that film legend Charlton Heston has died.  He was 84 years old.  He died at his Beverly Hills home on Saturday.  Heston's wife of 64 years, Lydia, was by his side at the time of his passing.  The actor was in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Heston was best known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in "The Ten Commandments", Colonel George Taylor in "Planet Of The Apes", and the title role in "Ben Hur."   In the beginning of his acting career, he studied theater and earned a drama scholarship to Northwestern University.  Several years later, he produced and starred in the first sound version of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in which he played Mark Antony.  In 1944, Charlton enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces, where he served for two years as a B-25 radio operator/gunner stationed in the Alaskah Aleutian Islands.  He rose to the rank of Staff Seageant.  It was also in 1944 when Charlton married fellow Northwestern alumni Lydia Clarke.

After the war, Charlton and Lydia worked in New York City as models.  He appeared in several Broadway plays and had a number of roles on CBS's "Studio One."  He was approached by film producer Hal Wallis and Charlton decided to give movies a try.  He saaid "Well, maybe just one film, to see what it's like."  His first starring role was the circus manager in "The Greatest Show On Earth", which won the 1952 Academy Award for best motion picture.  He then went on to star as Moses in Cecile B. DeMille's "Ten Commandments", where he was chosen because DeMille thought he looked like the statue of Moses by Michelangelo.  

After Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson turned down the title role in "Ben Hur", Heston accepted the role, and won an Oscar for Best Actor for it - one of the eleven unprecedented Oscars the film earned.  He went on to star in other films, and was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1965 to 1971.  In 1968, he starred in the hit "Planet Of The Apes". 

In the mid 80's, Heston starred in his only prime-time stint on television with the nighttime soap, "The Colbys."  He went on to produce several movies with his son Frasier, an appeared in a very popular A&E series titled "Charlton Heston Presents The Bible."  I'm thinking that people liked it because Moses was doing the narrating. 

Looking back over Heston's extensive career, I discovered an interesting piece of trivia:  he spoke some of movie's most memorable quotes.  In "The Ten Commandments", he repeatedly asked Pharoah to "Let my people go."  And in "Planet Of The Apes", he screamed out "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape."

In addition to his film career, Heston also considered himself a political activist.  During the civil rights march in Washington D.C. in 1963, he stood on the podium as Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his speech.  By the 1980's, he opposed affirmative action and supported gun rights, and was the president of the NRA from 1998 until 2003, when he resigned.  At the 2000 NRA convention, he raised a rifle over his head and declared that the Bill Clinton administration would take away his Second Amendment rights "from my cold, dead hands."

You will be missed, Charlton Heston.  There will never be another great actor like you.