Obituary: Charlton Heston
Obituary by Jack Foley
OSCAR-winning actor Charlton Heston, who won the Academy Award for his starring role in the epic Ben-Hur, has died at the age of 84, a spokesman for his family has confirmed.
The celebrated actor passed away at his home in Beverly Hills on Saturday, April 5 (2008), with his wife, Lydia, at his side.
Heston was best-known for his performances in a number of epic films, including El Cid, The Ten Commandments [as Moses], The Greatest Story Ever Told [as John The Baptist] and The Agony & The Ecstasy [as Michelangelo].
He also appeared in the science fiction classic Planet of the Apes, as well as the disaster flicks Earthquake and Airport 1975, not to mention The Omega Man, a film recently remade by Will Smith as I Am Legend.
A staunch supporter of the American gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, he was forced to step down as its president in 2003, citing ill health. The previous year he had revealed that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s.
A life devoted to acting
Born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois, on October 4, 1924, to a mill owner, Heston studied acting before serving for three years in the US Air Force.
Back in civilian life, he and his wife, Lydia – whom he married in 1944 – experienced hard times as he awaited his break as an actor, living in a single room in Chicago and, on one occasion, posing for artists at $1.25 an hour.
The wait was worth it, though, as Heston barely looked back after he’d caught Hollywood’s attention. Following a stint on Broadway, he landed the role of ringmaster Brad Braden in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show On Earth in 1952 and seldom stopped working.
Four years later, he appeared as Moses in DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, and thereafter had the happy knack of appearing in epics.
But perhaps his greatest and most lasting achievement came in 1959, when he landed the epomyous role of Ben-Hur in William Wyler’s religious epic.
The film won a total of 11 Oscars – including Best Actor – and continues to be viewed as one of the greatest movies ever made, notable for its technical achievements as well as the power of its performances. The chariot race remains one of the defining action sequences in Hollywood’s history.
Thereafter, the hits kept on coming but Heston regularly mixed genres in a bid not to become pigeon-holed.
In 1961, he took the eponymous role of El Cid, while in 1965 he enjoyed considerable success in Sam Peckinpah’s Western Major Dundee, even going so far as to say of the director: “Sam is the only person I’ve ever physically threatened on a set.”
Further acclaim greeted his performance as Gen. Charles ‘Chinese’ Gordon in 1966’s Khartoum, while in 1968 he played the iconic role of George Taylor in Planet Of The Apes which, to this day, contains one of the best movie twist-endings of all time.
During the 70s, Heston divided his time between working in the theatre and in movies and, on stage, continued to attract the big roles, portraying Sir Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons, Macbeth and Antony in Antony & Cleopatra.
In cinemas, he became a mainstay of the disaster flicks, including Earthquake, Skyjacked, Airport 1975 and Two-Minute Warning – but he also played the memorable villain Cardinal Richelieu in 1973’s The Three Musketeers and its 1974 sequel.
The 1980s saw a rare foray into television, as Jason Colby in Dynasty spin-off The Colbys, as well as an appearance on The Two Ronnies.
While in the ’90s he limited himself to notable supporting performances in films as varied as Tombstone and True Lies, in which he played Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commander-in-chief.
His final big screen appearance came in 2003’s My Father, Rua Alguem 5555.
Personal achievements
Away from the screen, Heston was involved in many causes throughout the various stages of his career. In the 1960s, he was a vocal supporter of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. After King’s assassination, and the murder of Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, he even called for gun controls – but later said that he was “misguided”.
He also served as president of the Screen Actors Guild for six years, during which time he decried the trend for undermining traditional American heroes.
Later in life, he was at the centre of the debate surrounding America’s gun laws and once infamously vowed that the only way the government would take away his gun was from his “cold, dead hands”.
Indeed, his views were exposed by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore in his anti-gun film, Bowling For Columbine.
On August 9, 2002, however, Heston issued a statement announcing that his doctors had diagnosed “a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer’s disease”.
The statement went on: “For an actor there’s no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can’t part with you, which is why I won’t exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I’m not changing anything. I’ll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you’ll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway.
“I’m neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I’m still the fighter that Dr. King and JFK and Ronald Reagan knew, but it’s a fight I must someday call a draw. I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure. Please feel no sympathy for me. I don’t. I just may be a little less accessible to you, despite my wishes. I also want you to know that I’m grateful beyond measure. My life has been blessed with good fortune.”
Tributes
Following his death on Saturday, Heston’s family said in their own statement: “To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support. Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life.
“No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country. In his own words, ‘I have lived such a wonderful life. I’ve lived enough for two people’.”
Michael Levine, his former publicist who worked with Heston for 20 years, told the Associated Press that the actor’s passing represented the end of an iconic era for cinema.
Heston is survived by his wife Lydia, and their two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell.