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Charlton Heston Remembered
This month the world lost one of the most influential movie star/political advocates. Charlton Heston died on April 5th at the age of 84. He leaves behind his wife of 64 years, Lydia Clark Heston, and countless fans of his work, both on and off the silver screen.
So what made the life of Mr. Heston, and his loss to the rest of the world, so great? I think we can all recall one of our favorite Heston moments—parting the Red Sea as Moses in The Ten Commandments, climbing back onto a moving chariot as the title character in Ben Hur, or even crying out on a sandy beach in Planet of the Apes, with the Statue of Liberty buried in the background. “Damn you all to hell!”
Or perhaps your most memorable moment was not of Heston on screen at all. Maybe your favorite Heston moment was during the 2000 National Rifle Association (NRA) convention when he held a replica colonial musket in the air and paraphrased an NRA bumper sticker shouting, “From my cold, dead hands!”
Charlton Heston had a presence possessed by few actors today. He made history entertaining and politics passionate. When he spoke, we listened (whether we agreed with the message or not). As Richard Corliss recounted in an article in TIME magazine, even while explaining that he was suffering from Alzheimer's-like symptoms, Mr. Heston did it with the eloquence of a true legend. “I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure.” Few men could have put it in better words, and delivered the message about a mind-altering condition with such poise and grace.
Charlton Heston, you will be missed.