Breaking news:
Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson in historical epics and went on to become a best-selling author, a contentious Hollywood labor leader, an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, has died. He was 84.
Heston died Saturday at his Beverly Hills home, his family said in a statement. In 2002 he had been diagnosed with symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease.
34 Responses for "Charlton Heston Dies, 84 Years Old"
Damn dirty apes…
The news outlets are misreporting his age though. He was actually 83.
he was amazing. William Wyler directed him to his Oscar for BEN-HUR, which most think of only in terms of the chariot race. not so. BEN was the story of a man who connected with God. it was about his conversion, and Heston was excellent. his Moses underwent a conversion as well, but DeMille was at the helm and melodramatics ruled. but that’s not always a bad thing. understanding the acting styles of the period is needful. i’m sure the styles of today will look odd 50 years from now. Heston was a real actor, loved the theatre, revered his stage roots and sought to broaden his range. two overlooked performances stand out. look at him in Richard Lester’s MUSKETEER films as Cardinal Richelieu or as the lead actor in Branaugh’s HAMLET. he’s remarkable. it’s a real loss. only a handful of that generation remain.
He will be remembered.
Sorry, but I can’t disassociate the man from the gun advocacy. I realize people might get offended, but Heston represented everything I hate about America, this conservative crap that ruins an otherwise great country. I won’t miss him at all.
T.
RIP. It is a shame I forgot about the man. Oh well. I am sure he had a great life.
Tufas, I hate, hate, hate guns and am glad to live in a country with strict laws against them. I was always strongly disapointed by Hestons love for the things, but it’s definately worth noting that the guy was an advocate for a lot of good things in America when it mattered. You took the good with the bad and in Hestons case I’ll just remember that he was a passionate talented actor who really wanted to give.
Hey, he was given great roles, and delivered on them, no argue there. I just bought Ben-Hur (I suppose he has better films in his curriculum, like Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, but no luck finding that for sale here) so I’ll be watching that this afternoon and try to remove the actor from the gun advocate (no promises though).
But you should read the comments on his death on our leading newspaper’s online site here… http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/noticia.aspx?id=1324915&idCanal=10 People are ripping Heston to shreds.. My comments above are actually very tame
Anyway.. a lot of people have been dying lately on our loved cinema industry.. what gives!? :
T
I’m not terribly upset by this loss….one less gun advocate in this world – take offence if you want, but take a look at his NRA magazine cover photo with him and small children holding guns – the better!
He was an ok actor who made some memorable movies, but I think as a man he was less than stellar.
“People are ripping Heston to shreds.”
Yeah, well, it’s the internet. It’s classy like that.
I’m not terribly upset by this loss….one less gun advocate in this world – take offence if you want, but take a look at his NRA magazine cover photo with him and small children holding guns – the better!
Ah, the internet….where people can be total assholes without the pesky nuissance of looking disgusted people in the eye.
I have just finished Ben-Hur. Apart from some shots worthy of Python (opening shot featuring the birth of Christ, with a star more like a UFO from Close Encounters… that was just wrong…), a mighty film, the kind you so rarely see nowadays. Heston’s Judah could have been portraied by other actors, as its brilliance is mostly scripted, but he does add something to it.
A shame he went downhill after those civil rights movements. I just read he stood beside Martin Luther King himself, in the sixties. I am neither republican or democrat – I am not an American – but I do think we live in a world where your worst is what people tend to remember you by, and Heston’s worst manages to find a way to eclipse his best achievements.
Lets see what history will remember (I bet it will be his movies)
And i don’t think filmboymichael’s comment makes him an arsehole.. your reply, alynch, does get you closer to being one, though
T.
“People are ripping Heston to shreds.”
“Yeah, well, it’s the internet. It’s classy like that.”
Don’t worry. Once Babs or Sean Penn dies, the tables will turn.
Ah, the circle of life!
Like Trufas said: I hate him like a person with a fucking conservative mind but I recognize he was a talented and passionate actor in the the golden age Hollywood… So like an actor he will be missed
“William Wyler directed him to his Oscar for BEN-HUR, which most think of only in terms of the chariot race. not so. BEN was the story of a man who connected with God….”
…and was gay.
http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2008/04/06/death-of-an-axiom/
I could swear I posted a mildly annoyed comment a few hours ago…ahem.
Yeah, I can’t figure this comment thing out, either, Saltire. Server hiccups?
Of course, the other question is why it should bother me. It really doesn’t matter, of course.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=46R4xG1LHG0
“And i don’t think filmboymichael’s comment makes him an arsehole.. your reply, alynch, does get you closer to being one, though”
Tufas, how can you call alynch an asshole when all he pointed out was the simply fact that anonymity allows people to speak their mind with no regards for the disgusted looks of others? Do you think comments like filmboymichael’s would not have elicited disgusted looks if spoken aloud?
Listen, if you cannot stand a political opinion at odds with your’s so much that it automatically demeans any who hold it then you are an asshole. Period.
You’re perfectly free to express your opinion, but make sure you know where the “asshole” tag belongs.
As for the man’s death:
Hardly surprising given his age but he was very lucky to have worked with so many great directors and writers.
“Listen, if you cannot stand a political opinion at odds with your’s so much that it automatically demeans any who hold it then you are an asshole. Period.”
That is incorrect. Everyone regards some views as being outside the realm of respectable political discourse. For me, an example would be racism, or homophobia, or other forms of bigotry. Anyone who holds these views is a non-person to me. Period.
I wouldn’t place support for gun ownership in the same category as these at all. However, I can certainly understand why some people have stronger feelings about it than I do. I think they feel guns are a life-or-death issue.
The only assholes I find on this board are the fricking liberal “thinking” ones. I suppose they forgot Mr. Heston was a respected Liberal for most of his life. Why don’t these fricking people get educated and maybe just maybe they just might come up with a decent expression when voicing their opposition sometime in their lives.
Never mind his politics. This is how I’ll always remember the man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u76_KsEo4M
netclipper: the first person to use the term “asshole” on this board was Alynch, who may or may not be a liberal, but was clearly using the term to attack one of the anti-NRA posters. You yourself have sworn twice with the word “fricking”, which hardly indicates a superior education on your part. Furthermore, you have now dismissed ALL the liberal “thinkers” on this board as “assholes”. Closed-minded, much?
I am sure most of the liberals here are aware of Mr. Heston’s participation in the civil rights movement. Understandably, they are more interested in the politics of his later life, since it seems more relevant to today.
Could someone talk netclipper down from the bell tower? Quickly!!
My first memory of Charlton Heston was not 10 Commandments (though my Easters would forever be filled with him and his flowing beard), or Ben Hur, but was Khartoum. For some reason I was taken to see it in the movie theatre in the mid-1960s when it was released. I can still see him staring down his assassins from atop the stairs (only to have his head placed on a stake soon after).
My last memory of him was a sad one. In Michael Moore’s film, Bowling for Columbine, he was interviewed relentlessly by Moore. Sure, he ‘deserved’ to be drawn and quartered for his views on gun ownership considering the topic of Moore’s film. But the film was released not too long after word came out about Heston’s Alzheimer’s disease. The interview and Heston’s fumbling for responses was just sad. I usually find Moore funny and provocative; this time I was angry.
I can’t say that I admired Charlton Heston as an actor, but there’s no denying he was a significant presence in film for many years.
I first came to know of Charlton Heston when I saw Ben-Hur in middle school history class. IMO he was very handsome and aged rather well. I never disliked him. But, over the years he has made comments about gays (not homophobic) but in a way as to distance himself from any gay association. I feel there was no need for such comments, he could have kept his views private. On the other hand, I can live with his public views about guns because he was representing NRA in an official capacity. Even though I don’t agree with those views.
RIP
I think it’s very sad that you had to watch Ben-Hur in history class, as if it was a piece of history. There is nothing in that film that would be accepted by respectable historians. The whole thing is a fiction… especially all the Christ scenes, obviously.
touch of evil and planet of the apes. those are the good ones he made.
“That is incorrect. Everyone regards some views as being outside the realm of respectable political discourse. For me, an example would be racism, or homophobia, or other forms of bigotry. Anyone who holds these views is a non-person to me. Period.”
Sb33, before you decide to tell someone what is incorrect perhaps you should learn the difference between political opinions and social values. Racism, homophobia, and bigotry are not political opinions, they are social values. While social values can influence one’s political opinions they are still very different things.
Political opinions are representative of more than just one’s social values. They can also be informed by experience, religious values, etc. Because of this they should not dismissed with the same ease and that is why I said that demeaning someone over them makes you an asshole. Period.
I honestly thought no one would make that counter-point. Unbelievable.
“That is incorrect. Everyone regards some views as being outside the realm of respectable political discourse. For me, an example would be racism, or homophobia, or other forms of bigotry. Anyone who holds these views is a non-person to me. Period.”
Agreed on 100%.
T.
thanks, cc, for the gay comment about BEN-HUR, but you got it wrong. Gore Vidal hinted to Wyler that scenes should be played with Stephen Boyd acting like a spurned gay lover. Boyd went along with it and Heston was reportedly unaware. HUR was never intended to be gay and isn’t played as such. while Messala’s motivations are pretty hard not to figure out. note his constant male companion in the second half and how the camera cuts to this “friend” when Messala bites it in the chariot race. HUR goes on to triumph, convert to Christianity and go after his faithful babe Haya Hayareet.
SeattleMoviegoer, you are right. They wanted to add the gay element because otherwise movie would have been too one dimensional. The only reason Heston plays Ben-Hur straight is because according to Wyler Heston “would fall apart” if her knew they were indented to gay lover during their youth. Atleast, that was Gore Vidal’s explanation in the Celluloid Closet. If Ben-Hur were played by a more open-minded actor surely we would have seen a lot more gay subtext in the movie.
This has nothing to do with this post, but in the Celluloid Closet Tony Curtis goes on and on about gay undertones of his two charcters and yet he showed such a homophobia when it came to The Brokeback Mountain.
I’ll never understand the mind of ultra-liberals. What’s to hate about guns? Do you hate cars because people cause deadly accidents? Or beer because of all the deaths due to drinking and driving. Those two alone constitute more deaths a year to anyone, including innocent children than guns ever could.
Meanwhile more than two million people a year, including a LOT of elderly protect themselves with firearms, including just showing the gun or firing one round off.
You hate something inanimate because you are ignorant of it, and also the principles for which the right to have them is meant to protect.
There is no greater threat to security of a country than the removal of the People’s Rights to defend themselves and their country.
And history has shown gun control to be a nasty, horrid proposition leading inexorably to fascism and genocide. That’s a FACT, jack. Seen in the Ottoman Empire, China, Italy, and many more places.
And in teh coming years when America’s enemies surround her demanding we pay back all the debt we incurred illegally – God help us – it will only be our militia and our will to defend ourselves which will save us from the tyrants of the world, whether they be 3 miles away or 3000 miles away.
Though you may not understand it or like it, that’s how it is. And thank God Thomas Jefferson wasn’t an over emotional dimwit like some of you on here, and didn’t hate inanimate objects but instead the beast within us that needs be countered lest we fall victim to the avarices of other men’s hearts!
God bless Heston for his service to the cause to protect ordinary citizens from tyrannical governments. And may he rest in peace!
Vice versa.
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