[Deathwatch] Charlton Heston, Hollywood legend, 84

[Deathwatch Central]

Hollywood legend Charlton Heston dies at 84
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/04/06/heston.dead.ap/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best
actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses,
Michelangelo, El Cid and other figures in movie epics of the '50s and
'60s, has died. He was 84.

 The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his
wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further
details.

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was
known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and,
of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a
statement. "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."

 Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with
Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in
equal measure."

With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice,
Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was
filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and
historical past. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he
often remarked.

Publicist Michael Levine, who represented Heston for about 20 years,
said the actor's passing represented the end of an iconic era for
cinema.

 "If Hollywood had a Mt. Rushmore, Heston's face would be on it,"
Levine said. "He was a heroic figure that I don't think exists to the
same degree in Hollywood today."

The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as
president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film
Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With
age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative
candidates.

In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle
Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He
delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't
trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't
trust you with our guns."

Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his
five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of
it."

Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that
comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life,"
President Bush said at the time.

He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's
tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism
almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were
considerable.

Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and
successful films of the midcentury. "Ben-Hur" won 11 Academy Awards,
tying it for the record with the more recent "Titanic" (1997) and "The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). Heston's other hits
include: "The Ten Commandments," "El Cid," "55 Days at Peking," "Planet
of the Apes" and "Earthquake."

He liked to the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:


Andrew Jackson ("The President's Lady," "The Buccaneer"), Moses ("The
Ten Commandments"), title role of "El Cid," John the Baptist ("The
Greatest Story Ever Told"), Michelangelo ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"),
General Gordon ("Khartoum"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar," "Antony and
Cleopatra"), Cardinal Richelieu ("The Three Musketeers"), Henry VIII
("The Prince and the Pauper").

Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a
college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film
archivist. He had the title role in "Peer Gynt" in 1942 and was Marc
Antony in Bradley's 1949 version of "Julius Caesar," for which Heston
was paid $50 a week.

Film producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca") spotted Heston in a 1950
television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a
contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue
theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to
see what it's like."

Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, "Dark City,"
a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager
in the all-star "The Greatest Show On Earth," named by the Motion
Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952. More movies followed:

"The Savage," "Ruby Gentry," "The President's Lady," "Pony Express" (as
Buffalo Bill Cody), "Arrowhead," "Bad for Each Other," "The Naked
Jungle," "Secret of the Incas," "The Far Horizons" (as Clark of the
Lewis and Clark trek), "The Private War of Major Benson," "Lucy
Gallant."

Most were forgettable low-budget films, and Heston seemed destined to
remain an undistinguished action star. His old boss DeMille rescued
him.

The director had long planned a new version of "The Ten Commandments,"
which he had made as a silent in 1923 with a radically different
approach that combined biblical and modern stories. He was struck by
Heston's facial resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses,
especially the similar broken nose, and put the actor through a long
series of tests before giving him the role.

The Hestons' newborn, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the
infant Moses in the film.

More films followed: the eccentric thriller "Touch of Evil," directed
by Orson Welles; William Wyler's "The Big Country," costarring with
Gregory Peck; a sea saga, "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" with Gary
Cooper.

Then his greatest role: "Ben-Hur."

Heston wasn't the first to be considered for the remake of 1925
biblical epic. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson had
declined the film. Heston plunged into the role, rehearsing two months
for the furious chariot race.

He railed at suggestions the race had been shot with a double: "I
couldn't drive it well, but that wasn't necessary. All I had to do was
stay on board so they could shoot me there. I didn't have to worry; MGM
guaranteed I would win the race."

The huge success of "Ben-Hur" and Heston's Oscar made him one of the
highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He combined big-screen epics like "El
Cid" and "55 Days at Peking" with lesser ones such as "Diamond Head,"
"Will Penny" and "Airport 1975." In his later years he played cameos in
such films as "Wayne's World 2" and "Tombstone."

He often returned to the theater, appearing in such plays as "A Long
Day's Journey into Night" and "A Man for All Seasons." He starred as a
tycoon in the prime-time soap opera, "The Colbys," a two-season spinoff
of "Dynasty."

At his birth in a Chicago suburb on October 4, 1923, his name was
Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Michigan, where his
father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Growing up in the
Michigan woods with almost no playmates, young Charles read books of
adventure and devised his own games while wandering the countryside
with his rifle.

Charles's parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory
plant superintendent in Wilmette, Illinois, an upscale north Chicago
suburb. Shy and feeling displaced in the big city, the boy had trouble
adjusting to the new high school. He took refuge in the drama
department.

"What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people," he
said in a 1986 interview. "In those days I wasn't satisfied with being
me."

Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother's maiden name and his
stepfather's last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern
University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago
radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a
radio-gunner in the Aleutians.

In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke,
and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek
acting jobs. Finding none, they were hired on as codirectors and
principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, North Carolina.

Back in New York, both Hestons began finding work. With his strong
6-feet-2 build and craggily handsome face, Heston won roles in TV soap
operas, plays ("Antony and Cleopatra" with Katherine Cornell) and live
TV dramas such as "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew"
and "Of Human Bondage."

Heston wrote several books: "The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976,"
published in 1978; "Beijing Diary: 1990," concerning his direction of
the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" in Chinese; "In the Arena: An
Autobiography," 1995; and "Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years of
American Filmmaking," 1998.

Besides Fraser, who directed his father in an adventure film, "Mother
Lode," the Hestons had a daughter, Holly Ann, born August 2, 1961. The
couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party
with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years
when he died.

In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for
his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for
Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against
affirmative action.

He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a
white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely
racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts"
about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigated the company for
releasing an Ice-T album that purportedly encouraged cop killing.

Heston wrote in "In the Arena" that he was proud of what he did "though
now I'll surely never be offered another film by Warners, nor get a
good review in Time. On the other hand, I doubt I'll get a traffic
ticket very soon."

Many thanks to TheLenGuy for posting this obituary