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We know him better by his stage name, a combination of his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name: Charlton Heston. He was born in Evanston in 1924, spent part of his childhood in Wilmette, and then in 1941 went to Northwestern on an acting scholarship. After several years of nondescript beefcake roles, Cecil B. DeMille cast him as Moses in The Ten Commandments. And that was that. Said DeMille, "My choice was strikingly confirmed when I had a sketch made of Charlton Heston in a white beard and happened to set it beside a photograph of Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses. The resemblance was amazing; and it was not merely an external likeness."
Here was a man who marched on Washington with Dr. King and campaigned for JFK, yet also protested rap lyrics and served a stint as president of the NRA. Onscreen however he kept such incongruity hidden. We'll remember him best in three roles where a weird dignity somehow remains unsoiled even after decades of parody. As the heroic astronaut in the Rod Serling-penned Planet of the Apes, he gets to bellow and go nude. In The Omega Man, he's the last man on earth, forced to battle nightly with contact-wearing pasty albino mutants. And of course Earthquake: nimbly dodging falling debris in 70's aviator glasses and a safari jacket (also famous as the movie where 59-year old Lorne Greene plays the father of 52-year old Ava Gardner).
What are your favorite Heston roles? (See Movie City Indie for a great cross-section of clips).
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Dead or not, this guy was a true douche. I'm sorry. He just was.
Although I never considered him that much of an actor (I link him to Gregory Peck, another minimally expressive actor whom I still enjoy in many films), I will be indebted to him for recommending to studio brass that Orson Welles, slated just to act in "Touch of Evil" also be considered to directing it as well. If you haven't seen it, give it a shot.
Oh, and speaking of shots, his whole NRA period was goofy and sad. For someone who had been involved in civil rights activities (I know, just an actor, avoided the blacklist, etc. but still did it before it was trendy) it was sad to see him hook up with what the NRA has turned into.
Time to go make a nice bowl of Soylent Cheston....
Damn ... somebody beat me to it, but I'll say it anyway.
This made me incredibly sad, but I couldn't help wondering whether there's somebody standing over his body, crying, "Soylent Green is PEOPLE! It's PEOPLE!"
OMG!!! He was a conservative! Boooooo, hisssss.
I like the people who fight for gun control while being protected by armed bodyguards much better.
Ah, the ever-classy commentators of Chicagoist!
I like how the time between a subject being posted and the comment saying the nastiest, stupidest thing possible has been reduced to almost absolute zero.
Fuck you people, this guy was a badass.
I'm memorized the entire "Ten Commandments" movie because of him.
his whole NRA period was goofy and sad. For someone who had been involved in civil rights activities
The Second Amendment is a civil right, you goof. Maybe you should check out the origins of gun control laws; most were to keep guns out of the hands of black people.
Did someone get the gun out of his hands yet?
(oh please, it's a joke. The man was a shitty actor not nobel laureate)
My dad graduated from New Trier with Chuck Heston way back in 1941 and even then the non-theatre guys thought Chuck was a bit strange... BTW his name in the New Trier yearbook is Heston not Carter.
Too bad he soiled his otherwise great acting career by courting morons and being somewhat of a bigot. R.I.P. He can ask God what he thinks of 'white pride' and crusading to arm the populace.
Douche? For some of his conservative and NRA views,sure. Not everyone is perfect.
But in case you missed it: "a man who marched on Washington with Dr. King and campaigned for JFK". Damn awesome.
Regardless, he was a great actor. I defy anyone to say otherwise. Look at this list of movies: The 10 Commandments, El-Cid, Ben-Hur, Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Three Musketeers. The list goes on and on. I may not have liked his politics in every case, but there is no denying his contribution to American cinema. He was AWESOME.
I love it. Lefty commenters can't resist an opportunity to feel superior to other people.
Hey, aren't we due for another Obama article?
I'm a lefty myself, buy I absolutely can't stand the tendency of some on my side of the aisle to villify those who disagree with us while simultaneously declaring our superiority over Republicans because we're open minded. There was a time when a person could disagree with us and still be considered a decent person. This nation and its politics will be useless until we get back to that, no matter which party's in power.
Hear hear, BlueLine! Well said.
I see no difference between a smug hippie liberal douche and a preachy conservative christian fucktard.
In other words, I really see no difference between Spook and Fed Up. They're just two sides of the same coin, and they can both go fuck themselves. I ignore both of their comments.
And in a effort to be "on topic", I'm gonna go watch "Planet of the Apes".
I was suprised to see that he was involved in the civil rights movement. It makes his later involvement in the NRA all the more puzzling.
Maybe it was the Omega Man which pushed him over the edge. Someone has to save mankind from the zombies! Nevertheless, the 10 Commandments is his best movie.
Man, I'm afraid to step into this one. I’m gonna play it safe. I must be getting old
But I will address a most pertinent question to the fair Margaret Lyons, who I think is trying to pull a “Robert Mugabe” with this month's Commentator of the Month Award instead of delivering the shirt up to yours truly!
So Margaret, in the immortal words of Omar Devon Little from The Wire.....
“Where it at yo?”
“Where it at shortie?”
Sorry guys - as someone who actively has to confront the gun lobby, I have to hold people accountable for their actions. And Mr. Heston was part and parcel of an incredibly powerful gun lobby that refuses to dialogue on the issue of gun control.
I can understand people wanting to protect the second amendment, but the NRA goes way beyond.
And so, his actions on behalf of the NRA make him a douche. I stand by that - I'm sorry. We all should be held accountable for what we do. Maybe what I said was a little classless, but you know, it's the web. And we don't need to be classy here.
"I was suprised to see that he was involved in the civil rights movement. It makes his later involvement in the NRA all the more puzzling."
Only for a person who thinks people fit neatly into stereotypes. I am as green as many lefties, for instance, yet am somewhat to the right on the gun-control issue. I know many people who also hold positions that the simple-minded ideologues among us would consider contradictory. Until we discard this simple-minded attitude, our politics will continue to suffer.
Bluefairline: well said.
Maybe the NRA has a bad rap from being associated with Heston's racist comments for the last 20 years. The Charlton Heston media figure I was familiar with until I read up on him after watching 10 Commandments this year was the one who bemoaned the loss of rights of the "average" U.S. citizen, by which he meant caucasian.
Is it that simplistic to associate social conservatives with the NRA? Political parties and positions are often paradoxes but voting patterns are down right predictable for most groups.
"Is it that simplistic to associate social conservatives with the NRA? Political parties and positions are often paradoxes but voting patterns are down right predictable for most groups."
True enough, but I think there are enough people who fall through the cracks--they may be more libertarian, or have some views that are more conservative at times and more liberal on other issues--to try to work with them. Or, the parties and their most loyal members risk alienating even more people than they already have in the past generation or so.
And, obvioulsy, one can be a "fan" of guns, or a hunter, or take an individual-rights view of the 2nd Amd without being a closet racist or even a social conservative--or, for that matter, a fan of the NRA. Life is often messy that way.
Say what you want about his politics, but he's pretty hot in that pic...off to watch Planet of the Apes with just me, Heston, a bunch of damn dirty apes and a "toy."
A man who supports Dr. King and the 2nd amendment! Damn! How are you all going to justify your superior political beliefs when you can't immediately pigeonhole someone else's?