Film Legend Heston Has Died

Charlton Heston, the Oscar winning actor has died aged 83

Heston died at his Beverley Hills home with his wife Lydia, whom he had been married to for 64 years, at his side.

What do we know about Charlton Heston
Heston was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois where he attended New Trier High School
He enrolled in the school's drama program, performing in several amateur productions and earned a drama scholarship to Northwestern University from the Winnetka Community Theatre.
Heston also appeared in his first film which was a minor amateur production of Peer Gynt.
In 1944, Heston left college and enlisted in US Air Force rising to the rank of staff sergeant
Also in 1944, while in service, Heston married Lydia Marie Clarke and went on to have a son Fraser Clarke Heston and an adopted daughter, Holly Ann Heston.
Seeking a way to make it in theatre, Charlton and Lydia Heston decided in 1947 to manage a playhouse in North Carolina.

Times were hard while Heston waited for his first break but finally it arrived:
In 1948, Heston was offered a supporting role in a Broadway revival of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. He also had success in television, staring in one of CBS’s most popular anthology dramas of the 1950s.
He was to go on to become one of the most successful stage stars frequently playing Macbeth, Marc Anthony and Mister Roberts, which was said to be his favourite.
His film career was prolific and started with his first movie which was Dark City in 1950, followed by the infamous The Greatest Show on Earth.
His portrayal of Moses in The Ten Commandments was to become an epic. But another epic was to give Heston his Oscar and that was Ben-Hur.
Heston was to continue to star in a variety of films throughout the 50s, The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), 55 Days at Peking (1963), Major Dundee (1965) Amongst The Many; El Cid in 1961 and The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965 were other massive box office successes. In fact if Heston stared in it, you had hat a hit!

The late 60’s saw a change in style to science based films and 1968 saw the weirdly wonderful Planet of the Apes which I still find fascinating now. Heston stared in so many films that to name them all would take up my whole blog but I will put this link here of his filmography:http://charltonhestonworld.homestead.com/FILMOGRAPHY.html
Heston made five films in 1970 for instance two of which were Julius Ceasar and The Hawaiians. The man was a human film making machine!
Airport 1975, Earthquake and The Four Musketeers, all made in 1974 were his next blockbusters over in the UK however this was probably the last big year fro Heston as far as films were concerned.

He went on to make numerous films, TV shows including staring in the mega American TV series The Colbys and made his last movie in 2004 with Genhis Khan


The Political Activist
Charlton Heston was a man who used his fame to his advantage and challenged what was going on in the world around him.
In his earlier years he was a big supporter of Martin Luther King and the 1960’s American civil rights movement. He opposed the Vietnam War and voted for Richard Nixon in 1972.
In 1968, following the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, Heston appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and, along with fellow actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart, called for public support for President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.
By the 1980s, Heston’s views had changed and now supported gun rights and changed his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican. He was to go on to campaign for Republicans and the future Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
He was to become the President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), in 1998, resigning in 2003, citing ill-health.
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 said CNN's telecasts from Baghdad were "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.
In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled Winning the Cultural War, Heston expressed his disdain for Political correctness, stating "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown." He stated "Political correctness is tyranny with manners". He went on to say that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride. – Interesting…… Am I not getting what this man is saying?
Heston opposed abortion Heston served on the Advisory Board of Accuracy in Media (AIM), a conservative media watchdog group founded by the late Reed Irvine.

Sickness and in Health

In 1998, Heston had a hip replacement and was also diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Following a course of radiation treatment, the cancer went into remission.
In August 2002, Heston publicly announced he was diagnosed with symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s disease.
In March 2005, various newspapers reported family and friends were apparently shocked by the rapid progression of his illness.
In April 2006, various news sources reported Heston's illness was at an advanced stage and his family were worried he might not survive the year.

Charlton Heston died on Saturday, April 5 2008 at his home in Beverly Hill, California, with his wife of 64 years at his side.

RIP