In Memoriam: John Charles "Charlton" Heston, 1924-2008

[thatcrazycajun]

With thanks to kradical for the heads-up: Actor and conservative political activist Charlton Heston has died at the age of 84 of complications from Alzheimer's disease. MSNBC carries his obituary here, and NPR has one of its own here.

Like Keith, I choose to remember him as the talented actor he was for over five decades, and not for his notorious views on gun control or his support of the Republican Party and conservative causes. His Moses in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille-produced spectacle The Ten Commandments set the standard for portraying Biblical epic characters for generations to come, and his many other roles—in Ben-Hur, in the original Planet of the Apes, in Airport and dozens of others—earned him the Academy Award, the Kennedy Center Honors and more, and helped make him an American icon.

He had his faults, as do we all, but they were far outweighed by his virtues. For all that I may have disagreed with him strenuously on matters of public policy, I do believe he was at base a kind and decent person. He stood up for the rights of his fellow professionals as president of the Screen Actors' Guild, and by all accounts dealt with everyone he worked with like the old-fashioned gentleman he was. He was among the last relics of a bygone era in show business...and we shall not see his like again.

Comments

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

And the world loses another great actor!

[otherdeb.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that be John Charles "Charlton Heston" Carter?

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

He certainliy acted like he was of Mars in his later years.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia reports that he started life as John Charles Carter, then when his mother remarried, changed his last name to match her new one. I'm assuming that the second name was the legal one.

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

I just posted about this on Maugorn's journal, so I won't reiterate at length, but I think Heston was a good guy whose Alzheimer's disease actually had an early onset, some time in the 70s, which changed some fundamental things about his personality.

I'm afraid that I can't agree that his karmic balance sheet is in the black. When he was supporting civil rights (and gun control!) he was one voice among many, albeit a celebrated one.

But after he succumbed to the dark side of the Force, he rose to a position of profound influence in what is probably the most malevolently powerful lobbying organization in the country.

What a waste.