Charlton Heston Parts with His Audience at 84

When he announced in 2002 that he had Alzheimer’s Disease, Charlton Heston said, “For an actor there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can’t part with you.” Over the week-end, the man who played Moses parted with his audience at 84.

Mr. Heston was a rare creature, both a movie star and an actor. There is a difference. He had the looks that Hollywood loves, but he also was dedicated to his craft and even directed a version of “Anthony and Cleopatra.” As he aged, his career didn’t so much flame out as fade out. There were other things he wanted to do.

Most controversially, he was head of the National Rifle Association. He famously held a rifle over his head during one of their meetings and announced the Clinton administration could take his Second Amendment rights only ‘from my cold dead hands.” While this journal doesn’t agree with the NRA, Mr. Heston’s position was more thoughtful and philosophical than most of that organization’s members.

However, he wasn’t just a one-issue person. At the height of his fame in the 1960s, CNN reported, “he contributed and raised thousands of dollars in Hollywood for Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement, said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Round Table. ‘We certainly disagree with his position as NRA head and also his firm, firm, unwavering support of the unlimited right to bear arms,’ Hutchinson said. But, he added, ‘Charlton Heston was a complex individual. He lived a long time, and certainly, there were many phases. The phases we prefer to remember were certainly his contributions to Dr. King and civil rights’."

While the country won’t forget the NRA part of his life, he was primarily an actor. The role of Moses in the “Ten Commandments,” or his work in “Ben Hur” are parts that an actor dreams of winning. He himself once said, “I have lived such a wonderful life! I’ve lived enough for two people.” No less a man than Frank Sinatra said, “That guy Heston has to watch it. If he’s not careful, he’ll get actors a good name.”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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