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Strapping star of Hollywood epics Charlton Heston has died after a long and distinguished career on screen. After struggling in his early years as an actor, his first major movie role was offered to him by Cecil B. DeMille in the Oscar-winning The Greatest Show on Earth and he never looked back. Roles in Ruby Gentry and The Naked Jungle followed, then DeMille cast him in the iconic part of Moses in The Ten Commandments, cementing his persona as the man to go to for epic tales.
After this were Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (which Heston insisted Welles be hired for), The Big Country, his Oscar-winning turn in Ben Hur, El Cid, The Greatest Story Ever Told (as John the Baptist), Major Dundee, The Agony and the Ecstasy (an unlikely Michelangelo), The War Lord, sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes (he also appreared in its sequel), Will Penny (he considered this his best performance), The Omega Man, Soylent Green, The Three Musketeers and its sequel, camp favourite Airport 1975, Earthquake, The Awakening, Tombstone, In the Mouth of Madness, True Lies and Hamlet.
He was also a strong advocate of civil rights, marching with Martin Luther King in the sixties, though as he grew older his politics moved further to the right and his career as an actor was overshadowed by his presidency of America's National Rifle Association. One of his last appearances was in Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, which did neither of them any favours. Here, we remember him as a great Hollywood star first and foremost. |
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