Aw. :( Even if he WAS a gun-waving nut...he still made some good flicks and was a solid human being.

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=308288>1=7701

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

There have been so many sad deaths in Hollywood lately... Charlton Heston was the man, even if couldn't stop overacting. Touch of Evil is one of my personal favorites, and his performance in Planet of the Apes is a highlight of that cheesy classic. He could make the worst dialogue sound badass.

Well he can rest in peace knowing that NAA life will pay off his mortgage* for him.

*death pledge

Soylent Green, Omega Man, Planet of the Apes, Ben Hur.  Great Flicks indeed

I didn't agree with his politics but he was a damn fine actor.  RIP

Wow, I never realized Ben Hur won so many Academy Awards... it was definitely the Titanic of it's time.

I think my most favorite Charlton Heston role ever was his tiny bit in Wayne's World 2. Seriously. It was funny yet it so accurately captured exactly what Heston was known for and that was lovely. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Wow, I never realized Ben Hur won so many Academy Awards... it was definitely the Titanic of it's time.

Dead Hands... check

Cold, Dead Hands.... check

Let the prying commence.

Hands... check

Dead Hands... check

Cold, Dead Hands.... check

Let the prying commence.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I liked this Manohla Dargis thing, centered around Touch of Evil:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/movies/07darg.html

http://www.tweetscan.com/index.php?s=charlton+hands

I didn't agree with his politics ...

Yeah, I too am always troubled by any actor's long involvement in the hierarchy of that evil union SAG. But as with everyone, you sometimes have to take the good with the bad.

He was a class act all the same even if he (and Ronald Reagan too) had found that hobnobbing with the union thugs at SAG was a resume booster of some sort.

In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. Initially a liberal Democrat, he later supported conservative politics and was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.


In 1965, Heston became president of the Screen Actors Guild. He remained in the position until 1971, the second longest tenure to date in that office

Heston campaigned for Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. Reportedly when an Oklahoma movie theater premiering his movie El Cid was segregated, he joined a picket line outside in 1961. Heston makes no reference to this in his autobiography, but describes traveling to Oklahoma City to picket segregated restaurants, much to the chagrin of Allied Artists, the producers of El Cid. During the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. In later speeches, Heston said he helped the civil rights cause, "long before Hollywood found it fashionable."

Following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Heston and actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart issued a statement calling for support of President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968. He opposed the Vietnam War and in 1969 was approached by the Democratic party to run for the U.S. Senate. (He wrote that he agonized over the decision and ultimately determined he could never give up acting.)
 

Susan

In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement.