In Remembrance: Charlton Heston

     Charlton Heston, the Academy Award-winning actor who has appeared in memorable roles in such classics as Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Planet Of The Apes has passed away yesterday at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 83.

     Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2002, Heston withdrew from public view shortly after he announced his illness.

     While it was his rich baritone voice gave authority to his portrayal of Moses in 1956’s The Ten Commandments, it was his performance as Judah Ben-Hur, whose life as a free man and then slave is impacted by encounters with Jesus and his followers that would win Heston an Academy Award in 1959. Heston would appear in a third Biblical epic, playing John the Baptist in 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told.

     Born with the name John Carter on October 4, 1924 in Evanston, Illinois, Heston changed his name when he got into acting as it was the same as the hero of Edgar Rice Burrough’s pulp adventure novel A Princess Of Mars, which was being developed as at that time.

     Heston made his film debut in the 1950 noir Dark City. Other notable film appearances include Touch Of Evil (1958), Major Dundee, The Agony And The Ecstasy (both 1965), The Four Musketeers (1974) and the Shakespeare adaptation Hamlet (1996). His trio of science fiction films – Planet Of The Apes (1968), Soylent Green (1971) and The Omega Man (1973) – are all considered classics of the genre.

     Although his work with the National Rifle Association linked Heston with the conservative side of the political spectrum, he was an outspoken civil rights advocate. In 1963, he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., using his celebrity to draw attention to King’s work. Previously, the three television networks had not done any news reportage of King’s demonstrations.