Academy Award-winning actor Charlton Heston died Saturday at his Beverly Hills home at age 83 with his wife Lydia at his side. The cause of death has not been released, although the actor had been diagnosed with symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease. Heston’s filmography included: Ben-Hur, El Cid, The Omega Man, The Big Country, Touch of Evil, The Ten Commandments, Soylent Green, Earthquake, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Treasure Island, The Colbys, and Dynasty. He will be missed.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
RIP to one of the great and legendary film stars of all time.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
He is as American as the art itself. Powerful, existential, and engaging. He was the quintessential leading man. Rest in peace, your contributions to cinema have shaped the artform and will forever affect those involved.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I hope he is remembered for his appearance in Bowling for Columbine… classic!
April 5th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
A great man and actor , he has already been missed ,
see ya in the vally of christ rip
April 5th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
So you think we can now take his gun? Just kidding his movie will go down in history.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Damn dirty apes!!
April 5th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0B_UZNtEk4&feature=related
April 5th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I Loved Charlton Heston. He was my favorit movie star. I think he was an inspiration to all that wanted to be a star, but he was a star in his-self! I cried when I found out that he had died. I don’t remember the movie that he was in on the beach scene, but I know other people will! That was very beautiful! I am 54 yrs. of age and old fashioned person, so it was very exciting to me! I will keep himgive my condolance to his family! I
him in My! PRAYERS!!!
Sincereely,
Victoria Clark
April 5th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
even though i didn’t care for his politics, i cannot deny the skills. touch of evil defines masterpiece.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
The guy made me think that I too could survive a planet full of apes.
R.I.P. Charles.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
in the wake of all of the sudden ill-fated young deaths we experience year after year, such a passing should be noted above all the rest. this is how a true “movie star” goes out. charlton heston lived a full life of amazing films and has inspired us all. remember him.
April 6th, 2008 at 1:27 am
He was one of the last of a dying breed. They don’t make em like him anymore.
R.I.P. Charles.
April 6th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I just got home from the bar (yeah and then i went to /film…), the ugly lights went up and my waitress/friend says “drink up or i’m taking your beer” to which i replied, “from my cold dead hands!”
its like i have ESPN or something, damn! (dirty apes)
April 6th, 2008 at 2:56 am
Really sad. To the idiot who made the Columbine comment, run backward through a field of dicks, you worthless twat. Heston was a great American and he will be sorely missed.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:48 am
@IronMonger I salute your sentiment.
@jimbo stewart “great American” or “great actor” does not directly translate into “great human being”. Sure, he was an amazing actor, and appeared in some of the seminal film roles of the 20th century, but he was also a cantankerous old bastard who liked to appear at NRA meetings in towns which had just endured high-school shootings.
As an actor, I will always remember his incredible appearances in Ben Hur, The Omega Man, Planet Of The Apes, et al, but as a human being, it’s his appearance in Bowling For Colombine which will stick with me.
April 6th, 2008 at 5:06 am
RIP man. You were the greatest actor.
Also, off topic but has anyone noticed the amount of people passing away in Hollywood recently? Like a curse or something.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Great actor. Pretty awful person. Mixed feelings here but it is always sad when someone so talented passes away. Even with such awful politics.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:01 am
He was 84. Birth date in the english Wikipedia is wrong.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:07 am
remember - soylent green is made out of people
April 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Hi Victoria, I’m William Carlos William. I was born in Nineteen-Thirtynine. Don’t ask me how old that makes me though because my memories almost full. Anyways, you are dumb.
But I’ve found that to be a defining characteristic of the young, dandelion hearted dummies.
—
I Loved Charlton Heston. He was my favorit movie star. I think he was an inspiration to all that wanted to be a star, but he was a star in his-self! I cried when I found out that he had died. I don’t remember the movie that he was in on the beach scene, but I know other people will! That was very beautiful! I am 54 yrs. of age and old fashioned person, so it was very exciting to me! I will keep himgive my condolance to his family! I
him in My! PRAYERS!!!
Sincereely,
Victoria Clark
April 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
RIP, God bless.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:50 am
R.I.P. Mr. Heston.
I edited one of his last projects, America The Beautiful, a documentary about the places and things that make America great. It’s still not commercially released even, only available through its website. Even though I never got to meet him and was only given his audio, he was always an inspiration to me. He will be greatly missed.
April 6th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Kyle… gosh I really love America too. I love it so much that I’m voting for John McCain. Because I like what republican presidents do. They uplift the owners of banks and the executives of consumer markets above every single American that actually cares to notice their country is not being presided over by the greatest, smartest, public servant our people can provide. Its harmful the way vague but shrewdly aimed documentary’s like this keep a great big gag on the eyes and voice of objective thought and progress.
April 6th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Well his hands are now cold and dead. Ha!
April 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Good-bye to a great man and a great actor who is sorely missed. He had a voice that could thunder like God on a mountain top and the quiet intensity to hold an audience in the palm of his hand.
April 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
respect the architect
April 6th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
William, that is an awfully close-minded opinion. The documentary was actually a tour of the great natural wonders of America. Let’s please keep shrewd comments, like this and your other one away from this thread honoring a great attribute to cinema. I don’t know why you are so bitter, but this country is actually pretty great when you boil away the ugly people who try to take it over of use it for their own benefit. I find most people to be downright decent people and Charlton Heston was one of them. He had his faults, as we all do, and he voiced his opinion, as most celebrities do. It is possible to be a patriot and dislike those in power… the first patriots of this country were much like that. The documentary he narrated made me feel proud of this land I live in. Not those who power it, but this place and these people. With a few exceptions, William.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Wow, got some freedom haters in here. Regardless of an off-topic discussion, RIP.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Heston believed in all the Bill of Rights, including the 2nd. He was a real liberal, a liberal in the classical sense.
Dont judge him by whats in Michael Moores movie. Moore edits his footage to the point where the truth doesnt even exist anymore. And Im a liberal saying that, but a lair is a liar. He interviewed Heston when Heston had alzheimers disease, and misled people about the nra meeting he attended after columbine. Moore spliced together several different meetings to make Heston look as bad as possible.
I think Charlton Heston was the first of the action heroes. He was the first that then led to Eastwood, Arnold, Stallone,…. Other than some good performance and great movies thats what stands out to me about his film career. That and Ben Hur, which is the greatest Biblical epic of all time.
April 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
So long Charlton Heston. You were (insert hyperbole). You may be missed by some.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
1. Mark McIntire Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
- Remembering Charlton Heston: The Man In The Arena
by Mark McIntire
April 9, 2008 11:42 AM
Charlton Heston kept his promises. He was good to his friends. He believed in a merciful God, and he loved his country. As though that was not enough to separate him from today’s Hollywood elite, he was married, too, and lived with the same woman for over 60 years.
Chuck well may be the last iconic gentleman of his era about whom all of the preceding statements were true.
Many will recall Chuck’s epic stage, movie and TV triumphs, and think he actually was Moses or Ben Hur or Will Penny or Mark Antony. That would amuse as much as bemuse him. “My dad pretends to be other people for a living,†his only son, Fraser Heston, would tell his classmates.
Chuck was an actor’s actor whose only complaint was: “I never got it right. I always thought I could have done that role better.â€
Some will recall meeting Chuck at a premiere, posh party, political convention, or just on the street. They’d be struck to find he had the same commanding presence and honest grit, and the same gentlemanly manners, on screen and off.
He was a gentleman’s gentleman. “Daddy lives by his principles, not by the costumes he wears in movies,†his only daughter, Holly, would tell all who asked what he was really like as a person.
Once a liberal Democrat who campaigned with Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, Chuck later became identified with the conservatism of his friend Ronald Reagan. “I didn’t change . . . my party did,†he’d explain to those who asked about his transformation.
Of all the things that will be written and said of Chuck now that he is dead, a most important key to his character will be overlooked. Charlton Heston derived his moral and political values from ethical principles that did not change over the course of his spectacular life. His detractors argued this only proves he was a fool. But when we look at what his detractors have accomplished in their lives by comparison, we are left with the suspicion that Chuck was no fool. He was a centered man, comfortable in his own skin.
At their 50th wedding anniversary dinner, some upstart (that would be me) had the impertinence to ask his beloved wife, Lydia: “How did you manage to stay married to that man for so many years?†In her typical serenity and graciousness, she replied: “Through Chuck, I learned to keep a center of my being to myself . . . else there would be no one there for him to love.â€
The Holy Bible and the complete works of William Shakespeare were never far from Chuck’s fingertips in his study. It’s hard to think of my friend Chuck now without remembering these lines from “Romeo and Juliet,†Act 3, Scene 2:
“And when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars. And he shall make the face of heaven so fine, that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.â€
Mark McIntire, a Santa Barbara resident, knew
Charlton Heston for 27 years.
http://markmcintire.com
April 17th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Good riddance! Heston was a prime example of everything America stands for - and that’s exactly whay the rest of the world hates America. Maybe America wouldn’t have so many enemies if you hadn’t been bombing anyone you don’t agree with for the last sixty years.
Why don’t you Americans keep your “freedom” and stay at home. Leave the rest of the world in PEACE.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Vegan, you couldn’t possibly be more ignorant, could you? True, freedom would keep the world in peace. We don’t have freedom here any longer. As for Heston, he stood for what made America great, freedom.