That was the first character who came to mind upon hearing the news that screen legend Charlton Heston had passed away April 5 at age 83 as a result of Alzheimer’s disease, with his wife of 64 years, Lydia Clark Heston, at his bedside.
It was always that biblical hero who defied Ramses and parted the Red Sea from “The Ten Commandments” (1956) who came to mind whenever I thought of the Oscar winning actor for “Ben-Hur” (1959). It is because ever since I was in grade school, watching “The Ten Commandments” every Easter on ABC was like a tradition.
Of course, Moses was not the only hero Heston portrayed on the big screen. Whereas Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise and Kevin Costner have often failed to convince audiences with their fake accents when portraying foreign characters, Heston was able to convince this Doubting Thomas, he could pass himself off as a Mexican narcotics official in Orson Welles film noir classic, “Touch of Evil” (1958). The crime drama was like a modern-day David versus Goliath; the little do-gooder against the likes of Welles 330-pound corrupt behemoth Sherriff Hank Quinlan. I don’t think I need to tell you in the end who won.
I admit I was never much of a fan of the “Apes” series despite the fact I loathed the idea of Hollywood doing a remake of the classic decades later in 2001. Thankfully, Heston, in a tribute to his presidency of the National Rifleman’s Association, made a clever cameo appearance as a dying ape who just happens to be only one of two primates on the planet to own a rifle.
Looking back on his film career, Heston followed the same routine when it came to choosing the kinds of roles John Wayne often did. He was always the leader; the good guy who you could always count on knowing that things would be ok in the end. Decades before Will Smith conquered the box office trying to find a cure to a deadly virus in last year’s end of the world remake, “I Am Legend” (2007), it was Heston who was “The Omega Man” (1971); humanity’s last hope of author Richard Matheson’s sci-fi novel.
Most of the time his character always lived, rarely dying on screen which he did at his behest in “Earthquake” (1974) and the WWII war movie “Midway” (1976).
When he wasn’t busy playing the big screen hero, Heston played the hero off screen fighting for such worthy causes as Civil Rights, something he later admitted wishing he had done more back in the 1960s. His hectic film schedule kept him from doing so.
Like Ronald Reagan, Heston started out as a Democrat opposing McCarthyism, racial segregation, and the Vietnam War. He admitted in his 1995 autobiography, “In the Arena”, that his political views began moving to the right when Lyndon Johnson campaigned to become president in 1964.
What I admired most about him was the way he never faltered from his political beliefs. When it came to guns, Heston summed it up best with a comment that is still relevant today considering the recent mass shootings.
My favorite controversial line of his is not the infamous “You can take my rifle ... when you pry it from my cold dead hands!” however. It is what he said about President Clinton.
"America didn't trust you with their health-care system, America didn't trust you with gays in the military, America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters. And we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."
Heston, a former World War II veteran, always knew how to counterattack someone whenever a fellow actor uttered an unkind remark, and keep his composure and humor.
When George Clooney made a joke about Heston’s illness, the actor commented "It's funny how class can skip a generation, isn't it?"
When Heston made that fateful announcement public in August 2002 that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s, he did just what you expect a “hero” to do; confront the debilitating disease head-on.
"What cannot be cured must be endured," he later said in a December 2002 interview.
When it comes to movie heroes, we’ll always have characters like Indiana Jones and the yearly assortment of superheroes from the Marvel and DC Comics franchises who we know full well will prevail in the end.
Today’s actors only play heroes a few times. What made Charlton Heston unique was he always played the role on both the big screen and off and he did it well.
That alone is worthy of an Oscar.
©4/20/08
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