Charlton Heston. R. I. P.

[Shapley]

Charlton Heston passed away over the weekend. May he rest in peace.

[jamiebk]

A great actor. He'll be missed. Such a shame about the Alzheimers.

[BigJon@Work]

Sorry, I've never found his acting to be "great." "Wooden" or “awkward” would be a better description for me.

[treebeau]

Certainly a great body of work. Even though I "like" him as an actor, I never thought of him as outstanding.

Regards,
Tim "Soylent Green is people!" B.

[jamiebk]

Yeah...I get your point and agree. His acting was not "great" within the context of say a Daniel Day Lewis etc., but he had some great roles. Moses, Ben Hur, Solent Green, etc.

(I wonder if he was buried with his gun... and if anyone will try to wrest it from his hand... (OK...in poor taste, but you know that someone is going to think of it)

[treebeau]

Well, if it's poor taste, I would have come up with it eventually.
Was trying to come up with SOMETHING. Was "rifling" through my head for comments but you "beat me to the draw."

Regards,
Tim B.

P.S. And, for what it's worth, my FAVORITE role of his was as Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstacy".

[Shapley]

He had a strong voice, and a muscular build, which made him popular for the type of roles he played. His voice made him popular as a narrator as well.

I don't recall his days as a civil-rights activist. His political activities came to my attention in the '80s, when he was a vocal supporter of Ronaldus Maximus (whom he knew from his film days) and later as the National Rifle Association spokesman.

Many of his films are classics, and he set the standard by which some characters are measured: Moses, Ben Hur, etc.,. In those films, however, the acting was secondary to the spectacle. He did perform in Shakespeare's Hamlet, but I don't know how well he did since I didn't see it. (Isn't Shakespeare the barometer used to guage one's acting ability?)

Few performers can match the roles he's played, from God to Moses, Michaelangelo to Hamlet, the last man on Earth to a skin-clad astronaut wrestling with monkeys. Quite an achievement, IMHO.

[BigJon@Work]

I agree on the amazing collection of movies he was in. It's a resume to be envied.

[barfle]

There are actors who can make the role fit them, rather than the other was around. Chuck Heston was one of those, as was John Wayne.

Whether that makes an actor great or not isn't my call. I generally found the movies he acted in to be quite enjoyable (although most of the theaters I saw them in were those strange things called "drive-ins," so immersion in the spectacle was limited), and many were very impressive.

As I do with most actors, I tend to disregard their politics - their claim to fame is in convincing us they are someone else, so politics should be a side issue (as it is with me).

He was certainly an icon of the industry, and as such he will be remembered for a long, long time.

[jamiebk]

Nice! Ben Hur music is playing now.

[Serenity]

What's his most famous quote?
"Let my people go!"

or

"Get your stinkin' paws off me you damn, dirty ape!"

[jamiebk]

What's his most famous quote?
"Let my people go!"

or

"Get your stinkin' paws off me you damn, dirty ape!"

or


"If you want to take my gun, you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands"