Charlton Heston: R.I.P.

Chuck Heston was a class act who will be missed. I first met the legendary actor in 1996 when he was a guest on my then talk show, The Interview. We filmed the interview on a sitting area overlooking his tennis court and had to stop filming several times because of small planes buzzing overhead. Heston repeatedly apologized to me for this as if it were his fault. After an hour or so we were done, but I discovered to my horror a few days later that because of a manufacturing glitch with the betacam tapes we had shot on, that we would need to reshoot the interview. With great trepidation I called him up and told him of my predicament, fearing the worst. No problem, he said, just come on over and we'll shoot it again he told me. Thankfully, the tape technicians salvaged the tapes and a reshoot wasn't necessary but I never forgot his gracious response. I'll be posting the interview shortly.

During the interview I noticed that he was limping a bit and he told me he had had or was going to have hip replacement surgery. A few years later when my father needed the same operation, Chuck graciously introduced me to his own doctor and my Dad got a kick out of telling the doctor and his nurses that he was there on a referral from Moses himself.

A few years later Chuck came to speak to a group of us who worked in music and met regularly. I had asked him to speak about his life and career and any advice he had for aspiring artists. Arriving at the event he said "so you want me to recite poetry right?" "Well, actually, I was just hoping you'd just talk about your life and career," I replied. Without missing a beat, he looked me straight in the eyes and repeated: "So, you want me to recite poetry right?" I nodded. Who was I to argue with Moses. It was a memorable evening, with Heston regaling us with sections he had memorized from Shakespeare and The Bible.

He was a great man. But also a good man. And he will be missed by many.

Follow Mark Joseph on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markmjm

Comments

[julieeiluj]

When i saw a brief on his life, and the fact that he was a democrat, mainly, i forgave him for his NRA error.
Moses is gone, Judah Ben Hur, Andy Jackson (oh could we use him now), Michaelangelo. Thanks for the memories.

[demlover1]

I did not agree with Mr. Heston's position on guns and his leadership of the NRA, but I didn't think he was one of our great actors. I love "The Ten Commandments" and have watched it numerous times and he was in many other great films like "Ben Hur" and so many others. I wasn't really familiar with Mr. Heston's work in the Civil Right's movment (as it was before my time), so I gained a new respect for him after finding out how supportive he was of Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement. I am sorry that he is gone. But he will live on in film forever.

[ADVOCATE4ZPG]

Heston like Kirk Douglas was more a personality that portrays rather than a skilled/artful creator of roles. Specifically, his voice quality (timbre & register) and his chiselled physiognomy stood at the base of his abilities.....

[1will]

This was a very nice column and very tasteful. It's a shame some of the author's peers on this site could not show the same character and good taste.

[pedrothemigrant]

Thank you Mr. Heston for your love of film, love of your Country, and of the Constitution. There is a reason the 2nd Amendment was put in 2nd, right after 1st.

[likwitfaded]

I guess I can pry that rifle away from him now

[Kyuzo]

The fact that there are people out there who want to confiscate other peoples' property because it makes them uncomfortable is the reason Democrats lose elections. And I'm a lifelong Democrat.

[jojojo]

Fewer guns=fewer gun deaths. It's simple, really it is.

His and NRA's support of things like AK-47s for "hunting" is a horror.

And the 2nd amendment is about having a militia to fight against a tyrannous government, not about carrying concealed handguns on college campuses.

[rfk68]

sounds like you're not a big fan of the Emancipation Proclamation.

[JoePalooka]

The candidates for our presidency had best honor this great American. The People are watching.

[monsieurjac]

Charlton Heston was a great actor. From "Touch of Evil" to the big "Epics" and the SCI-FI flicks, he always gave strong performances.
I remember watching the 4hr. version of "Hamlet" that Kenneth Branagh directed and after watching the whole film, the best and most memorable performance was Heston's.
He was the most believable in a long list of big names.
Check it out if you have 4hrs to kill sometime.
In his politics he went from way left to way right and then some.
But as an actor he nailed it every time.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

HuffPost's Pick

Mark, this is a nice post. I'm glad you got to meet Charlton. I have always argued with friends (online and off) that Heston's politics are immaterial to his artistic legacy. His legacy is quite rich. He was a great, superlative actor, one of the best Hollywood ever produced. His roles are legendary and deservedly so. He was great as Moses and Ben-Hur, but here's something to think about. When Heston was cast in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, Welles was originally only supposed to act. But Heston assumed that Welles was going to direct as well, and the studio, which did not want to anger Heston (he was a huge star at the time), let Welles direct one of his greatest films. Thank you for that, Mr. Heston.

Heston has been the subject of countless parodies (The Simpsons are quite fond of bashing him and his films), but he never lost that innate dignity he had. Just because he was president of the NRA and leaned Republican in his later years is no reason to dismiss the man's talent, grace, and legacy. Period.

I want to post this clip of Heston performing in Kenneth Branagh's film of Hamlet. Most American actors are lousy at Shakespeare (including Jack Lemmon and Billy Crystal in this very film), but Heston excelled at it. He had theatrical training before going to Hollywood, and he is magnificent as the Player King in this film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nonx0JmrcQ

[Portnoy]

Planet of the Apes, Omega Man and Soylent Green were and are three of my most favorite sci-fi movies.

I'm not a member of the NRA, but I own two guns. I haven't always agreed with their tactics.

But I thank Mr. Heston for his support of the first and second amendents.

God be with you Mr. Heston.

[asl3676]

Lets not forget Heston's work for the civil rights movement in the 60's. I recall him marching and being on stage numerous times with Dr. King..... It's unfortunate that Chuck let himself be used by the NRA but his life's work was amazing. Bless you Chuck.....

[TheNewHampshireLiberal]

It would have been interesting to hear what pushed him to the right so abruptly.

[MNCurler]

Could it be that he saw the Liberals trying to take away the second ammendment?

[hollyo]

I wondered this too. What I gathered from all the obits were these reasons;
the democrats stopped demonizing communists in the mid-sixties,
a dislike of the 60s counter-culture,
affirmative action, and the abortion issue.
He was heavily influenced by his friendship with Reagan.

[Kundera]

It's amazing how many lefties blast Bush on his ignoring the Constitution, but here was a man who defended the Constitution and you blast him. He defended civil rights, the first and second amendments and you blast him. I guess you just can't win with some people.

[Thorn]

I think it's nice that you didn't jump all over the guy, on the day of his death, like virtually everyone else on this site. Good for you.

[RonGalloway - Huffpost Blogger]

18 hours after the fact, and still no mention on the SAG website that a six term president of the organization passed on. Gee. Wonder why?

[RickTheScribe]

Thanks, Mark, for sharing your good memories of Mr. Heston. I disagreed with his gun politics, but I also remember that he was a champion of civil rights, demonstrated against segregation and marched for racial justice and equality with Dr. Martin Luther King. I also know that he was an outspoken opponent of Sen. Joe McCarthy. Too many on the left have demonized him for his gun beliefs and completely discounted all of the good things he did during his life. I suspect that many, if not most, young people think he was always some sort of right-wing kook and have no idea that he once supported Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson for president. In fact, beyond the gun issue, he never really could be pigeonholed into the far right, despite his move away from liberalism. Our disagreements with him over guns should in no way overshadow the good that he did during his lifetime. And he was one hell of an actor.

[lisakaz]

I'm glad you had a good experience. My first thought was about his NRA backing and wondering who was taking the gun from his "cold dead hands." Sorry but his timing in relation to Columbine really ruined his potential to be a "good guy" to me.

[robiform]

I agree with you, lisakaz. I grew up watching Charlton Heston in "The Ten Commandments", "Ben-Hur", et. al., and I knew that he had been involved in the civil rights movement. My respect for him as an actor never changed, but the shilling for the NRA was beyond outrageous. Unfortunately, most people won't remember the good things he did for unions (i.e. SAG) and civil rights; they will instead remember those demagogic speeches at the NRA conventions. Very sad!

[Robert59]

So you can't be a progressive and a gun rights advocate? Your thinking is what makes union members vote Republican.

Some would argue it's all the guns we have causing the high crime rate, but growing up my friends and I all had access to firearms and we never entertained the idea of using a gun for anything but hunting or protecting one's family. I can remember being the man of the house at 12 (my dad and older brother were gone), being waken up by mom that there was someone trying to get in the house, grabbing the shotgun (unloaded) I kept in my closet, and going outside to confront him.

He saw me with the 12 gauge and took off.

There are well over 100 million guns in this country, perhaps closer to 200 million and 99.99 percent of them are never used to commit crimes with.

I'm a believer in firearms registration and a nationwide database that can tell any gunseller (to include private gun owners) if the person they are selling to has a right to buy a gun. And those who shouldn't be able to buy guns are anyone who has been diagnosed as mentally ill, those who have restraining orders against them, any convictions for domestic abuse, or those with felony convictions.