Charlton Heston

Chuck, his friends called him. Born on October 4, 1924 in Everston, Illinois, Charlton Heston became a tall guy, literally (more than six feet three) and in his acting profession. With firm convictions and a passionate, determined and decisive personality, Heston was a man very much in love with his wife, the actress Lydia Clark, whom he married in 1944 and who survives him: they gave him two children, one of them, Fraser Clarke Heston . , film director. Heston was not only a great actor, but someone with a vision of the future. He kept a journal where he wrote down his thoughts and wanderings.

Heston had a strong theatrical training, not surprisingly one of his first films was a film version of William Shakespeare ‘s “Julius Caesar” . He loved to act on stage, although, for the average fan, to talk about Heston is to talk about the history of cinema. Because he acted in mythical titles, together with the greatest directors and the greatest actors. Doing an urgent review here of his dense, enviable filmography seems to me like an impossible mission. Of course there are scenes from his films that are iconic: Moses descending from Sinai with the tablets of the law inThe Ten Commandments (1956) , by Cecil B. DeMille ; Judah Ben-Hur in the chariot race ofBen-Hur (1959) , by William Wyler ; Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel (“When will you finish it?”, “When I finish it!” unforgettable exchanging with Pope Julius II) inTorment and ecstasy ; the devastated astronaut before the ruins of the Statue of Liberty on the beach in Planet of the Apes (1968) .

The actor’s cinema is associated with adventure and epic. They are there to prove itThe White Forest (1952),Buffalo Bill’s Triumph (1953),When the Marabunta Roars (1954), the great westernHorizons of Greatness (1958),The Buccaneers (1958),El Cid (1961),55 days in Peking (1963)… But his endorsement of Orson Welles for making that magnificent film noir classic calledThirst for evil (1958), where Heston brought to life with incredible authenticity a character that would be said to be improbable in him, that of an honest Mexican policeman. He would also do a great job for Sam Peckinpah in Major Dundee (1965).

In the science fiction genre, apart from the aforementioned Planet of the Apes (1968) and its sequel, and the subsequent Tim Burton remake where he made a cameo, he had a leading role inThe Last Man… Alive (1971) andWhen destiny reaches us (1973).

Charlton Heston would be blessed with an Oscar for his role as Ben-Hur, where he shot most of the dangerous scenes of the famous chariot race, in what was then the most Oscar-winning title in history, only equaled years later bytitanic andThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , many years later. He made several films under the orders of his son Fraser, including a version ofTreasure Island (1990) . His last film, from 2001, was curiously together with an alleged action hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme , in the typical example that makes true that comparisons are hateful.

Heston was a family man, and a fervent Christian. He was well known for his fierce opposition to abortion, which he considered a crime. And of his political value, where he swung from his first Democratic positions to position himself with the Republicans, his participation in Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights March, and the fact that he was president of the Union give an idea. of Actors. Although in the popular imagination he has remained above all, in regard to his public activity, his leadership in the National Rifle Association, where he defended the right to own arms granted by the US Constitution. It remains to be ashamed of that kind of hoax-joke that the filmmaker Michael Moore offered to the actor for his filmBowling for Columbine ; to show his rejection of Heston’s ideas, Moore sneaked into the actor’s house as a member of the Rifle Association wishing to interview him; those images of an old man who was already beginning to manifest his senile dementia were unworthy, regardless of the ideas of one character or another. Anyway, Charlton Heston’s cinema will remain. Moore’s remains to be seen.