he was.A Wonderfull actor and even more wonderful man.
A Real Mensch. Practically owned any role he took.
From Ben-Hur to El Cid to Major Dundee and Marc Anthony.
Michelangelo to " John ther Baptist " to Will Penny,also a Circus Manager
and a time travelling astronaut.
Even Jack London's wonderfull John Thorton of - Call of the Wild -.
" You hit that dog one more time,I'm gonna kill ya ".
Mostly Big Grand roles for a Big {tall at 6'3"} and very loyal man,
who married somewhat late yet,stayed loyal to his Vow,like another
great Thespian... Jimmy Stewart.
That's the kind of fella he was.Practically all business.Actually did
mean what he said.I doubt one could drudge up a role where he was
a Mr.Mom type or a Lyin braggart whose really a coward/bully.
Because that would be the Anthithesis of the Man.
Charlton Heston was ALL MAN.
Never be another like him.
Which is good.I don't want me Hero's to be easily portrayed,mimicked
or copied,just because Hollywood is short,very short on Real Men.
A little favorite movie of Heston's I like is :

- The Naked Jungle -{1954}
He plays a self-made rich plantation owner in S.America who just
ordered himself a mail-order bride.He's been so busy workin that he never
got around to a bride.The bride is a beautiful,yet soft gal who isn't
used to strong,determined males.They have to battle a real calamity.
Millions upon millions of ravaging army ants,that literally and historically
destroy everything in their path.They are headed in the direction of
the new couple's plantation.Absorbing and well-acted.

Wonder if they pried the gun out of his cold, dead fingers?


R.I.P.

Wonder if they pried the gun out of his cold, dead fingers?


R.I.P.Not cool to laugh when someone passes away, but that was very funny. :)

My two favorite Heston films are Soylent Green and The Omega Man.

goofed-up a little about Mr.Heston's " Marryin somewhat late " comment.
I remember an interview he gave,and the subject turned to his
Dating phase and girls and First Dates and some such stuff.
As if he had Girls,Chippies,Broads,Tomatoes,Babes,tOOt's,like
come'n out the wahzoo an all.
I remember him casually laughin,almost to himself,that he really
wasn't a Ladies man,at all.In point of fact,just the opposite.
He Married the first Gal that he ever dated,and was,actually a
Virgin.Er...some such stuff.
I believed him.
There IS honor in being a Male Virgin.
I just proved it.

the 66th best movie line ever-"Take your stinking paws off of me you damn dirty ape!"

"You son's of bitches! You really did it!"

RIP

From an email I received this morning... author unknown

I rarely make an issue out of the passing of an actor since I consider most of them to be superficial egotists, but with the loss of Charlton Heston last night I thought it would be interesting to pass along some of his quotes from during his life. I hope you will take a few minutes to read them and realize he was not one of the previously mentioned brain dead actors.

On cultural politics:

"I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh."

"The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of those wise old, dead, white guys who invented this country. It's true - they were white guys. So were most of the guys who died in Lincoln's name, opposing slavery in the 1860s. So, why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is Hispanic pride or black pride a good thing, while white pride conjures up shaved heads and white hoods?"

"I find my blood pressure rising when Clinton's cultural shock troops participate in homosexual rights fund raisers but boycott gun rights fund raisers - and then claim it's time to place homosexual men in tents with boy scouts and suggest that sperm-donor babies born into lesbian relationships are somehow better served."

"I didn't change. The Democratic Party slid to the Left from right under me."

"Political correctness is tyranny with manners."

"Affirmative action is a stain on the American soul."

"There is no duty more noble than that which has called you across the world in defense of freedom. Yours is a mission of hope and humanity for the oppressed. Rest assured that while pretend-patriots talk of supporting you, even as they condemn your noble cause, an unwavering vast majority of Americans share and take pride in your mission. You represent all that is good and right about America and are the true face of American patriotism. You walk in those same righteous footsteps of all those patriots who, before you, fought to preserve liberty for all. Our prayers and our personal gratitude are with you and your families. May God Bless You."
Charlton and Lydia Heston. - Message sent to the US troops in Iraq, April 2003

On acting and actors:

"Warren Beatty is non-typical of Hollywood liberals. He thinks Clinton is an idiot."

"It is not widely known that one of the finest gun collections on the West Coast is Steven Spielberg's. He shoots, but very privately."

"In Hollywood there are more gun owners in the closet than homosexuals."

After hearing an unkind remark made about his condition (Alzheimer's) by George Clooney, nephew of Rosemary Clooney: "It's funny how class can skip a generation, isn't it?"

"The great roles are always Shakespearean."

"Most people in the film community don't really understand what being politically active means. They think it is just doing interviews. I'm content that the Hollywood left thinks being a political activist means riding Air Force One and hanging out with the President."

"Somebody once approached Kirk Douglas and said they had enjoyed his performance in Ben-Hur (1959). So he said, 'That wasn't me, that was another fellow.' And the man said, 'Well, if you aren't Burt Lancaster, who the hell are you?'."

"It's ridiculous for an actor that good to keep playing Las Vegas hoods." - on Robert DeNiro

[on Richard Harris] "He's something of a fuck-up, no question."

On himself:

" 'Hard' is what I do best. I don't do 'nice.' "

"If you can't make a career out of two de Milles, you'll never do it."

"I've been killed often, on film, the stage, and the television tube. Studios insist the audience doesn't like this. It's been my experience that it makes them unhappy, but that's not the same thing. In any event, they often attend those undertakings where I come to a violent end even more enthusiastically than they do those where I survive. There may be a message for me somewhere there."

"I'm pissed off when Indians say they're Native Americans! I'm a Native American, for chrisakes!"

"My Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fans: My physicians have recently told me I may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease. So ... I wanted to prepare a few words for you now, because when the time comes, I may not be able to. I've lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I've found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor there's no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway. I'm neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I'm still the fighter that Dr. King and JFK and Ronald Reagan knew, but it's a fight I must someday call a draw. I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure. Please feel no sympathy for me. I don't. I just may be a little less accessible to you, despite my wishes. I also want you to know that I'm grateful beyond measure. My life has been blessed with good fortune. I'm grateful that I was born in America, that cradle of freedom and opportunity, where a kid from the Michigan Northwoods can work hard and make something of his life. I'm grateful for the gift of the greatest words ever written, that let me share with you the infinite scope of the human experience. As an actor, I'm thankful that I've lived not one life, but many. Above all, I'm proud of my family ... my wife Lydia, the queen of my heart, my children, Fraser and Holly, and my beloved grandchildren, Jack, Ridley and Charlie. They're my biggest fans, my toughest critics and my proudest achievement. Through them, I can touch immortality. Finally, I'm confident about the future of America. I believe in you. I know that the future of our country, our culture and our children is in good hands. I know you will continue to meet adversity with strength and resilience, as our ancestors did, and come through with flying colors - the ones on Old Glory. William Shakespeare, at the end of his career, wrote his farewell through the words of Prospero, in "The Tempest". It ends like this: 'Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.' Thank you, and God bless you, everyone." (9 August 2002)

"It's been quite a ride. I loved every minute of it."

Charlton Heston
10/4/1924 - 4/5/2008

Charlton Heston was a MAN!

I'll always love him as Judah Ben-Hur. He did his own stunts in that movie (chariot racing). He claimed he wasn't any good as a charioteer but he looked like a dandy driver to me.--But let's not forget those magnificent pure-white Arabians.

The chariot race remains my all time favorite scene in any movie. I read somewhere it took half a year to film, and they did not use dummies or computer graphics. (As a matter of fact, they tried a dummy in the scene where Messala gets run over by his own horses. The director, when asked what it looked like, said, "Like a dummy getting run over".

The set builders built an actual Coliseum-like arena, and imported the same kind of sand used in the Classical races. A great, great scene, in a magnificent move, starring the great Mr. Heston in a role for the ages.

(PS .General Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben Hur, always stated that if the story he wrote should ever be acted on stage or filmed, he had but one stipulation--that the face of Jesus of Nazareth should never be shown.

Rip