The great movie star Charlton Heston died a couple of days ago.
Heston was never a great actor, but he was a great star.
He will always be remembered for the epics that made him a star in the first place, the late-career resurgence he experienced with his series of sci-fi films in the 1970s, and then finally, his role as a committed advocate of the NRA.
He was derided for his conservative politics towards the end of his life, and some of the things he did as an NRA president did raise some eyebrows, but forgotten in all this were the facts that he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before it was fashionable to do so and stood by the embattled great directors Orson Welles and Sam Peckinpah when the studios strongly encouraged him not to.
I remember the first time I saw Ben-Hur. They were having a revival screening in Calcutta and Dadu (my grandfather) made my uncle Abhijit Mama take me to it. It was great fun. Abhijit Mama drove fast on his motorcycle through the congested streets of Calcutta (he made sure I had a helmet), we went to one of those grand, old fashioned movie theatres (the kind they just don't make any more), enjoyed the movie (with a much-needed intermission in the middle, but no legendary little red car during that famous chariot race scene), grabbed some street food and went home. It was a grand movie, enjoyed in some truly grand settings. I will always remember that evening.
Heston became a bit of a caricature later in life, and apparently he had some fun with that himself. Good for him, you can never take yourself too seriously.
He leaves with some indelible performances in some of the best/best-remembered movies of our time.
Rest in peace.
Essential Movies
The Greatest Show on Earth [1952]
The Naked Jungle [1954]
The Ten Commandments [1956]
Touch of Evil [1958]
Ben-Hur [1959]
El Cid [1961]
55 Days at Peking [1963]
The Agony and the Ecstasy [1965]
Major Dundee [1965]
Khartoum [1966]
Planet of the Apes [1968]
The Omega Man [1971]
Soylent Green [1973]
The Three Musketeers [1973]
Airport ‘75 [1974]
Earthquake [1974]
Town and Country [2001]
LINKS
NYT Appreciation
Variety Obituary
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