Sunday, April 06, 2008

Charlton Heston, 1924-2008: R.I.P.

Charlton Heston has died.

I always enjoyed Chuck in a film. He was all ham at times, but always fun to watch. He was ferociously principled, with old-fashioned notions about virtue. He always enjoyed dying in a film, considered it the most dramatic thing an actor could do.

Here's a photo of Chuck from The Omega Man, dead at the hands of a mutant:



I think that The Omega Man sort of encapsulated Chuck's later career: out of touch with the Left, fierce advocate of gun ownership, and self-reliant always.

He married early and stayed married, for over 64 years, to his beloved Lydia, who survives him.

Here's the trailer from The Omega Man:



Thank you for all the wonderful moments, Chuck. I'll miss you.

Update: I've been reading news stories for the last hour or so and want to quote Xan Brooks in the UK Guardian:

To his detractors, Heston could be an inflexible, monolithic presence, weighed down by his own mantle of heroism and pious sense of virtue. Others took a more charitable view. Assessing the actor's cultural impact, the critic Pauline Kael hailed him as "a god-like hero, built for strength. He is an archetype of what makes Americans win. He represents American power - and he has the profile of an eagle."

That just totally encapsulates the man. Good writing, there.

Update 2: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

3 comments:

india flint said...

Soylent Green did it for me...especialy opening scene where Monsieur Heston is pedalling away on a bicycle generator to churn out a dim light from his one remaining globe...

Don M said...

He also was able to play noted homosexuals in a way that brought out their strength and integrity. 'The Agony and the Extacsy' has him struggling as an artist, well, as THE ARTIST Michelangelo.

I also like "Touch of Evil" as a Mexican police officer opposite Orson Welles. The first scene of that movie is a classic, taught in all the film classes.

Rational νεόφυτος said...

You can't escape that symbolism at the end of Omega Man of Heston in the fountain of blood... blood used to saved humanity.