Charlton Heston went to claim his eternal reward yesterday, Saturday, April 5th 2008, at the age of 84.
My favorite movies by him tend to fall into the Omega Man, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes cheese category, but he also did some brilliant turns in Touch of Evil (one of my all time favorite films), Dark City, and, of course, Ben-Hur. It seemed like he never turned down a role, starring in some capacity in roughly 100 films. That's loving what you do, folks. He may not have always been at his best, but he was always at it.
There is, of course, the uncomfortable issue of the reprehensible politics (depending on your point of view, I suppose) he espoused the last 30 years of his life. What a lot of people don't know is that, in his younger years he was a civil rights activist, gun control advocate, and was passionately opposed to The Vietnam War. Something happened in the years between 1972 and 1980 that turned him completely around, but we're likely to be left only with speculation.
It doesn't matter. The man could act the shit out of a part when he wanted to and let his powerful screen presence do all the work when he didn't. More than anything he should be remembered for that.
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