Charlton Heston Dies at 84

Charlton Heston, an old-school movie star whose ruggedly handsome profile looked as good in Bibilical epics as in path-breaking science fiction, died April 5th at his home in California at 84. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's.

Heston played in more than 100 movies, in stage plays and many television roles throughout an acting career that lasted more than 60 years. He was known for careful preparation, a workmanlike approach to his craft, a deep, rich voice and a commanding physical presence. He often refused to use stunt men, and famously did most of his own work in the chariot race in Ben Hur, still one of the most thrilling action scenes ever filmed.

He was magnificent as Moses in The Ten Commandments; wonderful as Michelangelo in The Agony and The Ecstasy; and deliciously nasty as the scheming Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers and its sequel.

Regular readers know I love old sci-fi, so I'll always remember him fondly in The Planet of the Apes, Omega Man (recently remade as I Am Legend with Will Smith), and of course, the wonderfully cheesy Soylent Green.

Married to the same woman for more than 60 years, Heston was not a Hollywood party animal, but he was political. The arc of his beliefs stretched from his time as a liberal Democrat, when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild, to his later days as a conservative Republican icon and chairman of the National Rifle Association, where he uttered what may be a more famous line than any he ever delivered on screen. Holding a rifle aloft, he said those who threatened liberty could: "take it from my cold, dead hands."

Politics aside, Heston was a magnificent actor who delivered entertainment and escapism to movie-goers for three decades. He leaves an impressive body of work, and legions of devoted fans.

Heston's famous broken-nose profile, photographed in 2000/by Dan Callister, Getty Images