Screen actor Charlton Heston – who famously portrayed Moses in “The Ten Commandments” as well as Ben-Hur and starred in the original “Planet of The Apes” – died Saturday night at his home in California. He was 84 years old.
Heston’s life off the screen was an active one. He served as president of the Screen Actor’s Guild as well as chairman of the American Film Institute. He advocated for Civil Rights in the 1950s and would, in 1998, become the president of the National Rifle Association, where he coined the now-notorious phrase “from my cold, dead hands,” referring to the only way someone could take away his guns.
In 2003, President George W. Bush awarded Heston the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for a civilian.
The cause of Heston’s death is as of yet unknown, however the actor was diagnosed in 1998 with prostate cancer, which later went into remission, and in 2002, he announced he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Although we at The Lantern might not always have agreed with many of his more right-wing ideological beliefs, we certainly applaud his outstanding career in film and his activist offstage involvement in many issues he felt strongly about.
His career was certainly a legendary one, and he will be sorely missed.
