I met Chuck Heston a few times years ago when he would come to a PEN fundraiser we used to give at Harry’s Bar in Century City and officiate at the Hemingway writing contest. Same old stuff. Lot of people writing “I met Harry and it was good.” That kind of thing. I looked down on Chuck in those days because he was a Republican and I thought they were mostly dumb. (Sorry, Chuck, I was the idiot.) Anyway, Heston himself was always gracious. So was I, actually, because he was, after all, Ben Hur and Moses. And besides that he was Ramon Miguel ‘Mike’ Vargas in Welles’ Touch of Evil. With a credit like that, you don’t have to do anything else. Requiescat in pace.
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15 Comments
1. David:As they say down under, good on you Roger. I have talked with many good people that disagreed with me. Heston, was a great actor, regardless of his politics.
Apr 5, 2008 - 9:46 pm 2. David Thomson:I was coincidentally talking to a friend earlier this evening about Charlton Heston’s role in “El Cid.” This was not a great film, but it was fairly good. The main thing, though, was that it dealt with the 11th Century Spanish nobleman who defeated the Islamic fascists of that era! It most likely could not be made today.
Apr 5, 2008 - 10:45 pm 3. srlucado:Think of all the great lines that we owe to Charlton Heston:
“Behold His mighty hand!”
“Soylent Green is people!”
“Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”
Who else could have delivered those lines and made them into cultural icons?
Truly a movie titan, and a great man.
Apr 6, 2008 - 5:16 am 4. S Turney:You did not mention his civil rights activism, something he did before it was a ’cause celebre.’
Apr 6, 2008 - 5:47 am 5. Jamie Irons:Roger,
When Nina and I were residents at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, our department chief was Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West, a very good guy (and a tremendous raiser of money!) who was very liberal. He was also a close friend of Heston. Like you, at that time I was inclined to wonder how anyone intelligent could be so dumb as to be the friend of a Republican, and now I see that I was the dumb one.
Jolly West is also gone now (he died several years ago). I hope there is a precinct of heaven where the two can get together for a drink and have a good laugh at the expense of narrow-mined and self-righteous types like myself in my incarnation of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Jamie Irons
Apr 6, 2008 - 7:54 am 6. Jamie Irons:Scott at Powerline has a nice tribute to Heston today, too, with a funny story about the making of Ben Hur.
Jamie Irons
Apr 6, 2008 - 8:00 am 7. Dave_Violence:Folks seem to know all the famous lines, but how about this one from “The Savage”:
I AM NOT A WHITE MAN!
Great, great film.
My favorite actor for all time.
Apr 6, 2008 - 9:08 am 8. Jamie Irons:Roger,
I agree that Touch of Evil is a superb film. I have read film critics that don’t like Heston’s performance in the film, but I found it quite effective. And the Orson Welles character is unforgettable.
“He was some kind of a man.” Indeed. Though the line was directed at Welles’ character, it obviously fits Heston, too.
Jamie Irons
Apr 6, 2008 - 9:38 am 9. TerryeL:Years ago I knew a lady who had been a hostess in a yacht club in California. Lots of movie stars came there. She would tell me stories about people like Charlton Heston. She said you could always tell when he was not working because he let his eye brows grow together. She also said he was a quiet and gracious man, always polite to the staff.
Apr 6, 2008 - 9:57 am 10. Rhod:He visited us at Cu Chi in ‘66 or ‘67. It was about the time he was doing “Khartoum”, because he still had the Chinese Gordon moustache and hair-do.
He towered over everyone but seemed to be one of us at the same time. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that’s easy to fake. It must have been genuine.
Apr 6, 2008 - 11:17 am 11. ElMondo:What a great, great man. Farewell, dear sir.
Apr 6, 2008 - 11:24 am 12. Fat Man:Heston could act. He was devoted to his craft. Kenneth Branagh cast Heston in his 1995 production of Hamlet as the Player King (”the play is the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.” — A2S2). He was terrific. Branagh had cast a bunch of stars in bit pieces in the movie: e.g. Billy Crystal as a grave digger. Jack Lemmon was a palace guard. Lemmon was embarrassing. Heston was magnificent.
Apr 6, 2008 - 12:04 pm 13. Pat Patterson:And who else could have played over his long career, Andrew Jackson, Cardinal Richelieu and Long John Silver?
And also could effortlessly get a Budweiser at a party simply by opening his hand.
Apr 6, 2008 - 12:12 pm 14. Ray Zacek:Touch of Evil is one of Heston’s best movies. From what I’ve read Welles was hired as director on Heston’s say-so. Thank you, Roger, for mentioning it. One of my personal faves too.
Apr 6, 2008 - 3:27 pm 15. Solomon:I didn’t know Branagh did Hamlet. Just added it to my Blockbuster queue. His Henry V is one of my all-time favorites (in any genre).
They don’t make em like Heston anymore.
Apr 7, 2008 - 4:19 pm