Charlton Heston, R.I.P.
Charlton Helston has died.
It was 48 years ago yesterday that Ben Hur swept the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Mr. Heston was a long-time political activist:
In his earlier years, Heston was a liberal Democrat, campaigning for Presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. A civil rights activist, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963, even going so far as to wear a sign that read "All Men Are Created Equal". Heston later claimed it a point of pride that he helped in the civil rights cause "long before Hollywood found it fashionable", as he often says in his speeches. Heston had also planned to campaign for Lyndon Johnson, but was unable to do so when filming on Major Dundee went over schedule.
More...
In 1968, following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Heston appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and, along with fellow actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart, called for public support for President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.
He was also an opponent of McCarthyism and racial segregation, which he saw as only helping the cause of Communism worldwide. He opposed the Vietnam War and considered Richard Nixon a disaster for America. He turned down John Wayne's offer of a role in The Alamo, because the film was a right-wing allegory for the Cold War[citation needed].
He later became much more conservative and was the President of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.
Obituary from the New York Times here.
R.I.P., Charlton Heston
| < Hillary and Obama Speak at Montana Dems Dinner | Hillary in Oregon: It's a Contest, Not a Coronation > |
