Charlton Heston, at 84, icon of silver screen, gun advocate

Charlton Heston won an Academy Award for "Ben Hur." (getty images/file 1959)

LOS ANGELES - Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo, and Andrew Jackson and later became an unapologetic advocate of guns and conservative causes, has died. He was 84.

Mr. Heston died Saturday at his Beverly Hills home. In 2002, Mr. Heston had stunned the entertainment world when he made a poignant videotaped address revealing he had symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's disease.

With a booming baritone voice, the tall, ruggedly handsome actor delivered his signature role as the prophet Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 biblical extravaganza "The Ten Commandments," raising a rod over his head as God miraculously parts the Red Sea.

Mr. Heston won the Academy Award for best actor in another religious blockbuster in 1959's "Ben-Hur," racing four white horses at top speed in one of cinema's legendary action sequences - the 15-minute chariot race in which his character, a proud and noble Jew, competes against his childhood Roman friend.

Late in life, Mr. Heston's stature as a political firebrand overshadowed his acting. He became demonized by gun-control advocates and liberal Hollywood when he became president of the National Rifle Association in 1998.

Mr. Heston answered his critics in a now-famous pose that mimicked Moses' parting of the Red Sea. But instead of a rod, Mr. Heston raised a flintlock and challenged his detractors to pry the rifle "from my cold, dead hands."

In addition to the chariot race and the parting of the Red Sea, Mr. Heston will be remembered for several indelible cinematic moments: playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with Orson Welles in the oil fields in "Touch of Evil," his rant at the end of "Planet of the Apes" when he sees the destruction of the Statue of Liberty, his discovery that "Soylent Green is people!" in the sci-fi hit "Soylent Green," and the dead Spanish hero on his steed in "El Cid."

The New Yorker's film critic Pauline Kael, in her review of 1968's "Planet of the Apes," wrote: "All this wouldn't be so forceful or so funny if it weren't for the use of Charlton Heston in the [leading] role. With his perfect, lean-hipped, powerful body, Heston is a god-like hero; built for strength, he is an archetype of what makes Americans win. He represents American power - and he has the profile of an eagle."

For decades, the 6-foot-2 actor was a towering figure in cinema.

"He was the screen hero of the 1950s and 1960s, a proven stayer in epics, and a pleasing combination of piercing blue eyes and tanned beefcake," David Thomson wrote in his book "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film."

Mr. Heston also was blessed by working with legendary directors such as DeMille in "The Greatest Show on Earth" and in "The Ten Commandments," Welles in "Touch of Evil," Sam Peckinpah in "Major Dundee," William Wyler in "The Big Country" and "Ben-Hur," George Stevens in "The Greatest Story Ever Told," Franklin Schaffner in "The War Lord" and "Planet of the Apes," and Anthony Mann in "El Cid."

"Four or five of those men would be on anybody's all-time great list," Mr. Heston said in a 1983 interview. "And if I picked up one scrap, one piece of business, from each of them, then today I would be a hell of a director."

John Charles Carter was born Oct. 4, 1923, in Evanston, Ill. His father, Russell Whitford Carter, moved the family to St. Helen, Mich., where Mr. Heston lived an almost idyllic boyhood, hunting and fishing.

He entered Northwestern University's School of Speech in 1941 on a scholarship from the drama club. While there, he fell in love with a young speech student named Lydia Clarke. They were married March 14, 1944, after he had enlisted in the Army Air Forces. Their union was one of the most durable in Hollywood, lasting 64 years in a town known for its highly publicized divorces, romances, and remarriages.

After the war, he moved to New York to become a stage actor. His professional name was a combination of his mother's maiden name, Charlton, and the last name of his stepfather, Chester Heston.

He made his Broadway debut opposite legendary stage actress Katharine Cornell in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" as Proculeius, Caesar's aide-de-camp.

He found steady employment in the new medium of television. His big break occurred in 1949, when he appeared in the CBS live "Studio One" production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."

In 1949, he attracted the attention of veteran film producer Hal Wallis. Without an audition, Wallis signed Mr. Heston to an independent contract for five pictures with the option he could accept other roles.

His first picture for Wallis was the 1950 film noir "Dark City" opposite femme fatale Lizabeth Scott. He played a troubled World War II veteran, and the film did respectable business.

But it was his chance meeting on the Paramount Pictures lot with DeMille that propelled Mr. Heston to stardom. The role that the flamboyant director wanted him for was the rugged circus manager in the 1952 big-top spectacular, "The Greatest Show on Earth," which won the Academy Award for best picture.

Over the next three years, Mr. Heston made 11 movies, playing Buffalo Bill Cody in "Pony Express" and Andrew Jackson in "The President's Lady."

Then DeMille entered his life again, casting Mr. Heston as Moses in "The Ten Commandments."

"My choice was strikingly confirmed," DeMille wrote, "when I had a sketch made of Charlton Heston in a white beard and happened to set it beside a photograph of Michelangelo's famous statue of Moses. The resemblance was amazing; and it was not merely an external likeness."

He wasn't the only Heston in the film. His baby son, Fraser, made his screen debut as the infant Moses who is carried downstream in a basket.

"The Ten Commandments," a blockbuster hit, was followed by "Touch of Evil" and "The Big Country."

Then came "Ben-Hur."

Ironically, though it was arguably Mr. Heston's most famous role and the only one that earned him an Oscar, he was not the first actor considered. Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, and Rock Hudson were under consideration for the role of heroic Judah Ben-Hur.

The film's breathtaking chariot race, directed by legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, took five weeks to film and required 15,000 extras. The film won to win 11 Oscars, including best picture and best director for Wyler.

In 1968, Mr. Heston appeared in two vastly different roles than his fans were accustomed - one that brought him box office success and the other critical kudos.

Mr. Heston brought a quiet strength and dignity to his role as an aging cowpoke in the character-driven western "Will Penny," directed by Tom Gries. Though the film was not a commercial success, reviewers admired his understated turn. Leonard Maltin called it one of the best films on the cowboy/loner ever from Hollywood.

But Mr. Heston scored his biggest post-"Ben-Hur" success with his first foray into science fiction, playing a no-nonsense, heroic astronaut whose space capsule crashes on a planet ruled by intelligent, English-speaking apes and where humans were treated like chattel. Although he had often shown his buffed physique on screen, "Planet of the Apes" marked the first time he appeared in a nude scene.

Though many of his films in the 1970s did well at the box office, such as the sci-fi thriller "Soylent Green" and the nail-biters "Airport '75" and "Earthquake," the reviews were abysmal.

Playing larger-than-life heroes seemed to carry over into real-life politics for Mr. Heston. He was one of the major Hollywood stars who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era.

But Mr. Heston's politics soon veered right, and he became an admirer of conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who was the Republican Party nominee for president in 1964.

"My politics haven't changed - it was the Democratic Party that changed," the actor said.

Always a political animal, Mr. Heston relished his role as a lightning rod for criticism over his passionate defense of gun ownership. He once told the London Times, "In this country, if someone breaks into your house, you can shoot them. And I would do that in a second if my wife were back there sleeping and someone broke in."

In 1998, with his acting career waning, he became president of the National Rifle Association and became one of the more politically polarizing figures in America.

During his five-year reign as NRA president, Mr. Heston vowed to push the group "back into the mainstream" of American politics.

His name was so synonymous with the defense of guns and gun owners that Michael Moore sought him out for an interview in his 2002 Academy Award-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine." But the aging Mr. Heston walked out of the on-screen interview as Moore peppered him with probing questions about the nation's gun use, and the usually unflappable actor seemed angry.

Though his film work occupied most of his career, he never abandoned his theatrical roots. He was a mainstay for years on stage, especially at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, tackling everything from Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night," Robert Bolt's "A Man for All Seasons," and "Macbeth" with co-star Vanessa Redgrave.

Despite his granite-jawed mythic image, Mr. Heston was not above poking fun at himself. In the twilight of his career, he was a jovial two-time host of "Saturday Night Live," had a cameo as "the good actor" in "Wayne's World 2."

He had an uncredited appearance in ape attire in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes."

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Heston leaves a daughter, Holly Heston Rochell, and three grandchildren.