Last Saturday, Charlton Heston, the star of many of the greatest epics in Hollywood history, passed away at home in Beverly Hills. While his political roles in later life garnered him almost as much attention off-screen as on, it should be for his acting that he will always be remembered and admired.
From his star-making turn as Moses in The Ten Commandments, to Ben Hur, Touch of Evil, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, Major Dundee, Khartoum, The Agony and the Ecstasy, and two film-stealing roles as Cardinal Richelieu in Richard Lester’s Musketeers... films, Heston was an always-reliable and immediately-recognizable figure. Personally, I always loved his sweeping historical sagas– as El Cid, General Gordon, Judah Ben-Hur or Major Matt Lewis, I don’t think he ever went far wrong. Sure, the films may have been anachronistic and unrealistic, but they made for fantastic viewing.
Charlton Heston was an acting legend, whose films were epics in the truest sense of the word, winning their deserved accolades on their own merits and on those of their leading man.