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Charlton Heston Dies at Age 84: “From My Cold, Dead Hands” Takes on New Meaning

by Kristen King on April 8th, 2008

Actor and gun-rights proponent Charlton Heston died on Saturday at the age of 84. He announced in 2002 that he was developing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. A specific cause of death has not been publicized.

I will always remember Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur, and of course for this performance as well:

Whether you agreed with his politics or not (and for the record, I didn’t), he definitely left an indelible mark on American society. He will be missed.

Here’s the Associated Press report of Heston’s death:

Contents © Copyright 2008 Kristen King

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4 opinions for Charlton Heston Dies at Age 84: “From My Cold, Dead Hands” Takes on New Meaning

  • Scott
    Apr 9, 2008 at 1:59 am

    I don’t care who you are…that title is funny.

    I’m not a big Gun Rights advocate. I grew up around guns all over the place. (My father was a hunter, a guide and a gun enthusiast not to mention a Viet Nam Vet.) I have never shot, thought about shooting someone (Not seriously anyway), or accidentally shot anyone. Guns don’t cause violence just like flies don’t cause garbage. Violent people cause violence and criminals will always find a way to get a gun or a weapon of any kind if they really want to. As far as gun safety goes, it is all in responsibility, teachings and training. If it wasn’t guns used in crime and violence it would just be another weapon.

  • Kristen King
    Apr 9, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks, Scott. I’m surprised no one else has commented on the title. I thought it was pretty funny myself! :)

    I like your example of flies and garbage.

  • Mark McIntire
    Apr 10, 2008 at 6:16 pm

    - Remembering Charlton Heston: The Man In The Arena

    by Mark McIntire

    April 9, 2008 11:42 AM

    Charlton Heston kept his promises. He was good to his friends. He believed in a merciful God, and he loved his country. As though that was not enough to separate him from today’s Hollywood elite, he was married, too, and lived with the same woman for over 60 years.

    Chuck well may be the last iconic gentleman of his era about whom all of the preceding statements were true.

    Many will recall Chuck’s epic stage, movie and TV triumphs, and think he actually was Moses or Ben Hur or Will Penny or Mark Antony. That would amuse as much as bemuse him. “My dad pretends to be other people for a living,” his only son, Fraser Heston, would tell his classmates.

    Chuck was an actor’s actor whose only complaint was: “I never got it right. I always thought I could have done that role better.”

    Some will recall meeting Chuck at a premiere, posh party, political convention, or just on the street. They’d be struck to find he had the same commanding presence and honest grit, and the same gentlemanly manners, on screen and off.
    He was a gentleman’s gentleman. “Daddy lives by his principles, not by the costumes he wears in movies,” his only daughter, Holly, would tell all who asked what he was really like as a person.
    Once a liberal Democrat who campaigned with Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy, Chuck later became identified with the conservatism of his friend Ronald Reagan. “I didn’t change . . . my party did,” he’d explain to those who asked about his transformation.

    Of all the things that will be written and said of Chuck now that he is dead, a most important key to his character will be overlooked. Charlton Heston derived his moral and political values from ethical principles that did not change over the course of his spectacular life. His detractors argued this only proves he was a fool. But when we look at what his detractors have accomplished in their lives by comparison, we are left with the suspicion that Chuck was no fool.
    He was a centered man, comfortable in his own skin.

    At their 50th wedding anniversary dinner, some upstart (that would be me) had the impertinence to ask his beloved wife, Lydia: “How did you manage to stay married to that man for so many years?” In her typical serenity and graciousness, she replied: “Through Chuck, I learned to keep a center of my being to myself . . . else there would be no one there for him to love.”

    The Holy Bible and the complete works of William Shakespeare were never far from Chuck’s fingertips in his study. It’s hard to think of my friend Chuck now without remembering these lines from “Romeo and Juliet,” Act 3, Scene 2:
    “And when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars. And he shall make the face of heaven so fine, that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.”

    Mark McIntire, a Santa Barbara resident, knew
    Charlton Heston for 27 years.

  • Kristen King
    Apr 10, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    That’s a very nice tribute, Mark. Thanks for sharing.

    kk

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