Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Khunopie]

Guess you could say, in noodle-speak, he "pasta way". RIP Ben Hur

[captain kirk]

Before Will Smith in 'I am Legend' was Charlton Heston in a movie with the same storyline. Can't remember the name of it though. Good movie!

Aw, yeah, The Omega Man!

[wannago]

[crusher_of_heads]

[Rteacher]

I first remember seeing his godly classic role as Ben Hur, and he was comedically classy in his cameo role in Wayne's World 2.

His current Wikipedia article conveys the sense of a concerned, talented man who - like most people - became increasingly conservative in later life (similar to Ronald Reagon, who also served as head of the Screen Actor's Guild.)

Moreover, like Reagon, he became afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.

Here are some of the more interesting parts of his bio:

...Heston became an icon for portraying Moses in The Ten Commandments, reportedly being chosen because director Cecil B. DeMille thought he bore an uncanny resemblance to the statue of Moses by Michelangelo...

Heston played leading roles in a number of fictional and historical epics� Ben-Hur, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Agony and the Ecstasy (as Michelangelo), and Khartoum. After Burt Lancaster turned down the role of Ben-Hur, Heston accepted the role, going on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, one of eleven Oscars the film earned. (In 1995, Heston denied a claim by Ben-Hur screenwriter Gore Vidal that there is a gay subtext to the film. Vidal says he wrote the script with such an implication, but never mentioned the subtext to Heston [though he did so to Stephen Boyd, who played Ben-Hur's friend Messala].)

Heston was president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971, the longest tenure of any SAG president.

Between 1968 and 1974, Heston starred in a number of science fiction and disaster films such as Planet of the Apes (1968), Soylent Green (1971), The Omega Man (1973), and Earthquake (1974), all of which were hugely successful and have since become classic or cult films...

Heston campaigned for Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. When an Oklahoma movie theater premiering his movie was segregated, he joined a picket line outside in 1961[citation needed]. During the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr.. In later speeches, Heston said he helped the civil rights cause "long before Hollywood found it fashionable."

... 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".

Heston saw McCarthyism and racial segregation as helping the cause of Communism worldwide, and opposed both.[citation needed] He also opposed the Vietnam War and voted for Richard Nixon in 1972.

By the 1980s, Heston opposed affirmative action, supported gun rights and changed his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican. He campaigned for Republicans and Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Actor George Clooney joked about Heston having Alzheimer's Disease. When questioned, Clooney said Heston deserved whatever was said about him for his involvement with the NRA. Heston responded by saying Clooney lacked "class," and said he felt sorry for Clooney, as Clooney had as much of a chance of developing Alzheimer's as anyone else.

According to his autobiography In the Arena, Heston recognized the right of freedom of speech exercised by others. In a 1997 speech, he deplored a culture war he said was being conducted by a generation of media, educators, entertainers, and politicians against:

"...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don�t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?"

In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled "Winning the Cultural War", Heston expressed his disdain for political correctness, stating "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown." He stated "Political correctness is tyranny with manners". He went on to say that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Heston

[Adventurer]

What do you think led to Heston to change his political affiliation from Democrat to Republican? I know people generally become more conservative with age. Anyway, I definitely respected him as an actor. I loved his movies.

[ReeseDog]