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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2008 > April > 06 > Entry
Charlton Heston, 1924-2008
I don’t think it is unkind to say that with the passing of Charlton Heston, we have not lost a great actor.
We have, however, lost a great star. And that is all I am here to consider. Other tributes to Heston will have to weigh his political stances, but that’s not my place. This is a movie blog, and I am here to judge solely his merit as a movie star - something only a fool would say is not significant.
What’s the difference between a great actor and a great star? As I define it, a great actor -like Marlon Brando or Katharine Hepburn - is someone who impresses you with their great range, in either one role or several. A great actor is someone who can frequently make you say “Wow - I didn’t know he/she could do that.”
A great star, on the other hand, is someone who finds a particular niche and fills it with boundless charisma. It would sell Heston short to remember him only, or even primarily, for Moses or Ben-Hur, but it is fair to say that his gift was to play larger than life characters with great brio and panache.
Heston’s image as a thunderous deity type makes it easy to forget that he once played a Mexican, and very well too, in Touch of Evil. One could reasonably argue that the star of the movie is more Orson Welles’ camera than Heston himself, but we have Heston to thank for that. The story goes that Heston insisted Welles would direct the picture, even though Welles was long a Hollywood pariah by then. For that, Heston deserves great credit.
Similarly, one could argue that the chariot race and the MGM Camera 65 widescreen process were the real stars of Ben-Hur, but I much prefer Heston in it over his work in The Ten Commandments. One of my favorite Heston stories had him remembering the 1960 Oscars, when Heston won for Ben-Hur. Before the ceremony, Jimmy Stewart, nominated himself for Anatomy of a Murder, came up to Heston and said, “I hope you win, Chuck.” His great voice trembling with emotion, Heston said, “Not many people would have meant that - Jimmy did.”
Heston always was a keen observer of Hollywood, and he once summed up the place better than anyone else when he said, “The trouble with movies as a business is that it’s an art, and the trouble with movies as art is that it’s a business.’ That quote cuts to the heart of what will probably forever dog Hollywood.
I greatly regret that I never got to see a true Charlton Heston movie in a theater on its first release. Sure, I saw him playing small roles like the one-eyed agency chief in True Lies and I heard him poking fun at his own image providing voice-overs for Armageddon or Hercules, but I never got to experience a leading Heston role first-hand.
I have, however, been lucky enough to see Touch of Evil, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Ten Commandments, El Cid, Ben Hur, The Omega Man and Planet of the Apes, all on the big screen. Not all of the movies were great, but most of them were great fun to watch. If you get a chance to see a Heston movie on the big screen, I urge you to take it.
My favorite Heston experience came during a movie marathon some years ago when a packed audience watched Planet of the Apes. Even though the print was faded to pink and badly beaten up, the movie still went over like gangbusters. When Heston growled “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape,” the crowd roared. They weren’t mocking him - they genuinely loved it.
Not many stars could earn a reaction like that one. Heston may not have run the gamut of emotions in his performances, but few stars could hold the screen with such intensity. That will remain long after this day has passed.
Some other fine Heston tributes come courtesy of critic Joe Leydon, who offers a well-balanced portrait, and from our own book blogger Vick Mickunas , who recounts interviewing him.
But I’d like to hear your tributes too. Tell me what you will remember most about Heston and his movies.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Tributes
Comments
By SRCputt
April 8, 2008 3:22 PM | Link to this
Yes, I was tired and only skimmed Eric’s article, where I missed that he used the same quote. Sorry, Eric. You are right, Heston wasn’t an actor as much as he was a star, a genuine presence on screen, much in the same way Arnold Schwarzenegger was for our generation. I loved how Heston talked about how Welles got to direct Touch of Evil. He said they were considering Welles for the role, and Heston pushed the executives with “By the way, he can direct a little, too.”By SRCputt
April 7, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this
He authored one of favorite quotes about Hollywood, which I will paraphrase because I won’t get the words exactly right. He said the problem with film as an art form is that it’s a business. And the problem with film as a business is that it’s an art form.