Charlton Heston's other legacy

By Steven Zeitchik

(Read Ray Richmond's Past Deadline blog for more on the late Charlton Heston.)

Of quirkier interest but interest nonetheless among the myriad Charlton Heston obits -- beyond the obviousness of towering talent, chiseled looks and epic-ready presence -- is how outlets are playing his political activism.

The New York Times cautiously waited until the seventh graf to mention it, and even then played it coy, mostly omitting Hollywood's reaction. "Late in life he became a staunch opponent of gun control...he proved to be a powerful campaigner," it said.

The AP, in a a separate tribute, was more direct: it cited George Bush, Nancy Reagan and John McCain ("McCain called Heston a devotee for civil and constitutional rights") in the lede graf, under the headline that he "left (a) political mark to rival (his) cinematic legacy."

Gregg Kilday and Duane Byrge in the Reporter take a more filmcentric look, waiting until the middle of the story to get into his activism in detail and then noting with more nuance than others that it "earn(ed) him both praise and castigation, especially among his Hollywood peers."

Others were more bald about the passions Heston's activism stirred. Just several grafs in, the L.A. Times noted that "Late in life, 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 Assn."

And it was the conservative Times of London that had the most political, and politicized, take. "Charlton Heston, a star who defied the Hollywood liberals, dies at [sic] 83," it said in the headline -- because, you know, that was the important point of his career -- and then going on in the lede to note with some charge the reaction his ideological costume-change brought. "Charlton Heston, the actor who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the chariot-racing hero Ben-Hur and who campaigned for the American civil rights movement, only later to infuriate Hollywood liberals with his leadership of the National Rifle Association."

Reasons for the diverging approaches have a lot to do with readership, political bent and general differences in tonality. But what all the accounts seemed to struggle with is how much to take what was either the central irony or the central achievement (depending on your point of view) of Heston's life: here was an All-American cinematic hero who had (again, depending on where you fall) either crowned or contradicted his previous triumphs during a second life in the public sphere.

For all the power of his film legacy, it's that second life that may be more resonant today. Heston was a leading man of the kind rarely seen in modern Hollywood, with his stoic and daunting screen presence as well as an increasingly rare ability for a star to open movies (see under George Clooney's box-office sputter this weekend for more).

But despite this diminished post-celebrity world, we also live in an era when stars see it as fitting and even obligatory to inject themselves into politics and causes larger than themselves, a view Heston embraced as he levered the spotlight to further his beliefs. Heston may be a throwback, but in this regard he was utterly contemporary.

Comments

[Dale Bennett]

The constant thread that runs through the late Charlton Heston's political activities is Liberty. Marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington D. C. and supporting our Second Amendment Rights are one and the same cause. The Liberty, dignity and responsibility that all Americans share in has always had a standard bearer. Mr. Heston was ours for this generation. The only voice in the entertainment industry that has attempted to pay homage to this great man is Richard Dreyfus. As it has been with so many great people, history will be kinder than his contemporaries have been.