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April 06, 2008
Charlton Heston Has Passed Away
Charlton Heston died on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at his home in Beverly Hills, California with Lydia, his wife of 64 years, by his side. He was 83.
In 1944, Heston left college and enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He served for two years as a B-25 radio operator/gunner stationed in the Aleutian Islands with the Eleventh Air Force, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant.
Originally a Democrat who campaigned for Presidential candidates Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy, he gradually switched to becoming a conservative Republican during the 1960s.
His favorite food was peanut butter, and he took it with him everywhere, even overseas.
He was of English/Scottish descent.
Wrote that he switched to being a conservative Republican due to LBJ's term as President.
He campaigned for Republican candidates Ronald Reagan in 1984, George Bush in 1988 and George W. Bush in 2000.
He was an opponent of abortion and gave the introduction to an anti-abortion documentary by Bernard Nathanson called Eclipse of Reason (1980) which focuses on late-term abortions.
He was one of several prominent people to serve on the advisory board of U.S. English, a group that seeks to make English the official language of the United States.
He owns more than 400 modern and antique guns.
Some quotes by Heston:
(From a taped announcement concerning his having symptoms of Alzheimer's disease): "For an actor, there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. ... For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring to my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway."
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.......
After hearing an unkind remark made about his condition by George Clooney, nephew of Rosemary Clooney: "It's funny how class can skip a generation, isn't it?"
"I don't know the man - never met him, never even spoken to him. But I feel sorry for George Clooney - one day he may get Alzheimer's disease. I served my country in World War II. I survived that - I guess I can survive some bad words from this fellow."
"Affirmative action is a stain on the American soul."
"Political correctness is tyranny with manners."
"Here's my credo. There are no good guns, There are no bad guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a good man is no threat to anyone, except bad people."
"There is no duty more noble than that which has called you across the world in defense of freedom. Yours is a mission of hope and humanity for the oppressed. Rest assured that while pretend-patriots talk of supporting you, even as they condemn your noble cause, an unwavering vast majority of Americans share and take pride in your mission. You represent all that is good and right about America and are the true face of American patriotism. You walk in those same righteous footsteps of all those patriots who, before you, fought to preserve liberty for all. Our prayers and our personal gratitude are with you and your families. May God Bless You, Charlton and Lydia Heston." - Message sent to the US troops in Iraq, April 2003
"After spending all of last winter in armour it's a great relief to wear costume that bends." - After completing El Cid (1961)
"I have played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses. If that doesn't create an ego problem, nothing does."
"I've been killed often, on film, the stage, and the television tube. Studios insist the audience doesn't like this. It's been my experience that it makes them unhappy, but that's not the same thing. In any event, they often attend those undertakings where I come to a violent end even more enthusiastically than they do those where I survive. There may be a message for me somewhere there."
"I find my blood pressure rising when Clinton's cultural shock troops participate in homosexual rights fund raisers but boycott gun rights fund raisers - and then claim it's time to place homosexual men in tents with boy scouts and suggest that sperm-donor babies born into lesbian relationships are somehow better served."
"Mainstream America is depending on you - counting on you - to draw your sword and fight for them. These people have precious little time or resources to battle misguided Cinderella attitudes, the fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach that it's a divine duty for women to hate men, blacks who raise a militant fist with one hand, while they seek preference with the other."
"The Constitution was handed down to guide us by a bunch of those wise old, dead, white guys who invented this country. It's true - they were white guys. So were most of the guys who died in Lincoln's name, opposing slavery in the 1860s. So, why should I be ashamed of white guys? Why is Hispanic pride or black pride a good thing, while white pride conjures up shaved heads and white hoods?"
"People in the film community think being politically active means getting on Air Force One and going to dinner at the White House. I've scorned a few liberals in this town, and I get a kick out of that."
"In Hollywood there are more gun owners in the closet than homosexuals."
"The Democratic Party slid to the Left from right under me."
"America didn't trust you with their health-care system, America didn't trust you with gays in the military, America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters. And we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns." - On President Bill Clinton
Vote freedom first. Vote George W. Bush. Everything else is a distant and forgettable second place. This is the most important election since the Civil War. Al Gore, if elected, would have the power to hammer your gun rights right into oblivion. Instead of fighting redcoats, we are now fighting blue blood elitists. (2000)
"Al Gore is now saying, 'I'm with you guys on guns.' In any other time or place you'd be looking for a lynching mob."(2000)
" have spent my life in service to these two sacred sets of work - the gift of human passion in William Shakespeare and the gift of human freedom enshrined in the American bill of human rights. Tony Blair can have his body guards and the police are all allowed to defend themselves, then so should the people."
AWESOME SPEECH
Charlton Heston's speech "Winning the Cultural War".
Harvard Law School Forum
February 16, 1999
Text version of his speech.
I remember my son when he was five, explaining to his kindergarten class what his father did for a living. "My Daddy," he said, "pretends to be people." There have been quite a few of them. Prophets from the Old and New Testaments, a couple of Christian saints, generals of various nationalities and different centuries, several kings, three American presidents, a French cardinal and two geniuses, including Michelangelo. If you want the ceiling re-painted I'll do my best. There always seem to be a lot of different fellows up here. I'm never sure which one of them gets to talk. Right now, I guess I'm the guy.
As I pondered our visit tonight it struck me: if my Creator gave me the gift to connect you with the hearts and minds of those great men, then I want to use that same gift now to re-connect you with your own sense of liberty, your own freedom of thought, your own compass for what is right
Dedicating the memorial at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said of America, "We are now engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure."
Those words are true again. I believe that we are again engaged in a great civil war, a cultural war that's about to hijack your birthright to think and say what lives in your heart. I'm sure you no longer trust the pulsing lifeblood of liberty inside you, the stuff that made this country rise from wilderness into the miracle that it is.
Let me back up a little. About a year or two ago, I became president of the National Rifle Association, which protects the right to keep and bear arms of American citizens. I ran for office. I was elected, and now I serve. I serve as a moving target for the media who've called me everything from "ridiculous" and "duped" to a "brain-injured, senile, crazy old man." I know, I'm pretty old, but I sure Lord ain't senile.
As I've stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I've realized that firearms are -- are not the only issue. No, it's much, much bigger than that. I've come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain accepted thoughts and speech are mandated.
For example, I marched for civil rights with Dr. King in 1963 -- and long before Hollywood found it acceptable, I may say. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist.
I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life -- throughout my whole career. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe.
I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out the innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite.
Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution I'm talking about, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh.
From Time magazine to friends and colleagues, they're essentially saying, "Chuck, how dare you speak your mind like that. You are using language not authorized for public consumption."
But I am not afraid. If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys -- subjects bound to the British crown.
In his book, "The End of Sanity," Martin Gross writes that
"blatantly irrational behavior is rapidly being established as the norm in almost every area of human endeavor. There seem to be new customs, new rules, new anti-intellectual theories regularly twisted on us -- foisted on us from every direction. Underneath, the nation is roiling. Americans know something without a name is undermining the country, turning the mind mushy when it comes to separating truth from falsehood and right from wrong. And they don't like it."
Let me read you a few examples. At Antioch College in Ohio, young men speaking and seeking intimacy with a coed must get verbal permission at each step of the process, from kissing to petting to final, at last, copulation -- all clearly spelled out in a printed college directive.
In New Jersey, despite the death of several patients nationwide who'd been infected by dentists who had concealed their own AIDS, the state commissioner announced that health providers who are HIV-positive need not -- need not! -- tell their patients that they are infected.
At William and Mary, students tried to change the name of the school team "The Tribe" because it was supposedly insulting to local Indians, only to learn that authentic Virginia chiefs really like the name, "The Tribe."
In San Francisco, city fathers passed an ordinance protecting the rights of transvestites to cross-dress on the job, and for transsexuals to have separate toilet facilities while undergoing sex change surgery.
In New York City, kids who didn't speak a word of Spanish had been placed in bilingual classes to learn their three R's in Spanish solely because their own names sound Hispanic.
At the University of Pennsylvania, in a state where thousands died at Gettysburg opposing slavery, the president of that college officially set up segregated dormitory space for black students.
Yeah, I know, that's out of bounds now. Dr. King said "Negroes." Jimmy Baldwin and most of us on the March said "black." But it's a no-no now.
For me, hyphenated identities are awkward, particularly "Native-American." I'm a Native American, for God's sake. I also happen to be a blood-initiated brother of the Miniconjou Sioux. On my wife's side, my grandson's a twelfth generation native-American, with a capital letter on "American."
Finally, just last month, David Howard, head of the Washington D.C. Office of Public Advocate, used the word "niggardly" while talking about budgetary matters with some colleagues. Of course, "niggardly" means stingy or scanty. But within days, Howard was forced to publicly apologize and then resign.
As columnist Tony Snow wrote: "David Howard got fired because some people in public employ were morons who (a) didn't know the meaning of 'niggardly,' (b) don't know how to use a dictionary to discover the meaning, and (c) actually demanded that he apologize for their ignorance."
Now, what does all of this mean? Among other things, it means that telling us what to think has evolved into telling us what to say, so telling us what to do can't be far behind. Before you claim to be a champion of free thought, tell me: Why did political correctness originate on America's campuses? And why do you continue to -- to tolerate it? Why do you, who're supposed to debate ideas, surrender to their suppression?
Let -- Let's be honest. Who here in this room thinks your professors can say what they really believe? (Uh-huh. There's a few....) Well, that scares me to death, and it should scare you too, that the superstition of political correctness rules the halls of reason.
You are the best and the brightest. You, here in this fertile cradle of American academia, here in the castle of learning on the Charles River. You are the cream. But I submit that you and your counterparts across the land are the most socially conformed and politically silenced generation since Concord Bridge. And as long as you validate that and abide it, you are, by your grandfathers' standards, cowards.
Here's another example. Right now at more than one major university, Second Amendment scholars and researchers are being told to shut up about their findings or they'll lose their jobs. But why? Because their research findings would undermine big-city mayors' pending lawsuits that seek to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from firearm manufacturers.
Now, I don't care what you think about guns. But if you are not shocked at that, I am shocked at you. Who will guard the raw material of unfettered ideas, if not you? Democracy is dialogue. Who will defend the core values of academia, if you, the supposed soldiers of free thought and expression lay down your arms and plead, "Don't shoot me."
If you talk about race, it does not make you a racist. If you see distinctions between the genders, it does not make you sexist. If you think critically about a denomination, it does -- does not make you anti-religion. If you accept but don't celebrate homosexuality, it does not make you a homophobe.
Don't let America's universities continue to serve as incubators for this rampant epidemic of new McCarthyism. That's what it is: New McCarthyism. But, what can you do? How can anyone prevail against such pervasive social subjugation?
Well, the answer's been here all along. I learned it 36 years ago, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., standing with Dr. Martin Luther King and two hundred thousand people.
You simply disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey the social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.
I learned the awesome power of disobedience from Dr. King who learned it from Gandhi, and Thoreau, and Jesus, and every other great man who led those in the right against those with the might.
Disobedience is in our DNA. We feel innate kinship with that disobedient spirit that tossed tea into Boston Harbor, that sent Thoreau to jail, that refused to sit in the back of the bus, that protested a war in Viet Nam.
In that same spirit, I' m asking you to disavow cultural correctness with massive disobedience of rogue authority, social directives, and onerous laws that weaken personal freedom.
But be careful. It hurts. Disobedience demands that you put yourself at risk. Dr. King stood on lots of balconies. You must be willing to be humiliated, to endure the modern-day equivalent of the police dogs at Montgomery and the water Cannons at Selma. You must be willing to experience discomfort. Now, I'm not complaining, but my own decades of social activism have left their mark on me. Let me tell you a story.
A few years ago, I heard about a -- a rapper named Ice-T who was selling a CD called "Cop Killer," celebrating the ambushing and of murdering police officers. It was being marketed by none other than Time/Warner, the biggest entertainment conglomerate in the country -- in the world. Police across the country were outraged. And rightfully so. At least one of them had been murdered. But Time/Warner was stonewalling because the -- the CD was a cash cow for them, and the media were tiptoeing around because the rapper was black. I heard Time/Warner had a stockholders meeting scheduled in Beverly Hills, and I owned some shares of Time/Warner at the time, so I decided to attend the meeting.
What I did was against the advice of my family and my colleagues. I asked for the floor. To a hushed room of a thousand average American stockholders, I simply read the full lyrics of "Cop Killer" -- every vicious, vulgar, instructional word:
I got my 12-Gauge sawed-off. I got my headlights turned off. I'm about to bust some shots off. I'm about to dust some cops off.
It got worse, a lot worse. Now, I won't read the rest of it to you. But trust me, the room was a sea of shocked, frozen, blanched faces. Time/Warner executives squirmed in their chairs and stared at their shoes. They hated me for that. Then I delivered another volley of sick lyrics brimming with racist filth, where Ice-T fantasizes about sodomizing the two 12-year-old nieces of Al and Tipper Gore:
She pushed her butt against my --
No. No, I won't do to you here what I did to them. Let's just say I left the room in stunned silence. When I read the lyrics to the waiting press corps outside, one of them said, "We can't print that, you know." "I know," I said, "but Time/Warner is still selling it."
Two months later, Time/Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner Brothers, or get a good review from Time magazine. But disobedience means you have to be willing to act, not just talk.
When a mugger sues his elderly victim for defending herself, jam the switchboard of the district attorney's office. When your university is pressured -- your university -- is pressured to lower standards until 80% of the students graduate with honors, choke the halls of the Board of Regents. When an 8-year-old boy pecks a girl's cheek on the playground and then gets hauled into court for sexual harassment, march on that school and block its doorways. When someone you elected is seduced by political power and betrays you -- petition them, oust them, banish them. When Time magazine's cover portrays millennium nuts as deranged, crazy Christians holding a cross as it did last month, boycott their magazine and the products it advertises.
So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God's grace, built this country.
.
Wild Thing's comment........
Chuck Heston did a good job speaking truth to power and will be missed by many many of us. He was passionate, committed one with great faith, integrity, solid values, and presence. What a talent he was.
Nick worked with Chuck Heston on the movie "Earthquake" in 1974.
In 1982 I was working on a film called "National Lampoon Goes to the Movies". I had just pulled my car into the parking lot and it was full. So I decided to just pull out and look for a place on the streets near the set. We were filming in downtown Los Angeles. As I was backing him a man yelled for me to wait. I looked forward and it was Chuck Heston walking toward me. He leaned down as I put my window the rest of the way down and he told me that he was done with his work and was leaving and I could have his parking space.
He was so kind and a real gentlemen. We talked for a few minutes about the film I was working on and then I thanked him and will always remember how he didn't have to do any of that.
There are few left now that have been a part of the film industry that are Patriotic Americans, Chuck Heston was one of them. Rest in peace and prayers for your family.
Posted by Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 04:55 AM
Comments
He truly earned a place in Heaven at God's right hand with his eloquence and caring of others.
Truly a remarkable actor, even when he was in a loin cloth and fighting off actors in monkey suits.
God will hold Lydia and their children tight during this time.
Have no fear, he has earned a tremendous reward for his thoughtfulness, compassion and ability. No one could play Moses as he did.
Good bye old friend, rest easy--you've earned it.
Posted by: Lynn at April 6, 2008 05:44 AM
The NRA and Chuck 'Moses Ben Hur' Heston were the reasons I joined the NRA in 2000, which saw the DEFEAT of the DEFEATOCRAT SORELOSERMEN in 2000! Chuck told his NRA audience something like, "Mr. President Clinton, America can't trust you with our 21-year old daughters nor our gun rights!"
Chuck is in Heaven now and chatting with MOSES too, and with Dutch Reagan, Duke Wayne and Bob Hope.... Chuck was NOT a Hollyweirdo! Here's to Chuck, patriotism and peanut butter WT!!!
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at April 6, 2008 05:48 AM
It is sad the great ones from the Great Generation are so few in number now. Very luckily, I knew or knew of many of them. People like Charlton Heston and other movie/tv heroes like Roy Rogers, James Garner, Audie Murphy and ordinary men and women of the 40's and 50's gave me morals and character to copy.
We have many good people today. But few of them are elevated to prominence. We also have too many people today of weaker morals and constitutions. It shows in the leadership they choose/allow. I can still find heroes, especially in the military. But now the average person on the street does not seem to match up in too many ways to the average person on the street in the 50's.
Chrlton Heston portrayed great men of history. He also personally lived and promoted the American style of greatness that built America to world prominence.
Posted by: TomR at April 6, 2008 09:10 AM
Others have already expressed my feelings, and with greater skill than I could. I'll just say: God bless you, Mr. Heston, thanks for your contribution to our nation. Now you get to meet in person some of those worthies from the past whom you portrayed with such skill -- have a good laugh with the real Moses and rest well faithful American.
Posted by: PeteSuj at April 6, 2008 11:03 AM
It truly is a sad day, a fine man and an even greater American. A class act is gone.
Posted by: Jack at April 6, 2008 12:57 PM
Indeed we are losing the better part of a generation. What will kids have to look up to except liars, cheats and thieves.
The PC crap just keeps piling up. It must be hell growing up today, when a former president is charged with purjury and he defends himself with the definition of is.
Posted by: Mark at April 6, 2008 02:28 PM
Lynn exactly, there is a saying, there are actors and there are ACTORS. He was the later, and as a person he was of good character one to respect. He will be missed, I wish there were more like him, but they are almost all gone now from his era.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:42 PM
Darth those names...."Dutch Reagan, Duke Wayne and Bob Hope" along with Heston's all good guys. I love too that he loved peanut butter.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:44 PM
Tom yes, well said. I agree, I look more and more to the military for the character that is going away so fast from the civilian's we hear about.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:48 PM
PeteSuj , thatis a great way to put it. Yes now he will be meeting a lot of those he portrayed.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:51 PM
Jack yes he was a class act.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:52 PM
Mark we are all very lucky, we all knew a time before PC and so many things. I feel very blessed. We grew up in a much freeer America.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 6, 2008 11:57 PM
Back in the day the great ones played heroes to boost the feeling of patriotism in the general public, even if they couldn't serve themselves. (John Wayne-4-F) But if they COULD serve, they DID. Murphy, Stewart,Borgnine,Gable, to name just a few..even "Capt. Kangaroo" (Bob Keeshan) fought on the front in the Pacific Theater. They were men of honor.
These days all we have are cowards,and worse, fifth columnists like Penn, Clooney, and Stone...how far we have fallen...
Posted by: Delftsman3 at April 7, 2008 01:20 AM
Delftsman3, good to see you. You are so right, "how far we have fallen". We have been lucky to have lived when we have I think.
Posted by: Wild Thing at April 7, 2008 04:32 AM
