Obama, disagreeing with the D.C. government and gun control advocates, declares that the Second Amendment's "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applies to individuals, not just the "well regulated militia" in the amendment. In the next breath, he asserts that this constitutional guarantee does not preclude local "common sense" restrictions on firearms. Does the draconian prohibition in Washington fit that description? My attempts to get an answer have proved unavailing. The front-running Democratic presidential candidate is doing the gun dance.
That is a dance that many Democrats do, as revealed in private conversation with party strategists. As urban liberals, they reject constitutional protection for gun owners. As campaign managers, they want to avoid the fate of the many Democratic candidates who have lost elections because of gun control advocacy. The party's House leadership last year pulled from the floor a bill for a congressional seat for the District to protect Democratic members from having to vote on a Republican amendment against the D.C. gun law.
Hillary Clinton has extolled the Second Amendment, though not to the degree Obama has. Campaigning at Iowa's Cornell College on Dec. 5, he asserted that the Second Amendment "is an individual right and not just a right of the militia." He has repeated that formulation along the primary trail, declaring at a Milwaukee news conference before the Feb. 19 Wisconsin primary: "I believe the Second Amendment means something. . . . There is an individual right to bear arms."
That would imply that the D.C. gun law is unconstitutional. Mayor Adrian Fenty's brief to the Supreme Court rests on the proposition that the Second Amendment "protects the possession and use of guns only in service of an organized militia." Consequently, I concluded in a March 13 column about the case that Obama had "weighed in against the D.C. law."
On March 24, a reader wrote in an e-mail to The Post that "Obama supports the D.C. law" and demanded a correction. That was based on an Associated Press account of Obama's Milwaukee news conference asserting that "he voiced support for the District of Columbia's ban on handguns." In fact, all he said he was: "The notion that somehow local jurisdictions can't initiate gun safety laws to deal with gang-bangers and random shootings on the street isn't borne out by our Constitution."
That leaves Obama unrevealed on the D.C. law. In response to my inquiry about his specific position, Obama's campaign e-mailed me a one-paragraph answer: Obama believes that while the "Second Amendment creates an individual right, . . . he also believes that the Constitution permits federal, state and local government to adopt reasonable and common sense gun safety measures." Though the paragraph is titled "Obama on the D.C. Court case," that specific gun ban is never mentioned. I tried again last week, without success, to learn Obama's position before writing this column.
Obama's dance on gun rights is part of his evolution from the radical young Illinois state legislator he once was. He was recorded in a 1996 questionnaire as advocating a ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns (a position he has since disavowed). He was on the board of the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, which takes an aggressive gun control position, and in 2000 considered becoming its full-time president. In 2006, he voted with an 84 to 16 majority (and against Clinton) to prohibit confiscation of firearms during an emergency, but that is his only pro-gun vote in Springfield or Washington. The National Rifle Association grades his voting record (and Clinton's) an "F."
There is no anti-gun litmus test for Democrats. In 2006, Ted Strickland was elected governor of Ohio and Bob Casey U.S. senator from Pennsylvania with NRA grades of "A." Following their model, Obama talks about the rights of "Americans to protect their families." He has not yet stated whether that right should exist in Washington.
© 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.
Monday, April 7, 2008
NRA, SAG React To Charlton Heston's Death
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- The National Rifle Association says 80 million gun owners have lost a friend with the passing of Oscar-winning actor Charlton Heston, who died over the weekend at the age of 84.
Images: Charlton Heston | Video
Images: Recent Notable Deaths
Heston, who won the best actor Oscar in 1959 for "Ben-Hur" and may be best remembered for playing Moses in "The Ten Commandments," died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, with his wife of 64 years, Lydia, at his side, a family spokesman said.
A one-time Democrat who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C., in 1963, but later became a conservative, Heston, a lifelong National Rifle Association member, became NRA president in 1998 -- and a lightning rod for gun issues. His tenure at the NRA ended in 2003. The previous year, he announced he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. In 2000, he stirred controversy when he held a musket over his head at an NRA convention and defied then-Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore to pry it "from my cold, dead hands."
Heston galvanized gun owners, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush once credited him for helping his brother, George W. Bush, win the presidency.
"...My heart is heavy with the loss of Charlton Heston," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a statement.
"America has lost a great patriot. The Second Amendment has lost a faithful friend. So have I, and so have 4 million NRA members and 80 million gun owners."
Also praising Heston was the Screen Actors Guild. Heston was SAG's 16th president, serving from 1965 to 1971. He was an active member since receiving his SAG card in 1950.
SAG said in a statement that Heston was "an actor of astonishing talent, a capable and visionary union leader and, above all, a man of dignity and grace."
He often played fictional and historical heroes, including Moses in "The Ten Commandments" (1956), "El Cid" (1961), Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) and "Julius Caesar" (1950).
Other memorable roles include a marooned astronaut in "Planet of the Apes" (1968), a detective in "Soylent Green" (1973) and Robert Neville in "The Omega Man" (1971).
He also played a Mexican policeman in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" (1958).
Heston's TV credits include "Dynasty" and its spinoff, "The Colbys."
"I have lived such a wonderful life. I've lived enough for two people," Heston once said, according to a family statement.
"To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support," the statement said.
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life ... known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played... We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humor."
Heston was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Ill., on Oct. 4, 1923. His parents divorced when he was 10 and his mother married Chester Heston.
In 1944, he left college and enlisted in the Army Air Force. That same year, while in the service, he married fellow Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clark.
He made more than 100 movies and won an Academy Award for best actor for the title role in "Ben-Hur" (1959).
In July 2003, Heston received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Bush at the White House.
"Laura and I are saddened by the death of our friend, Charlton Heston," Bush said in a statement on Sunday. "Charlton Heston was one of the most successful actors in movie history and a strong advocate for liberty.
"Widely acclaimed for his long, award-winning film career, he also had a profound impact off the screen. He served his country during World War II, marched in the civil rights movement, led a labor union and vigorously defended Americans' Second Amendment rights. He was a man of character and integrity, with a big heart."
Former first lady Nancy Reagan called Heston a hero.
"I will never forget Chuck as a hero on the big screen in the roles he played, but more importantly, I considered him a hero in life for the many times he stepped up to support Ronnie in whatever he was doing," she said. "We were honored to know Chuck as a friend."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also praised the actor, saying that he "entertained millions of people around the world during his legendary film career and his many larger-than-life roles will live on forever."
The governor added that "I had the privilege of working with him in my movie 'True Lies,' and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and his wonder family."
Heston is survived by his wife; two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell; and three grandchildren, Jack Alexander Heston, Ridley Rochell and Charlie Rochell.
A private memorial service will be held. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund at 22212 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 300, Woodland Hills, CA 91364.
Copyright 2008 by KNBC.com and KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Images: Charlton Heston | Video
Images: Recent Notable Deaths
Heston, who won the best actor Oscar in 1959 for "Ben-Hur" and may be best remembered for playing Moses in "The Ten Commandments," died Saturday at his home in Beverly Hills, with his wife of 64 years, Lydia, at his side, a family spokesman said.
A one-time Democrat who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C., in 1963, but later became a conservative, Heston, a lifelong National Rifle Association member, became NRA president in 1998 -- and a lightning rod for gun issues. His tenure at the NRA ended in 2003. The previous year, he announced he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease. In 2000, he stirred controversy when he held a musket over his head at an NRA convention and defied then-Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore to pry it "from my cold, dead hands."
Heston galvanized gun owners, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush once credited him for helping his brother, George W. Bush, win the presidency.
"...My heart is heavy with the loss of Charlton Heston," NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a statement.
"America has lost a great patriot. The Second Amendment has lost a faithful friend. So have I, and so have 4 million NRA members and 80 million gun owners."
Also praising Heston was the Screen Actors Guild. Heston was SAG's 16th president, serving from 1965 to 1971. He was an active member since receiving his SAG card in 1950.
SAG said in a statement that Heston was "an actor of astonishing talent, a capable and visionary union leader and, above all, a man of dignity and grace."
He often played fictional and historical heroes, including Moses in "The Ten Commandments" (1956), "El Cid" (1961), Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) and "Julius Caesar" (1950).
Other memorable roles include a marooned astronaut in "Planet of the Apes" (1968), a detective in "Soylent Green" (1973) and Robert Neville in "The Omega Man" (1971).
He also played a Mexican policeman in Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" (1958).
Heston's TV credits include "Dynasty" and its spinoff, "The Colbys."
"I have lived such a wonderful life. I've lived enough for two people," Heston once said, according to a family statement.
"To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support," the statement said.
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life ... known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played... We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humor."
Heston was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Ill., on Oct. 4, 1923. His parents divorced when he was 10 and his mother married Chester Heston.
In 1944, he left college and enlisted in the Army Air Force. That same year, while in the service, he married fellow Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clark.
He made more than 100 movies and won an Academy Award for best actor for the title role in "Ben-Hur" (1959).
In July 2003, Heston received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, from President Bush at the White House.
"Laura and I are saddened by the death of our friend, Charlton Heston," Bush said in a statement on Sunday. "Charlton Heston was one of the most successful actors in movie history and a strong advocate for liberty.
"Widely acclaimed for his long, award-winning film career, he also had a profound impact off the screen. He served his country during World War II, marched in the civil rights movement, led a labor union and vigorously defended Americans' Second Amendment rights. He was a man of character and integrity, with a big heart."
Former first lady Nancy Reagan called Heston a hero.
"I will never forget Chuck as a hero on the big screen in the roles he played, but more importantly, I considered him a hero in life for the many times he stepped up to support Ronnie in whatever he was doing," she said. "We were honored to know Chuck as a friend."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also praised the actor, saying that he "entertained millions of people around the world during his legendary film career and his many larger-than-life roles will live on forever."
The governor added that "I had the privilege of working with him in my movie 'True Lies,' and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him and his wonder family."
Heston is survived by his wife; two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell; and three grandchildren, Jack Alexander Heston, Ridley Rochell and Charlie Rochell.
A private memorial service will be held. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund at 22212 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 300, Woodland Hills, CA 91364.
Copyright 2008 by KNBC.com and KNBC (NBC4 Los Angeles). All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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For Actor Charlton Heston, Gun Rights Were 11th Commandment
WASHINGTON — Charlton Heston brought 10 commandments to the big screen and an 11th to big politics: Thou shalt not abridge gun rights.
He was much like Ronald Reagan, minus the presidency. Both were actors and union leaders whose politics switched to the right over time.
Both became strangers to Hollywood's Democratic mainstream. Both walked into an Alzheimer's twilight.
But Heston's conservatism was put to a more pointed, nearly single-issue use, as president of the National Rifle Association. To gun control activists, Heston stepped forward as a reassuring face for a movement they consider extremist, aggressive and sophisticated.
As Moses in the movies, he clutched the Ten Commandments to summon his followers. On the tablet of his political life, he carved the Second Amendment.
Heston was not just the public face of the gun-rights movement but a good deal of the fire in its belly during a transformational time in the decades-old debate.
He lived to see Democrats running away from a cause they once embraced, scared off by the likelihood that they lost the 2000 presidential election in part because of their gun-control advocacy.
For a conservative champion like Heston, that was pretty close to the Promised Land.
His death at age 84 brought tributes Sunday from public figures whose fortunes were linked in some way to his.
President Bush praised his commitment to liberty. Former first lady Nancy Reagan remembered Heston's long association with her late husband.
The most telling tribute may have come in 2003, when Heston stepped down after five years as president of the NRA, enfeebled by symptoms of Alzheimer's.
"Were it not for your active involvement," Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told him, "it's safe to say my brother may not have been president of the United States."
It was in the 2000 campaign that the NRA went after Democratic candidate Al Gore with a vengeance built up over years of confrontation with the Clinton administration and its "jack-booted government thugs," as others put it.
Heston may have had too regal a bearing to use such incendiary words. But in attacking a Democrat who favored mandatory photo ID licenses for future handgun buyers, Heston held little else back.
Heston held a musket dramatically above his head and dared Gore from afar to pry it "from my cold dead hands."
Gore lost blue-collar votes to Bush in an election so close any setback was perilous.
The key finding from 2000: About half of voters were from gun-owning households, and they voted for Bush by 61 percent to 36 percent. Voters from households without guns backed Gore 58-39.
Ever since, Democrats in presidential and many congressional and governors' races have scrambled to establish their bona fides as hunters, if they can, or as admirers of firearms or the Second Amendment if they can't.
After a student shot five people dead and then himself on the campus of Northern Illinois University in February, Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted their support for the right to bear arms.
Old positions, such as Clinton's support in 2000 for a federal requirement for state-issued photo gun licenses, were brushed aside. Clinton told an audience her dad taught her to hunt, and said to reporters that she shot a duck in Arkansas.
On his way to the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, John Kerry donned a flannel shirt and rubber boots on a hunting trip where he shot pheasants. In the 2004 campaign and again this year, John Edwards played up his hunting days.
Heston hadn't been a box-office star since the 1970s but upon his departure as NRA president, Eric Howard of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence credited him as a persuasive actor for his cause.
Heston was good at "acting as though these extreme measures -- basically, what the NRA is doing -- aren't extreme," he said.
Heston took up other issues, including violence in entertainment, and he marched for civil rights in the 1960s.
In 1992, he stunned a Time Warner annual meeting by reading aloud lyrics from an album by Body Count, a band featuring rapper Ice-T. The album included songs about killing police and sodomizing women.
"It's often been said that if Adolf Hitler came back with a hot movie synopsis, every studio in town would be after it," Heston said. "Would Warner's be among them?"
In response to such protests, Ice-T pulled the song "Cop Killer" from the album.
But gun rights are where Heston most left his mark.
He became NRA president in 1998 as the group was dealing with internal strife and hostility from Bill Clinton's administration and many in Congress. It raised its membership to 4 million members during his time as president.
After the 2000 election, Gore's campaign spokesman, Doug Hattaway, recalled flying over Gore's home state of Tennessee and overhearing two men talking in business class. "The problem with Al Gore is he'll take our guns away," one said.
"I knew we were in trouble," said Hattaway.
That exchange, it could be said, was his Holy Moses moment.
He was much like Ronald Reagan, minus the presidency. Both were actors and union leaders whose politics switched to the right over time.
Both became strangers to Hollywood's Democratic mainstream. Both walked into an Alzheimer's twilight.
But Heston's conservatism was put to a more pointed, nearly single-issue use, as president of the National Rifle Association. To gun control activists, Heston stepped forward as a reassuring face for a movement they consider extremist, aggressive and sophisticated.
As Moses in the movies, he clutched the Ten Commandments to summon his followers. On the tablet of his political life, he carved the Second Amendment.
Heston was not just the public face of the gun-rights movement but a good deal of the fire in its belly during a transformational time in the decades-old debate.
He lived to see Democrats running away from a cause they once embraced, scared off by the likelihood that they lost the 2000 presidential election in part because of their gun-control advocacy.
For a conservative champion like Heston, that was pretty close to the Promised Land.
His death at age 84 brought tributes Sunday from public figures whose fortunes were linked in some way to his.
President Bush praised his commitment to liberty. Former first lady Nancy Reagan remembered Heston's long association with her late husband.
The most telling tribute may have come in 2003, when Heston stepped down after five years as president of the NRA, enfeebled by symptoms of Alzheimer's.
"Were it not for your active involvement," Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told him, "it's safe to say my brother may not have been president of the United States."
It was in the 2000 campaign that the NRA went after Democratic candidate Al Gore with a vengeance built up over years of confrontation with the Clinton administration and its "jack-booted government thugs," as others put it.
Heston may have had too regal a bearing to use such incendiary words. But in attacking a Democrat who favored mandatory photo ID licenses for future handgun buyers, Heston held little else back.
Heston held a musket dramatically above his head and dared Gore from afar to pry it "from my cold dead hands."
Gore lost blue-collar votes to Bush in an election so close any setback was perilous.
The key finding from 2000: About half of voters were from gun-owning households, and they voted for Bush by 61 percent to 36 percent. Voters from households without guns backed Gore 58-39.
Ever since, Democrats in presidential and many congressional and governors' races have scrambled to establish their bona fides as hunters, if they can, or as admirers of firearms or the Second Amendment if they can't.
After a student shot five people dead and then himself on the campus of Northern Illinois University in February, Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted their support for the right to bear arms.
Old positions, such as Clinton's support in 2000 for a federal requirement for state-issued photo gun licenses, were brushed aside. Clinton told an audience her dad taught her to hunt, and said to reporters that she shot a duck in Arkansas.
On his way to the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, John Kerry donned a flannel shirt and rubber boots on a hunting trip where he shot pheasants. In the 2004 campaign and again this year, John Edwards played up his hunting days.
Heston hadn't been a box-office star since the 1970s but upon his departure as NRA president, Eric Howard of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence credited him as a persuasive actor for his cause.
Heston was good at "acting as though these extreme measures -- basically, what the NRA is doing -- aren't extreme," he said.
Heston took up other issues, including violence in entertainment, and he marched for civil rights in the 1960s.
In 1992, he stunned a Time Warner annual meeting by reading aloud lyrics from an album by Body Count, a band featuring rapper Ice-T. The album included songs about killing police and sodomizing women.
"It's often been said that if Adolf Hitler came back with a hot movie synopsis, every studio in town would be after it," Heston said. "Would Warner's be among them?"
In response to such protests, Ice-T pulled the song "Cop Killer" from the album.
But gun rights are where Heston most left his mark.
He became NRA president in 1998 as the group was dealing with internal strife and hostility from Bill Clinton's administration and many in Congress. It raised its membership to 4 million members during his time as president.
After the 2000 election, Gore's campaign spokesman, Doug Hattaway, recalled flying over Gore's home state of Tennessee and overhearing two men talking in business class. "The problem with Al Gore is he'll take our guns away," one said.
"I knew we were in trouble," said Hattaway.
That exchange, it could be said, was his Holy Moses moment.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Film legend Charlton Heston dead at 84
LOS ANGELES - Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.
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The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.
Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."
Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."
With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked.
The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.
In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."
Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."
Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time.
He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.
Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the midcentury. "Ben-Hur" won 11 Academy Awards, tying it for the record with the more recent "Titanic" (1997) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). Heston's other hits include: "The Ten Commandments," "El Cid," "55 Days at Peking," "Planet of the Apes" and "Earthquake."
He liked the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:
Andrew Jackson ("The President's Lady," "The Buccaneer"), Moses ("The Ten Commandments"), title role of "El Cid," John the Baptist ("The Greatest Story Ever Told"), Michelangelo ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"), General Gordon ("Khartoum"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra"), Cardinal Richelieu ("The Three Musketeers"), Henry VIII ("The Prince and the Pauper").
Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film archivist. He had the title role in "Peer Gynt" in 1942 and was Marc Antony in Bradley's 1949 version of "Julius Caesar," for which Heston was paid $50 a week.
Film producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca") spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to see what it's like."
Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, "Dark City," a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager in the all-star "The Greatest Show On Earth," named by the Motion Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952. More movies followed:
"The Savage," "Ruby Gentry," "The President's Lady," "Pony Express" (as Buffalo Bill Cody), "Arrowhead," "Bad for Each Other," "The Naked Jungle," "Secret of the Incas," "The Far Horizons" (as Clark of the Lewis and Clark trek), "The Private War of Major Benson," "Lucy Gallant."
Most were forgettable low-budget films, and Heston seemed destined to remain an undistinguished action star. His old boss DeMille rescued him.
The director had long planned a new version of "The Ten Commandments," which he had made as a silent in 1923 with a radically different approach that combined biblical and modern stories. He was struck by Heston's facial resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses, especially the similar broken nose, and put the actor through a long series of tests before giving him the role.
The Hestons' newborn, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the infant Moses in the film.
More films followed: the eccentric thriller "Touch of Evil," directed by Orson Welles; William Wyler's "The Big Country," costarring with Gregory Peck; a sea saga, "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" with Gary Cooper.
Then his greatest role: "Ben-Hur."
Heston wasn't the first to be considered for the remake of 1925 biblical epic. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson had declined the film. Heston plunged into the role, rehearsing two months for the furious chariot race.
He railed at suggestions the race had been shot with a double: "I couldn't drive it well, but that wasn't necessary. All I had to do was stay on board so they could shoot me there. I didn't have to worry; MGM guaranteed I would win the race."
The huge success of "Ben-Hur" and Heston's Oscar made him one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He combined big-screen epics like "El Cid" and "55 Days at Peking" with lesser ones such as "Diamond Head," "Will Penny" and "Airport 1975." In his later years he played cameos in such films as "Wayne's World 2" and "Tombstone."
He often returned to the theater, appearing in such plays as "A Long Day's Journey into Night" and "A Man for All Seasons." He starred as a tycoon in the prime-time soap opera, "The Colbys," a two-season spinoff of "Dynasty."
At his birth in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, his name was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Mich., where his father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Growing up in the Michigan woods with almost no playmates, young Charles read books of adventure and devised his own games while wandering the countryside with his rifle.
Charles's parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory plant superintendent in Wilmette, Ill., an upscale north Chicago suburb. Shy and feeling displaced in the big city, the boy had trouble adjusting to the new high school. He took refuge in the drama department.
"What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people," he said in a 1986 interview. "In those days I wasn't satisfied with being me."
Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a radio-gunner in the Aleutians.
In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke, and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek acting jobs. Finding none, they hired on as codirectors and principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, N.C.
Back in New York, both Hestons began finding work. With his strong 6-feet-2 build and craggily handsome face, Heston won roles in TV soap operas, plays ("Antony and Cleopatra" with Katherine Cornell) and live TV dramas such as "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Of Human Bondage."
Heston wrote several books: "The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976," published in 1978; "Beijing Diary: 1990," concerning his direction of the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" in Chinese; "In the Arena: An Autobiography," 1995; and "Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years of American Filmmaking," 1998.
Besides Fraser, who directed his father in an adventure film, "Mother Lode," the Hestons had a daughter, Holly Ann, born Aug. 2, 1961. The couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.
In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.
He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.
At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigated the company for releasing an Ice-T album that purportedly encouraged cop killing.
Heston wrote in "In the Arena" that he was proud of what he did "though now I'll surely never be offered another film by Warners, nor get a good review in Time. On the other hand, I doubt I'll get a traffic ticket very soon."
__
Associated Press writer Thomas Watkins contributed to this report.
ADVERTISEMENT
The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.
Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."
Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."
With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. "I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked.
The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.
In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."
Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."
Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time.
He engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.
Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the midcentury. "Ben-Hur" won 11 Academy Awards, tying it for the record with the more recent "Titanic" (1997) and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). Heston's other hits include: "The Ten Commandments," "El Cid," "55 Days at Peking," "Planet of the Apes" and "Earthquake."
He liked the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:
Andrew Jackson ("The President's Lady," "The Buccaneer"), Moses ("The Ten Commandments"), title role of "El Cid," John the Baptist ("The Greatest Story Ever Told"), Michelangelo ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"), General Gordon ("Khartoum"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra"), Cardinal Richelieu ("The Three Musketeers"), Henry VIII ("The Prince and the Pauper").
Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film archivist. He had the title role in "Peer Gynt" in 1942 and was Marc Antony in Bradley's 1949 version of "Julius Caesar," for which Heston was paid $50 a week.
Film producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca") spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to see what it's like."
Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, "Dark City," a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager in the all-star "The Greatest Show On Earth," named by the Motion Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952. More movies followed:
"The Savage," "Ruby Gentry," "The President's Lady," "Pony Express" (as Buffalo Bill Cody), "Arrowhead," "Bad for Each Other," "The Naked Jungle," "Secret of the Incas," "The Far Horizons" (as Clark of the Lewis and Clark trek), "The Private War of Major Benson," "Lucy Gallant."
Most were forgettable low-budget films, and Heston seemed destined to remain an undistinguished action star. His old boss DeMille rescued him.
The director had long planned a new version of "The Ten Commandments," which he had made as a silent in 1923 with a radically different approach that combined biblical and modern stories. He was struck by Heston's facial resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses, especially the similar broken nose, and put the actor through a long series of tests before giving him the role.
The Hestons' newborn, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the infant Moses in the film.
More films followed: the eccentric thriller "Touch of Evil," directed by Orson Welles; William Wyler's "The Big Country," costarring with Gregory Peck; a sea saga, "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" with Gary Cooper.
Then his greatest role: "Ben-Hur."
Heston wasn't the first to be considered for the remake of 1925 biblical epic. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson had declined the film. Heston plunged into the role, rehearsing two months for the furious chariot race.
He railed at suggestions the race had been shot with a double: "I couldn't drive it well, but that wasn't necessary. All I had to do was stay on board so they could shoot me there. I didn't have to worry; MGM guaranteed I would win the race."
The huge success of "Ben-Hur" and Heston's Oscar made him one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He combined big-screen epics like "El Cid" and "55 Days at Peking" with lesser ones such as "Diamond Head," "Will Penny" and "Airport 1975." In his later years he played cameos in such films as "Wayne's World 2" and "Tombstone."
He often returned to the theater, appearing in such plays as "A Long Day's Journey into Night" and "A Man for All Seasons." He starred as a tycoon in the prime-time soap opera, "The Colbys," a two-season spinoff of "Dynasty."
At his birth in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, his name was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Mich., where his father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Growing up in the Michigan woods with almost no playmates, young Charles read books of adventure and devised his own games while wandering the countryside with his rifle.
Charles's parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory plant superintendent in Wilmette, Ill., an upscale north Chicago suburb. Shy and feeling displaced in the big city, the boy had trouble adjusting to the new high school. He took refuge in the drama department.
"What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people," he said in a 1986 interview. "In those days I wasn't satisfied with being me."
Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a radio-gunner in the Aleutians.
In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke, and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek acting jobs. Finding none, they hired on as codirectors and principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, N.C.
Back in New York, both Hestons began finding work. With his strong 6-feet-2 build and craggily handsome face, Heston won roles in TV soap operas, plays ("Antony and Cleopatra" with Katherine Cornell) and live TV dramas such as "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Of Human Bondage."
Heston wrote several books: "The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976," published in 1978; "Beijing Diary: 1990," concerning his direction of the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" in Chinese; "In the Arena: An Autobiography," 1995; and "Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years of American Filmmaking," 1998.
Besides Fraser, who directed his father in an adventure film, "Mother Lode," the Hestons had a daughter, Holly Ann, born Aug. 2, 1961. The couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.
In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.
He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.
At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigated the company for releasing an Ice-T album that purportedly encouraged cop killing.
Heston wrote in "In the Arena" that he was proud of what he did "though now I'll surely never be offered another film by Warners, nor get a good review in Time. On the other hand, I doubt I'll get a traffic ticket very soon."
__
Associated Press writer Thomas Watkins contributed to this report.
Friday, April 4, 2008
REGION: District attorney releases statement on Oceanside shooting
OCEANSIDE ---- After nearly three weeks of silence on the shooting of a North County woman and child by an off-duty police officer, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis released a short written statement Thursday that asks the public for patience.
View the statement
"I understand the public's desire to know more facts surrounding the March 15th officer-involved shooting in Oceanside," the statement read. "But until all those facts are in, we will not rush to judgment about the guilt or innocence of either party involved ---- and neither should the public."
The statement sheds no light on the remaining questions surrounding the shooting, in which off-duty San Diego police Officer Frank White fired five shots at a silver Honda Accord driven by Oceanside resident Rachel Silva, 27, wounding her and her 8-year-old son.
The Oceanside Police Department, which is investigating the shooting, has said the incident stemmed from a traffic dispute, but have released few other details about the events that led up to the shooting. Police said Silva has declined to talk to investigators.
Gene Iredale, the attorney representing Silva, said Thursday that he continues to advise her not to speak with police.
Iredale said detectives had recently tried "rather rudely" to interview several of Silva's friends and he does not believe investigators will treat Silva fairly. Toxicology tests were ordered on Silva, but not on White, on the night of the incident. The results of the tests have not been released.
"It seems like they are more interested in convicting Ms. Silva of drunk driving than they are of investigating her and her son's shooting," Iredale said.
Oceanside police Chief Frank McCoy has repeatedly denied that his department's investigation is unfair and city officials have backed him up.
At the end of Wednesday's Oceanside City Council meeting, Mayor Jim Wood again defended the department, stating that he believed the investigation has been "very professional."
Meanwhile, residents appear increasingly frustrated that so few details have been made public.
William Carpenter, a retired electrical engineer who has lived in Oceanside since 1988, said Thursday he is "very unhappy" with the way the investigation has been handled.
"There are not circumstances where I could go into a local shopping center, fire five shots, and not go to jail," Carpenter said. "The police would not accept any explanation on my part that would keep me out of jail, but we have this police officer still out walking around."
Authorities have been mum on the reasons White gave for discharging his weapon and have also declined to say whether Silva threatened the off-duty officer in any way that might have justified the use of deadly force.
McCoy told the North County Times on March 29, that the district attorney's office has asked his office to withhold recordings of 911 calls made to the department before, during and after the shooting, which occurred in a shopping center parking lot at 155 Old Grove Road.
In her statement, Dumanis declines to discuss how her office has or has not worked with Oceanside police investigators.
"I'm not going to address questions regarding the handling of the incident or subsequent investigation by the Oceanside Police Department," the statement reads, adding "They are responsible for their own decisions and policies."
Though the statement seems to put some distance between the Oceanside police's investigation and the district attorney's office, that has not generally been the case. On Mar. 27 the Police Department released a statement that said: "The District Attorney's Office was notified and responded to the scene. Their investigators have been working very closely with our detectives."
Iredale said he is perplexed by the twin statements regarding the district attorney's office's involvement in the investigation.
"Who's doing the work? Is it the Oceanside Police Department or is it in conjunction with the DA's office?" Iredale said.
View the statement
"I understand the public's desire to know more facts surrounding the March 15th officer-involved shooting in Oceanside," the statement read. "But until all those facts are in, we will not rush to judgment about the guilt or innocence of either party involved ---- and neither should the public."
The statement sheds no light on the remaining questions surrounding the shooting, in which off-duty San Diego police Officer Frank White fired five shots at a silver Honda Accord driven by Oceanside resident Rachel Silva, 27, wounding her and her 8-year-old son.
The Oceanside Police Department, which is investigating the shooting, has said the incident stemmed from a traffic dispute, but have released few other details about the events that led up to the shooting. Police said Silva has declined to talk to investigators.
Gene Iredale, the attorney representing Silva, said Thursday that he continues to advise her not to speak with police.
Iredale said detectives had recently tried "rather rudely" to interview several of Silva's friends and he does not believe investigators will treat Silva fairly. Toxicology tests were ordered on Silva, but not on White, on the night of the incident. The results of the tests have not been released.
"It seems like they are more interested in convicting Ms. Silva of drunk driving than they are of investigating her and her son's shooting," Iredale said.
Oceanside police Chief Frank McCoy has repeatedly denied that his department's investigation is unfair and city officials have backed him up.
At the end of Wednesday's Oceanside City Council meeting, Mayor Jim Wood again defended the department, stating that he believed the investigation has been "very professional."
Meanwhile, residents appear increasingly frustrated that so few details have been made public.
William Carpenter, a retired electrical engineer who has lived in Oceanside since 1988, said Thursday he is "very unhappy" with the way the investigation has been handled.
"There are not circumstances where I could go into a local shopping center, fire five shots, and not go to jail," Carpenter said. "The police would not accept any explanation on my part that would keep me out of jail, but we have this police officer still out walking around."
Authorities have been mum on the reasons White gave for discharging his weapon and have also declined to say whether Silva threatened the off-duty officer in any way that might have justified the use of deadly force.
McCoy told the North County Times on March 29, that the district attorney's office has asked his office to withhold recordings of 911 calls made to the department before, during and after the shooting, which occurred in a shopping center parking lot at 155 Old Grove Road.
In her statement, Dumanis declines to discuss how her office has or has not worked with Oceanside police investigators.
"I'm not going to address questions regarding the handling of the incident or subsequent investigation by the Oceanside Police Department," the statement reads, adding "They are responsible for their own decisions and policies."
Though the statement seems to put some distance between the Oceanside police's investigation and the district attorney's office, that has not generally been the case. On Mar. 27 the Police Department released a statement that said: "The District Attorney's Office was notified and responded to the scene. Their investigators have been working very closely with our detectives."
Iredale said he is perplexed by the twin statements regarding the district attorney's office's involvement in the investigation.
"Who's doing the work? Is it the Oceanside Police Department or is it in conjunction with the DA's office?" Iredale said.
Statement by San Diego County District Attorney
“I understand the public’s desire to know more of the facts surrounding the March 15th officer-involved shooting in Oceanside. I share the desire to get to the truth. But until all those facts are in, we will not rush to judgment about the guilt or innocence of either party involved—and neither should the public. The District Attorney's Office is waiting for the Oceanside Police Department to complete its investigation. Once the case is turned over to our office, an independent decision on whether or not to file criminal charges will be based on the evidence and the law, not public opinion. I acknowledge that it can be frustrating to wait for the investigative process to run its course.”
“I’m not going to address questions regarding the handling of the incident or the subsequent investigation by the Oceanside Police Department. They are responsible for their own decisions and policies. However, we have a legal and ethical duty not to release any information that could jeopardize a potential prosecution. That’s why we don’t discuss ongoing investigations. The testimony of witnesses not yet interviewed could be tainted by publicly releasing facts. We must protect the rights of the individuals. I can assure you we will balance that duty with public’s right to know.”
# #
“I’m not going to address questions regarding the handling of the incident or the subsequent investigation by the Oceanside Police Department. They are responsible for their own decisions and policies. However, we have a legal and ethical duty not to release any information that could jeopardize a potential prosecution. That’s why we don’t discuss ongoing investigations. The testimony of witnesses not yet interviewed could be tainted by publicly releasing facts. We must protect the rights of the individuals. I can assure you we will balance that duty with public’s right to know.”
# #
Obama comes out against concealed carry laws. "...innocent people could get shot..." - Townhall.com
Barack Obama is embracing anti-gun policies in the run-up to a Democratic presidential debate scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.
“I am not in favor of concealed weapons,” Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. “I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.”
US Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks during an appearance at the 38th constitutional convention of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 2, 2008. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)
Related Media:
VIDEO: You Decide 2008: Clinton Challenges Obama
VIDEO: War of Words
These remarks break from Obama’s previous moderate rhetoric on gun control.
While campaigning in Idaho in February, Obama promised, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.”
Obama elaborated later that month in a political forum sponsored by ABC News and the Politico. He said: “I think it's important for us to recognize that we've got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families. We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill. We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respects the Second Amendment and people's traditions."
Obama’s tough talk on gun control may be prompted by Philadelphia-based Democratic leaders who are pressuring Clinton and Obama to adopt harder stances on gun control. This issue is expected to come up in ABC News’ Democratic debate on April 16 in Philadelphia. 32 people were shot to death on the campus of Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho April 16, 2007.
Obama’s new hardline liberal position differs from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and GOP candidate John McCain, who both are for concealed-carry.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said in a statement Obama should apologize and revise his stance. “Barack Obama ignorantly believes that legally-armed Americans are as reckless and irresponsible as the criminals with whom his political sympathies evidently law,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “He has been insisting for months he supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, but here he is now campaigning in Pennsylvania, stating essentially he would prefers Americans not exercise that right.”
Amanda Carpenter is National Political Reporter for Townhall.com.
“I am not in favor of concealed weapons,” Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. “I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.”
US Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks during an appearance at the 38th constitutional convention of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 2, 2008. REUTERS/Tim Shaffer (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)
Related Media:
VIDEO: You Decide 2008: Clinton Challenges Obama
VIDEO: War of Words
These remarks break from Obama’s previous moderate rhetoric on gun control.
While campaigning in Idaho in February, Obama promised, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.”
Obama elaborated later that month in a political forum sponsored by ABC News and the Politico. He said: “I think it's important for us to recognize that we've got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families. We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill. We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respects the Second Amendment and people's traditions."
Obama’s tough talk on gun control may be prompted by Philadelphia-based Democratic leaders who are pressuring Clinton and Obama to adopt harder stances on gun control. This issue is expected to come up in ABC News’ Democratic debate on April 16 in Philadelphia. 32 people were shot to death on the campus of Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho April 16, 2007.
Obama’s new hardline liberal position differs from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and GOP candidate John McCain, who both are for concealed-carry.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said in a statement Obama should apologize and revise his stance. “Barack Obama ignorantly believes that legally-armed Americans are as reckless and irresponsible as the criminals with whom his political sympathies evidently law,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “He has been insisting for months he supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, but here he is now campaigning in Pennsylvania, stating essentially he would prefers Americans not exercise that right.”
Amanda Carpenter is National Political Reporter for Townhall.com.
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