Correction added
Academy-Award-winning actor and Northwestern alumnus Charlton Heston died Saturday at age 84, according to news reports.
He had more than 100 film roles in his 60-year career, according to the Internet Movie Database, including his breakthrough part as Moses in The Ten Commandments, and the titular role in Ben-Hur.
Heston also served as the president of the National Rifle Association. In 2000, he famously waved a replica gun above his head while shouting that people would only take away his gun rights “from my cold, dead hands!”
Born and raised in Evanston, Heston attended Northwestern University and performed in theater productions before being called to serve in World War II. It was at Northwestern where he met his future wife, Lydia Marie Clarke, who was with him when he died in his Los Angeles home.
To view clips of Heston’s films, read our post on Netplay. Northwestern’s library also summarizes Heston’s time on campus.
In their obituaries, news outlets noted Heston’s importance as an iconic American actor. The New York Times:
Mr. Heston’s screen presence was so commanding that he was never dominated by mammoth sets, spectacular effects or throngs of spear-waving extras. In his films, whether playing Buffalo Bill, an airline pilot, a naval captain or the commander of a spaceship, he essentially projected the same image — muscular, steely-eyed, courageous.
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.
Correction — April 6, 2008: This article originally stated that Heston died at 83. He died at age 84.