Wouldn't it be nice if people really were simple? (A Charleton Heston post)

[cali]

But they're not. Heston wasn't simply a right wing dirt bag. In his earlier years he was a civil rights activist. In his later years he was a right wing hack. In short, he did a lot of good as well as perpetrating bad.

<snip>

Heston campaigned for Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960. When an Oklahoma movie theater premiering his movie was segregated, he joined a picket line outside in 1961. During the civil rights march held in Washington, D.C. in 1963, he accompanied Martin Luther King Jr.. In later speeches, Heston said he helped the civil rights cause "long before Hollywood found it fashionable." Heston planned to campaign for Lyndon Johnson, but when filming on Major Dundee went over schedule, did not.

In 1968, following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Heston appeared on The Joey Bishop Show and, along with fellow actors Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart, called for public support for President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.<8><9>

Heston saw McCarthyism and racial segregation as helping the cause of Communism worldwide, and opposed both. He also opposed the Vietnam War and voted for Richard Nixon in 1972.

By the 1980s, Heston opposed affirmative action, supported gun rights and changed his political affiliation from Democratic to Republican. He campaigned for Republicans and Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Heston 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 said CNN's telecasts from Baghdad were "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 which included the song "Cop Killer", which depicted the killing of police offiers.<10>

In 1996, Heston attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative movement organizations. There he posed for a group photo with former White Citizens Council organizer and founder of the Council of Conservative Citizens, Gordon Lee Baum, and former Republican Senator George Allen (VA), which was published in the Summer 1996 issue of the CCC's newsletter, the Citizens Informer. <11>

Heston was the President and spokesman of the NRA from 1998 until his resignation in 2003. At the 2000 NRA convention, he raised a hand-made Brooks flintlock rifle over his head and declared that presidential candidate Al Gore would take away his Second Amendment rights "from my cold, dead hands." In announcing his resignation in 2003, he again raised a rifle over his head, repeating the five famous words of his 2000 speech. He was an honorary life member.

In the 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore interviewed Heston in his home, asking him about an April, 1999 NRA meeting held in Denver, Colorado, shortly after the Columbine high school massacre. Moore criticized Heston for the perceived thoughtlessness in the timing and location of the meeting. Heston, on-camera, excused himself and walked out on the interview. Moore was later criticized for his perceived ambush of the actor.

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.<12> Heston responded by saying Clooney lacked "class," and said he felt sorry for Clooney, as Clooney had as much of a chance of developing Alzheimer's as anyone else.<13>

According to his autobiography In the Arena, Heston recognized the right of freedom of speech exercised by others. In a 1997 speech, he deplored a culture war he said was being conducted by a generation of media, educators, entertainers, and politicians against:

"...the God fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle- class Protestant-or even worse, evangelical Christian, Midwestern or Southern- or even worse, rural, apparently straight-or even worse, admitted heterosexuals, gun-owning-or even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff-or even worse, male working stiff-because, not only don’t you count, you are a down-right obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, mister, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new-America and until you do, would you mind shutting up?"<14>

In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled Winning the Cultural War, Heston expressed his disdain for political correctness, stating "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown."<15> He stated "Political correctness is tyranny with manners".<16> He went on to say that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride.

Heston opposed abortion and gave the introduction to a 1987 pro-life documentary by Bernard Nathanson called Eclipse of Reason which focuses on late-term abortions. Heston served on the Advisory Board of Accuracy in Media (AIM), a conservative media watchdog group founded by the late Reed Irvine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Heston

[baby_mouse]

1. There are people whose deaths I would welcome, but this guy isn't really one of them.

Though I found many of his opinions obectionable, he struck me always as a basically decent person. I never thought of him as being cut from the same cloth as the revolting cadre of criminals currently infesting the empowered arm of the Republicans.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. I cannot discount the good causes to which he lent his name

back in his younger days. I'm also willing to overlook a large part of his turn to the right in later life, considering his affliction with Alzheimer's (which doesn't speak well of the RW mindset, does it?).

[Raejeanowl]

3. Thank You, Cali

Thank you for being even-handed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. He danced on the graves of the kids who were killed at Columbine

That trumped every good deed he ever did, IMO.

[seabeyond]

5. he did not. he didnt agree with gun control. two different things. n/t

[Faygo Kid]

6. He did much good early, then moved to the dark side.

His early stance on civil rights, at the height of his fame, was admirable. But lives are weighed in the balance, and Heston's life tipped the scale as, overall, one that did harm. I say this with sadness, not hatred.

But that's his legacy. Some good movies, too.