Damn! He was the star of EVERY movie of my youthful theater going days from PLANET OF THE APES to OMEGA MAN to SOYLENT GREEN to EARTHQUAKE (in sense-a-round) not to mention the TV showings of TEN COMMANDMENTS and BEN HUR. I wanted to BE Charlton Heston! Coming so close on the heels of Guy's death, I remember our happier times together -- on the set of TOMBSTONE, at this annual shooting contest THE CHARLTON HESTON CELEBRITY TRAPSHOOT -- the first year I attended Chuck flew onto the field before us down at the range at Cota de Casa in a helicopter and, looking out at us on a fine sunny day said, "You're welcome for the weather." he loved to play that whole god/moses beat.

Once a week, when my then wife and I felt like draining the bank account with a crazy dinner (and a babysitter at home) at the BelAir Hotel, we knew there were two things we were sure to see; The swans that graced the grounds, and Chuck Heston. Seeing him at the next table (his regular table) out to dinner, sometimes with Milius or Bob Stack and Rosemarie, or just alone with his wife Lydia or son Fraser. He loved actiong and he LOVED guns, so we were sypatico. (Shit -- while I was at Guy's service yesterday I THOUGHT of Chuck and wondered how he was -- since his Alltzheimers he had bveen locked away at home) He was my image of what a MAN should be. My buddy Frank Dietz played Chuck in all his childhood 8mm films.


But the most special moment I'll remember is sitting next to Chuck at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, watching the "world Premiere" of the restored TEN COMMANDMENTS. I leaned over and told him how excited I was to finally see the movie as it was shot, "letterboxed" not chopped off on TV. He looked back at me and said, "Johnny, we shot it 3.3" when the movie came on, projected "widescreen" I was terrified to see that he was telling me the truth -- the tops and bottoms of the film were CUT off! Credits were missing. When Yul Brynner dropped the water urn filled with blood, it just dropped out of the frame -- on TV you saw it him the ground and shatter! We had been seeing the film on TV as Demille intended for 40 years!


He was almost seventy when we shot TOMBSTONE, but on top that horse ("I'm Henry Hooker") he was still as powerful a man as ever graced the Silver screen. Assailed by liberal critics the last decades of his life for his stand on guns, he took it with quiet grace and an occasional "they can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers!" He marched with Dr. King at Selma. He loved this country. Chuck was one of the last great men of our business.

Chuck, thanks for everything.

"May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't."
~~ General George S. Patton, Jr.