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Apr 7 08 3:42 PM
Apr 7 08 4:23 PM
If I know that NAKED JUNGLE story, it's filed badly in my memory.
Apr 7 08 4:39 PM
Apr 7 08 5:12 PM
BijouBob8mm wrote: And Reynolds & Borgnine (the latter is scheduled to appear at the upcoming Chiller Convention).
Whoaaaaa..... I have been wanting to meet Ernest Borgnine all my life. You're telling me HE'LL be at Chiller? If so, here's a reason I'll have to get back to that con for the first time in a long time.
Apr 7 08 5:14 PM
Apr 7 08 6:56 PM
catmandu7 wrote: And Sean Connery , Maureen O Hara , Van Johnson and Kevin Mc Carthy are still with us. And Jack Nicholson who started his career as the Cry Baby Killer in the mid 50s. I think a lot of people forget waht an extensive career Jack has. Not to mention Frank Cady who was once on 3 TV series at the same time.
Kevin is still working, and was most recently in Anthony Hopkins directorial debut, SLIPSTREAM. Numerous people think he really is Walter Jameson. EDIT: I was wrong; Hopkins directed at least one movie earlier, in the 1990s.
Apr 7 08 7:39 PM
Apr 7 08 8:02 PM
I thought about Connery, but he didn't come on the scene until the late 1950s.
Apr 7 08 10:07 PM
Apr 7 08 11:13 PM
Apr 7 08 11:20 PM
Beautiful work, Frank, and yes, "The Last Omega Man" was one of the first fond thoughts I had as affectionate Heston movie memories and warm shared memories with fellow Heston fans came flooding through my mind the moment I heard the sad but inevitable news. Since much of the long post I wrote after Heston's death dealt with his close personal and professional relationship with Ray Bradbury, I sent Ray a copy of it late Sunday. I just came in from my night class and had this sweet note waiting from Ray: Dear Terry: Thanks for your wonderful piece on Charlton Heston; you did a terrific job. I'm glad that people know how kind he was to me over a long period of time. I'm going to try and go up to visit his family today, though I don't know that I'll be able to see anyone. At least I can leave word at the gate that I was there. You're a sweet pal, Terry, and I thank you for your beautiful words. Much love, Ray I watched Heston's scenes from Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet last night, and he was truly magnificent. I intend to watch Will Penny, Planet of the Apes, Ben-Hur, Major Dundee, and Soylent Green over the course of the week. So many wonderful memories, so many terrific movies ... My author/film critic friend Jonathan Rosenbaum (who grew up in a Frank Lloyd Wright house here in Muscle Shoals and worked with Heston on the "reconfiguration" of Touch of Evil) was quoted in USA Today: "Charlton Heston might be said to achieve his apotheosis as Moses - unless one decides that it's Moses who's achieving his apotheosis as Heston." I really love that. The Ten Commandments special-edition DVD includes an excellent "making of ..." documentary that talks about the recording of God's voice and using Heston's voice as the foundation for the effect. (There is also a great interview with Commandments supporting player Laurel and Hardy and Bela Lugosi devotee Lisa Mitchell, who wrote the memorable Famous Monsters article "Bela Lugosi at the Midnight Delicatessen.") As for survivors of the Golden Era, don't forget about Luise Rainer, Harry Morgan, Patricia Neal, Harry Carey Jr., Joan Leslie, Jane Russell, Gloria Stuart, R.G. Armstrong (who turned 91 today) and probably many, many others that don't immediately spring to my mind. Terry Pace pillaroffire@bellsouth.net "I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be." -- Col. George Taylor (Charlton Heston) in Planet of the Apes (1968)
Apr 7 08 11:24 PM
Heston participated in civil rights marches and demonstrations and arranged a meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and officials of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to discuss opening the union to blacks. He later became an opponent of affirmative action. Why did he make such a complete about face? In the late 1990s he began to speak about "white pride" and "a great civil war, a cultural war " that he said threatened the country and white supremacists such as David Duke praised him for it.
Apr 8 08 12:22 AM
JimNasium2 wrote: Heston participated in civil rights marches and demonstrations and arranged a meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and officials of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to discuss opening the union to blacks. He later became an opponent of affirmative action. Why did he make such a complete about face?
Heston participated in civil rights marches and demonstrations and arranged a meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and officials of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to discuss opening the union to blacks. He later became an opponent of affirmative action. Why did he make such a complete about face?
Heston felt affirmative action was "a stain on America's soul," feeling that it was a form of racism and political correctness gone awry. He believed in equality of the races. Like many of us, he felt affirmative action was wrongheaded as it imposed quotas.
Apr 8 08 12:31 AM
There were thirty years between Heston's aggressive civil-rights campaign and his much later belief that affirmative action had had its day and (in its existing form) was becoming counter-productive for the country. Frankly, he's not alone there. Whether you agree or not, a number of extremely conscientious and highly intelligent whites and blacks on both the conservative and liberal sides of the fence share the same "startling" and seemingly politically incorrect sentiments. We have an excellent argumentative essay in our college writing textbook (by a young, liberal, female African-American writer who comments on social conditions) that argues that affirmative action has hurt more blacks than it has helped in the past ten to fifteen years. She contends that African-Americans would fare much better if today racial affirmative action were abolished and replaced by "Economic Affirmative Action" (the title of the essay). Most of the black students I teach (who, admittedly, haven't moved out too far into the "real" world) enthusiastically agree and think the essay is highly thought-provoking. As for the other Heston comments, I've seen a transcript of that speech, although it's been a while since I read it. He praises African-American leaders and the civil-rights movement for their vision and leadership over so many years, but he was incensed at the time over the Ice-T "Cop Killer" rap lyrics and was railing against the prevalence of (in his opinion) militant and destructive "black pride" messages that pushed "gutter culture" and "gang-banger" influences in music and black culture that (again, as he contended) were anti-white in particular and anti-racial peace and harmony on a much deeper and darker level. Heston said he found it sad, frustrating and ironic that many of the same people who were gun-control advocates (and therefore, in his words, anti-Second Amendment) also defended the First Amendment (pro-free speech) right of rappers and other entertainers to glamorize and encourage acts of black-on-white and black-on-black violence in their so-called "art." I believe he said that if black leaders weren't going to demand that black artists be more responsible and demand more positive public images among the African-American creative community, he was going to use his "white power" to say "enough is enough" (which is exactly what he did a little later when he challenged Time Warner on the "Cop Killer" issue). As for David Dukes, I'm sure he would jump on anything that would (even out of context) contribute to whatever racial agenda he subscribes to these days, though I do believe he has gone the George Wallace route and softened his stance on race relations in recent years. Regardless, there's a big difference in being against affirmative action -- from the start, in any form -- and proposing (as Heston was doing, and as the writer of "Economic Affirmative Action" is clearly doing) that we re-examine the effects of such a long-standing public policy and politically correct "sacred cow" in these rapidly changing times. Terry Pace pillaroffire@bellsouth.net "I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be." -- Col. George Taylor (Charlton Heston) in Planet of the Apes (1968)
Apr 8 08 1:13 AM
Apr 8 08 1:17 AM
gutridge wrote: Heston touched my own life in a small but memorable way. I work for an entertainment industry website; in 1994, we were print only and hand-delivered. The day of the earthquake, my boss asked me to come up with a topical joke to include in the day's material. I wrote (this was a year after the riot) "Will the agent or manager of CHARLTON HESTON ask him to please stop calling down plagues upon Los Angeles. We will let his people go." Army Archerd picked the gag up for his column, and the next day, when Heston appeared on The Tonight Show (to give EARTHQUAKE safety tips in Sensurround), Carson introduced him with my joke. This may be the coolest thing that ever happened to me, cooler even than walking out of the Nuart after a screening of EL CID and finding Heston standing on the corner of Santa Monica and Sawtelle, saying to friends "I thought we could get a beer or something..." Gutridge
Apr 8 08 1:51 AM
A very interesting look at Heston can be read here.
Apr 8 08 1:53 AM
Apr 8 08 3:21 AM
Apr 8 08 9:32 AM
The Drunken Severed Head wrote: A few nice anecdotes about Heston can be found here at Newsweek Online.
Thanks for that link, DSH! A very nice, witty article, with some astute observations about the skill needed to act in such huge spectacles as BEN-HUR and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
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