'take your hand off of me, you damned filthy ape!"
Such a shame. He struck me as a class act. I found The Ten Commandments embarrassingly scripted, but he still pulled it off.
RIP, sir. You will be missed.
I’m hoping the funeral arrangements involve him being strapped to his horse in armour. So he can ride out into history …
Touch of Evil is one of my all time favourite films and until you posted this I hadn’t thought of his passing in those terms. Damn, you’re right.
Thank you for the compliment. The memory of giving my mom those tickets was a happy time, all of us kids were together on it and it was the perfect gift and she loved it. Because of that connection I guess I will always have a bit of a soft spot for him.
:::Stops Hell Express Bus, leaps out, shows this sign to BrainGlutton.:::
Come on! I’ve saved you a seat.
:::Turns and races back to the bus.:::
There is, but it’s not well enough known. Heston did quite a bit of Shakespeare, and some of it made it onto film:
Julius Caesar (1950)
Julius Caesar (1970 – and Marc Anthony both times!)
Anthony and Cleopatra (three times!)
He wanted to play Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons He didn’t get the movie role, but he did play it later on for a made-for-TV version. He played Sherlock Holmes on stage (and later in the TV movie Crucifer of Blood, and his Watson was ---- Jeremy Brett!
That sounds good. What’s it made of?
From the Hears of Heroes, by George W. Shaffer
(A collection of letters sent to the Boy Scouts of Troop 26, Tulsa OK)
Most memorable to me:
“No! NO! My king kneels to no man!”
A scene almost at the end of El Cid. If you’ve seen the movie up to that point I dare you not to choke up.
I have the open letter that he published to his friends and fans after his diagnosis. It’s on my computer at work so I’ll try to post it tomorrow. It is quite touching.
I didn’t choke up, because that was a bad movie. The acting was all stilted and amateurish. But I do admit to enjoying Touch of Evil, which we saw for the first time just last year. He was really good in that.
It was just a week or so ago I saw all of Ben Hur for the first time, in two sittings.
I appreciated the Irish news reporting his death with an out take from Apes as well as the inevitable Ben Hur and Moses clips;
“Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty apes!”
Excellent 
When I turned on the radio Sunday monring I heard “get your paws off me, you damned filthy ape.” My thoughts were:
- Troy McClure singing
- The SDMB thread will have something about his prying his gun out of his cold dead hands (that clip was shown about a thousand times on the TV yesterday).
- He was so good as Michelangelo in “The Agony & The Ectasy.”
As we celebrate the great body of work he left behind, let’s not overlook Major Dundee - Heston directed by Peckinpah. Just amazing, especially the extended version released in 2005.
RIP, Amos!
"I hate every ape I see
“From chimpan-A to chimpanzeeeeee . . .”
Thanks, EJsGirl, for the link to his open letter. Wonderful.
I haven’t liked him much in recent years because of the whole NRA thing, and I agree he wasn’t the greatest actor in the world, but I respected him as a civil rights supporter and a hardworking but down-to-earth actor. One of my favorite of his later appearances was as the head of Omega Sector (yes, I get the joke), Ah-nuld’s supersecret spy agency, in True Lies. Best line: “I have to say, gentlemen, that what you’ve shown me so far isn’t blowing my skirt up!”
That would be The Mountain Men with Brian Keith.
Cool memories, DMark, thanks for sharing, especially about the telegrammed tackle box. That gave me chills.
I’m a little miffed that as I think back on all my memories of Heston, that Michael Moore trying to make him appear the fool creeps in there too along with all the outstanding, moving, iconic roles he played.
Thanks, Chuck, for decades of good stuff. Lordy but you were a pleasure to watch.
(Is there a man here bad enough to have messed with Will Penny?)
Did Clint Eastwood name his character in Unforgiven “William Munny” as an homage to Heston’s Will Penny?