A Tale Of Two Icons

I mourn the passing of Charlton Heston, the man who campaigned for Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960, the man who supported the 1968 Gun Control Act after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the man who marched with Dr. King in 1963 and contributed financially to the cause of civil rights.

But for the man who railed against the so-called “culture war” in 1997 by saying that this country would still be a colony of England if “political correctness” had prevailed during revolutionary times, the man who summoned up the infamous boogeyman of Bill Clinton supposedly taking away his Second Amendment rights in 2000 and thus prompting his remark about removing his gun “from my cold, dead hands,” and the man who heartlessly ensured that the NRA would hold its yearly meeting in 1999 in Denver, Colorado despite the approximation of that city to Columbine where the infamous high school massacre had recently occurred, I feel absolutely nothing.

(I have two caveats to that, I should note: one, though I’ve never seen “Bowling For Columbine,” I object to what apparently was a case of Michael Moore taking advantage of Heston’s Alzheimer’s affliction at that time, and I object even more to George Clooney’s idiotic attempt at a joke in the same vein – Heston showed a lot of class in his response, and Clooney usually has more brains than that episode would indicate.)

I don’t know why Heston flipped politically around the time that The Sainted Ronnie R ascended to power and thus ushered in the ruinous conservative ascendancy. Heston’s official excuse of “the excessive influence of liberal media commentators to the detriment of the common man” as noted by Wikipedia rings typically hollow for him and other ideological fellow travelers; for all of the imperfections of the occasion fits of bias he noted, to help make way for the judicial, legislative, and in particular, executive manifestations of policy and law so near and dear to the neocons by using his liberal “cred” of an earlier day to help indoctrinate supporters is just about unforgivable.

As an actor, I think Heston’s presence was eclipsed by Brando, Clark Gable, James Dean, De Niro, and not too many others (I’ll get to another one in a minute). Physically, he was perfectly suited for the big screen productions in the 1950s, of course, and his acting conveyed such emotion that it thoroughly complemented the characters he portrayed (Vargas in "A Touch of Evil," with Heston conveying not a hint of Mexican lineage as a detective from south of the border; circus manager Brad Braden in “The Greatest Show On Earth,” some of which was filmed in Philadelphia, including the tent-raising sequence; astronaut George Taylor in “Planet Of The Apes,” as well as “Soylent Green” and the previously noted Biblical epics). Also, Heston played Marc Anthony in two adaptations of “Julius Caesar” and had a commanding cameo role as the lead actor of the troupe putting on a play for the King in Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet.”

Of Heston’s big-screen roles, I think my favorite (close call, I’ll admit) would be that of Judah Ben-Hur, for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1959 in “Ben-Hur.” His character ran through a whole gamut of conflicts, from being cast from his life as a prosperous Jew into imprisonment by the Romans, then to be elevated within their ranks, then to return to his lineage out of vengeance against the Romans (and Stephen Boyd's Messala, with hints of a desired gay relationship with Heston's character that were about as provocative as the '50s would allow) for mistreatment of his family, and finally, to find redemption during the dawn of Christianity. Heston’s performance was completely involving and sympathetic.

But it is an odd quirk of fate to me that Heston passed on April 5th, since that is the birthday of one of Heston’s peers who left us five years ago, and that would be Gregory Peck, who was a titan on behalf of liberal/progressive causes; LBJ confided that he would have offered him the post of ambassador to Ireland had he remained in office when Johnson awarded Peck the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 (Peck’s ancestry was part Irish…Heston received it from you-know-who in July 2003).

I believe that the only time the two worked together professional was during the filming of “The Big Country” in 1958 in which they were directed by William Wyler (Wyler and Heston would team again the next year in "Ben-Hur"). The manhood of Peck’s character is questioned by Heston and some others over a land dispute, though Peck is ultimately vindicated (Heston’s characters often sought resolution to conflict with their fists immediately and tended not to show the patience and moral ambiguity of those played by Peck, though there were exceptions, such as Peck’s reading of Ahab in "Moby Dick," who was pretty clear about what he wanted and didn’t much care about the cost).

Both Peck and Heston were physically tall, strong men; Heston served as a staff sergeant in the Air Force during World War II, but Peck was exempt from military service due to a back injury. Also (strangely enough), both played the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele; Heston in 2003’s “My Father, Rua Alguem 5555” (his last role) and Peck in “The Boys From Brazil” in 1978.

As was the case with Heston I think, Peck’s Best Actor Oscar in 1963, for small-town Southern lawyer Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” was emblematic of the types of characters for which he was most associated by his audiences; in the case of Heston, a man of action overcoming all odds, and in the case of Peck, a man of quiet courage accomplishing his goals in the face of hostility, misunderstanding and fear through determination and resolve (and only resorting to physical violence when no other choice was necessary).

Though the date of April 5th is quite rightly an occasion to mourn the passing of Heston, I think it is also an occasion to celebrate the accomplishments of Peck, who would have been 92 this year. Though each “marched to his own drummer,” Peck’s life is an example of steadfast dedication to causes on behalf of people in need of someone to advocate for them.

Heston’s life, for a time, could be described as such also. But unlike Judah Ben-Hur, to me he did not achieve reconciliation and healing in the end, offering up what I believe to be his misguided self-interest in the name of something greater than himself; in the case of Heston the man, I’m referring to advocating for and supporting again those in this society (once called “underprivileged” in an earlier era) with whom he once walked arm in arm.

That is a tragedy and a loss not just for him, but for all of us as well (and a CNN tribute follows).