The American Mind

• NRA’s Wayne LaPierre [via Robert Stacy McCain]:
  

  My heart is heavy, but not without a sense of pride. Pride in a man who devoted his life to his profession with grace and dignity. Pride in an American who devoted himself to civil rights, to correcting injustices around him, and to standing up for what he knew was right. Pride in a friend who stood with me and stood with fellow NRA members to preserve our freedom for future generations. Pride in a patriot who believed with every fiber of his being that our Bill of Rights is the foundation of our freedom that makes Americans singular among the masses of nations.

• Sister Toldjah:
  

  What self-righteous nitwits like Clooney won’t tell you in their zeal to appear socially aware and hip is that Heston was one of the early supporters of the Civil Rights movement and reportedly was part of a Martin Luther King, Jr. march in 1963, while Clooney was still a two year-old typical whining baby in diapers (not much has changed). Heston switched his political affilation a couple of decades later, in part, over his disgust with Hollywood’s increasing obsession with political correctness, and because of his changed beliefs on issues like gun control to the point he strongly believed and advocated that ownership of a gun was a civil right.

• Scared Monkeys:
  

  One thing is for certain, they rarely make them like Charlton Heston any more. Charlton Heston was a true hero and American icon. Heston had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in recent years. Today, he is in a much better place. Our selfish loss is heavens gain. Mr. Heston, may the peace of the lord be with you, may you rest in eternal peace. God bless you.

  Charlton Heston, the Hollywood legendary actor, civil rights leader, political activist and former President of the NRA has sadly passed away at the age of 84. Charlton Heston was known to all and was a larger than life. Heston had taken part in such legendary films as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Planet of the Apes, El Cid, Julius Ceasar, Midway, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Greatest Story Ever Told and one of my favorite sleeper sci-fi films of all times Soylent Green. The too numerous to list movies he acted in list as a who’s who in film history. They just did not make them any more in Hollywood like Charlton Heston. He was a true original.

• The Real Sporer:
  

  Heston’s political activism also mirrored America itself. In the 60s and early 70s Heston was a loud advocate for racial civil rights and reasonable gun control. When the civil rights movement centered on the disingenuous pandering of affirmative action and gun control became a screeching cry that for the prohibition and confiscation of all the evil guns, Heston changed with times and became a leading conservative activist.

• Ann Althouse:
  

  I was alive when they came out, but too young to go to movies like that, and they weren’t the kind of movies I was ever interested in over the decades I’ve spent catching up on old movies. So I don’t believe Charlton Heston is remembered chiefly for his monumental, jut-jawed portrayals of Moses, Ben-Hur and Michelangelo. I think most people younger than 60 remember him chiefly for “Planet of the Apes.”

• Warner Todd Huston looked at some of the hate Kossites spewed upon the news of Heston’s death. [via Colossus of Rhodey]
• Ed Morrissey:
  

  Charlton Heston played holy men, Presidents, and cowboys, but all with the same human strengths and frailties. His commanding voice and strong presence made him one of Hollywood’s legendary leading men, while his political beliefs gradually set him apart from most in his profession.

• Scott Johnson pages through Heston’s autobiography In the Arena.
• The BBC called his “cold, dead hands” line “chilling.”

Below the fold are some more videos I found.

[via memeorandum]
[picture via planetoftheapes68]

Associated Press:

CNN: