Actor Charlton Heston's Health Declining Rapidly: Alzheimer's Disease

At 83 and suffering the effects of Alzheimer's disease, Heston is rapidly declining. With days to live his family prays he will die soon and be free from his suffering.

Actor Charlton Heston gave us the movies, The Ten Commandments, (Judah) Ben Hur, El Cid, Michelangelo, The Agony and The Ecstasy, among others. Who doesn't know the movie, The Ten Commandments. Heston played Moses, the Biblical Prophet and Deliverer of the nation Israel, from bondage to Egypt, the land of the Pharaohs. The Ten Commandments or Decalogue (Greek; deca=ten, logo=word) as it is sometimes called was written on two stone tablets and given to Moses by God upon Mount Sinai. Heston announced he had the disease in 2002, he said, "For an actor there is no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can’t part with you . . .” He became a virtual recluse after his big announcement, choosing to stay in his home near L.A. with his wife of over 60 years and his children. Charlton served his country in World War II, supported Martin Luther King Jr. and visited troops during the Vietnam War. Born on October 4, 1924, his parents divorced when he was ten and his mother remarried Chester Henson, who adopted his step-son, Charlton. Charlton married his wife, Lydia Marie Clarke in 1944. The couple have a son, Fraser and an adopted daughter, Holly Ann. Charlton has battled alcoholism and prostate cancer and survived. He was active in the Democratic party earlier on supporting the Kennedys, before becoming a Republican where he supported Regan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. He has received numerous awards and accolades, served as the president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) from 1998 to 2003 before resigning. He still remains an honorary life member of the NRA.

According to his autobiography In the Arena, Heston also recognised the right of freedom of speech exercised by others. In an address to students at Harvard Law School entitled Winning the Cultural War, Heston expressed his disdain for political correctness and its chilling effect on free speech, stating "If Americans believed in political correctness, we'd still be King George's boys - subjects bound to the British crown." He has also stated that "Political correctness is tyranny with manners."

The link below says that Mr. Heston is declining rapidly and has just days to live. He is in a vegetative state. Donald Crawford, president of the Crawford Broadcasting Company, commented on the Crawford Stand, that, "He (Heston) is a shadow of his former self...in a vegetative state, so much so that his family prays for his passing...It is the height of irony that a man so potent and powerful will die so poorly of this pathetic disease. There is now virtually nothing left of this rugged man moviegoers once knew and loved. His family will be with him every remaining moment of the little life left." This is so sad that this once great actor must die this way. The movie Ben Hur is one of my all time favourites, and it is one of my private collection. Crawford describes Heston the way I will always picture him whenever I think of him: Heston was charismatic, manly in every sense. His personality was profound. His voice, unforgettable. His eyes, piercing and powerful. The set of his jaw, the shape of his nose, the body a physical masterpiece. He was a powerful presence and I will always remember him as such.