Charlton Heston died Saturday night in his home at the age of 84. Heston appeared in many epic and well known films including Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes, The Agony and the Ecstasy and his first big starring role, The Ten Commandments.

My favorite Heston movie was Orson Welles‘ Touch of Evil in which Heston actually played a Mexican. The infamous opening scene is below (it’s all ONE shot..!)

But of course Heston was more than one of the biggest actors to ever grace Hollywood, he spent the greater part a good deal of his later years not acting, but making a political presence.

For Heston, being politically active involved mostly meant working with NRA and supporting Republicans, although before he became the public face of the NRA, he also did a lot of work for the arts:

He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1966 to 1971, following in the footsteps of his friend and role model Ronald Reagan. A registered Democrat for many years, he was nevertheless selective in the candidates he chose to support and often campaigned for conservatives.

In 1981, President Reagan appointed him co-chairman of the President’s Task Force on the Arts and Humanities, a group formed to devise ways to obtain financing for arts organizations. Although he had reservations about some projects supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Heston wound up defending the agency against charges of elitism.

Again and again, he proved himself a cogent and effective speaker, but he rejected suggestions that he run for office. “I’d rather play a senator than be one,” he said. [The New York Times]

But of course that isn’t what Heston is known for:

he was elected president of the N.R.A. In his speech at the association’s convention before his election, he trained his oratorical artillery on President Bill Clinton: “Mr. Clinton, sir, America didn’t trust you with our health care system. America didn’t trust you with gays in the military. America doesn’t trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don’t trust you with our guns.”

He was in the news again after the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999, when he said that the N.R.A.’s annual membership meeting, scheduled to be held the following week in Denver, would be scaled back in light of the killings but not canceled.

In a memorable scene from “Bowling for Columbine,” a 2002 documentary about violence in America, the director, Michael Moore, visited Mr. Heston at his home and asked him how he could defend his pro-gun stance. Mr. Heston ended the interview without comment. [The New York Times]

I have to say, even though I get Moore’s point for interviewing Heston, the interview always rubbed me the wrong way (esp after Heston later disclosed that he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2002):

But regardless of his political career it can’t be denied that Heston was an actor in the truest sense. For his role in The Ten Commandments, “he suggested to (director) DeMille that he play the role barefoot “” a decision that he felt lent an edge of truth to his performance.” He also also read hundreds of letters of artists Michaelangelo’s in preparation for his role in The Agony and the Ecstasy.

So - take some time to watch some great Heston clips below and to learn more about the debate surrounding gun control.