Heston had a fan in Spokane

I received the following e-mail today from a Charlton Heston fan:

While it’s true that Charlton Heston will be best remembered for his larger than life roles (Moses, Ben-Hur, etc.), Dan Webster rightly chose some of his lesser-known films for his favorite five. On a similar vein, here are my top 5 films for which Heston didn’t get top billing, but nonetheless I think outplayed the ones above his name in the credits:

“The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952), dir. by Cecil B. DeMille
“The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965), dir. by George Stevens
“The Three Musketeers” (1973), dir. by Richard Lester
“The Buccaneer” (1958), dir. by Anthony Quinn
“Alaska” (1996), dir. by Fraser Clarke Heston

The last one was directed by his son Fraser, the third of three in which he directed his father (The Associated Press front-page story in the April 6 Spokesman-Review wrongly stated that Fraser directed him in “Mother Lode”; Chuck directed it himself, though Fraser wrote and produced it.)

In my view, few actors could move from rugged leading man parts to dastardly villainous roles with such skill as Heston did. The American Film Institute lists Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and James Stewart as the three greatest actors of all time. Heston’s star may not have shined so bright as these three, nor with the magnitude of Gable, Cooper and Wayne, but none of the above could match his range, from classic Shakespeare to bear poacher (“Alaska”). Of all the great stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age, from early talkies to color TV, he outlasted them all.

Dale Roloff, Spokane