Charlton Heston heads off to the big chariot in the sky

Movie legends don't come a whole lot bigger than Charlton Heston, who died Saturday night at 84 of undisclosed causes (though he had been suffering the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's disease for the past 5 1/2 years). And talk about a regal bearing. Heston had it in droves, not least for his roles as Moses (in "The Ten Commandments"), Michelangelo (in "The Agony and the Ecstasy"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar, "Antony and Cleopatra") and King Henry VIII ("The Prince and the Pauper").

(Read Steve Zeitchik's Risky Biz blog post for more on the late Charlton Heston.)

But Heston also was a larger-than-life figure in his public persona, serving stints as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and -- amid controversy -- president of the National Rifle Association. He was a lifelong, very vocal Republican in a show business culture that famously leans left, and it earned him more than a few brickbats among his colleagues. That included a protracted feud with hardcore liberal Ed Asner. However, Heston's endorsement and friendship were greatly valued by Republican Presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon to Ford to Reagan to Bush I to Bush II.

What you had to admire about Heston, even if you loathed his politics, was the enthusiastic embrace he gave his own convictions. He never backed down no matter the unpopularity of his stand, which some attributed to simple arrogance. And without question, his activism over the past 20 years was far more in evidence than his fading acting career. It peaked during his NRA presidency (1998-2003) and his appearance at the NRA's annual meeting in Denver shortly after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, with Heston defiantly declaring while thrusting a rifle skyward, "Not from my cold, dead hands...!"