Noted film actor and gun rights activist Charlton Heston, an Evanston native and former NU student, died Saturday. He was 84.
Heston, who had served as president of both the Screen Actors Guild and National Rifle Association, did not graduate from NU, but said the skills he learned here helped launch his career, said Anita Hillin, former director of development of the School of Communication.
Heston had studied on scholarship in the School of Communication but left in 1944 after three years at NU to fight in the Army Air Force.
“The thing that I always found about Mr. Heston was that he was unfailingly polite, cordial to everyone,” said Hillin, who worked with Heston to plan a 2002 alumni luncheon for theater students who attended NU during his era. “He and his wife were very gracious hosts, and very cordially welcomed all the people there, some of whom were clearly there to meet him.”
The Hestons, who met while studying acting at NU, hosted the luncheon at their home in Beverly Hills. When one attendee insisted on bringing up the actor’s involvement with the NRA, Heston let her speak, listened attentively and changed the subject back to acting, Hillin said.
“He really exemplified what we hope to produce at Northwestern,” Hillin said. “Thoughtful people, intelligent people who can handle their success with grace and humility.”
Heston’s contributions to NU went beyond his annual monetary donations. In 1983, when NU president Robert Strotz resigned, students set up a whiteboard in the basement of an academic building to bet on who would be the next president, said Bill Halldin, Medill ’84 and a former Daily campus editor.
Heston was the clear winner, said Halldin, who called the actor for comment at the time.
Though Heston turned down the idea because, as Halldin put it, he had already “played Moses and two U.S. presidents,” he was honored to have been considered.
In 2001, Heston visited NU for an informal discussion with students in the School of Communication. When his former professor, Helen Sullivan Knight, stepped on the stage to greet him, Heston rushed to her, grabbed both her hands and kissed them, Hillin said.
“Of course he remembered her, told her how wonderful she was and how, thanks to her, he had good diction,” she said.
Robert Berliner, Communication ’04, met Heston after the actor performed for the students as Moses, one of his best-known roles, during a campus visit in 2001.
“The name Charlton Heston will always carry weight – his voice and presence will mean something for a long time,” he said.
Besides playing Moses in “The Ten Commandments” in 1956, Heston won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ben-Hur in 1959.
In August 2002, a few months after hosting the luncheon at his home in Beverly Hills, Heston released the news that he was suffering from a neurological condition similar to Alzheimer’s Disease.
“It was a particular pleasure to get to know Mr. Heston and his wife Lydia,” Communication Dean Barbara O’Keefe wrote in an e-mail. “As a couple, he and Lydia were a perfect example of lifelong dedication and affection.”
Heston is survived by his wife, NU alumna Lydia Clarke Heston, and his two children, Holly Ann and Fraser Clarke.
Corinne Lestch and Emily Glazer contributed to this report.
