Academy Award winning actor Charlton Heston has passed away at his home aged eighty four, he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease.He made his film debut in the amateur adaptation of Peer Gynt and by being active in the Winnetka Community Theatre he won a drama scholarship at Northwestern University.During World War II he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force where he served as a B-25 radio operator/gunner in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. He Left the Air Force a Staff Sergeant.After the war Heston tried to make s success of being a theatre actor and in 1948 he landed a role in Antony and Cleopatra on Broadway, as well as securing several television roles.His big screen debut came in 1950 when he appeared in Dark City but his breakthrough role came two years later as the circus manager in The Greatest Show on Earth.His role as Moses in The Ten Commandments cemented Heston as an icon, the film went on to be nominated for Best Picture.
In 1959 Heston starred as Ben Hur, his most famous role, and the role that won him a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance.
The film won eleven Oscars, unprecedented at the time but has since been equalled by Titanic and Lord of the Ring: Return of the King.
He went on to star in several other historical epics including El Cid, 55 Days at Pecking and The Agony and Ecstasy as Michelangelo.
He then moved into the science fiction genre starring in the highly successful Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man and he quickly became America's hero.
In 2002 the actor announced that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, this came just four years after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
He did at his home on April 5th, his cause of death is yet to be announced. He is survived by wife Lydia and two children.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw