Sneak Peek "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” actress Rebecca Hall in the latest issue of “Glass China” mgazine, photographed by David Roemer:
Hall got her breakthrough role in Christopher Nolan's thriller “The Prestige”. In 2008, she starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, for which she received a ‘Golden Globe’ nomination for ‘Best Actress’.
Hall then appeared in Ben Affleck's crime drama “The Town” (2010), the horror thriller “The Awakening” (2011), the superhero film “Iron Man 3”n(2013), the science fiction film “Transcendence “ (2014)…
…the thriller “The Gift” (2015), the fantasy film “The Bfg” (2016), and the biographical drama “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” (2017).
Hall was praised by critics for her portrayal of news reporter ‘Christine Chubbuck’ in the biographical drama “Christine”.
She has since starred in the ‘MonsterVerse’ films “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021) and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (2024).
Click the images to enlarge…...
Hall got her breakthrough role in Christopher Nolan's thriller “The Prestige”. In 2008, she starred in Woody Allen's romantic comedy “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, for which she received a ‘Golden Globe’ nomination for ‘Best Actress’.
Hall then appeared in Ben Affleck's crime drama “The Town” (2010), the horror thriller “The Awakening” (2011), the superhero film “Iron Man 3”n(2013), the science fiction film “Transcendence “ (2014)…
…the thriller “The Gift” (2015), the fantasy film “The Bfg” (2016), and the biographical drama “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women” (2017).
Hall was praised by critics for her portrayal of news reporter ‘Christine Chubbuck’ in the biographical drama “Christine”.
She has since starred in the ‘MonsterVerse’ films “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021) and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (2024).
Click the images to enlarge…...
- 5/1/2024
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Peter Stormare, Steven Berkoff and Matt Hookings have signed on to star in Matt Routledge’s thriller The Awakening for UK producers Camelot Media.
Julian Glover and Justin Tinto are also among the cast of the film, in which Tinto plays a man who discovers a global conspiracy and sets out to awaken the world.
Tinto wrote the original script; the film is currently in pre-production ahead of a shoot at Pinewood Studios.
Hookings and Tim Kent will produce the title for Camelot. It is fully financed through independent sources. Tinto says the film is aiming to convey a “message...
Julian Glover and Justin Tinto are also among the cast of the film, in which Tinto plays a man who discovers a global conspiracy and sets out to awaken the world.
Tinto wrote the original script; the film is currently in pre-production ahead of a shoot at Pinewood Studios.
Hookings and Tim Kent will produce the title for Camelot. It is fully financed through independent sources. Tinto says the film is aiming to convey a “message...
- 4/30/2024
- ScreenDaily
The famous Nigerian legend about “Madam Koi Koi” has now been presented as a two-part Netflix series titled The Origin: Madam Koi Koi. Netflix has just released its first episode, introducing us to the characters and the storyline of the series. The Origin: Madam Koi Koi revolves around a young girl named Amanda, who finds it difficult to fit into her new boarding school. Since she has arrived at the school, she keeps having eerie nightmares about an evil entity lurking in the woods on the outskirts of the town. Amanda’s mother enrolled her in this school to provide her with a better education and safety, but most of the male students at the school turn out to be perverts with a criminal mentality. Will Amanda be safe in this environment, or will she raise her voice against these crimes? Let us find that out.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did...
Spoilers Ahead
Why Did...
- 10/31/2023
- by Poulami Nanda
- Film Fugitives
Ring in the New Year with exorcisms, dreamscapes, and a true crime writer’s take on a haunted house. Read on for January 2022’s top horror tales long and short!
The Wakening by Jg Faherty
Type: Novel
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Release date: Jan. 18
Den of Geek says: 2022 could use an exorcism to kick things off, courtesy of the Bram Stoker Award-winning Jg Faherty.
Publisher’s summary: A team of paranormal investigators, a priest and a defrocked priest with a dark secret join forces to combat of a vengeful ancient demon, and the evil spreading throughout a small New York town.
Fifty years ago, Father Leo Bonaventura, a young exorcist, cast a demon out from a young boy in Central America. The demon, Asmodeus, vowed revenge. Now the demon has returned, in the same town where Bonaventura is a retired priest nearing the end of his life.
In a series of not-so-coincidental events,...
The Wakening by Jg Faherty
Type: Novel
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Release date: Jan. 18
Den of Geek says: 2022 could use an exorcism to kick things off, courtesy of the Bram Stoker Award-winning Jg Faherty.
Publisher’s summary: A team of paranormal investigators, a priest and a defrocked priest with a dark secret join forces to combat of a vengeful ancient demon, and the evil spreading throughout a small New York town.
Fifty years ago, Father Leo Bonaventura, a young exorcist, cast a demon out from a young boy in Central America. The demon, Asmodeus, vowed revenge. Now the demon has returned, in the same town where Bonaventura is a retired priest nearing the end of his life.
In a series of not-so-coincidental events,...
- 1/4/2022
- by Natalie Zutter
- Den of Geek
So far in this column, the default setting for TV horror has been the supernatural; usually ghosts (vengeful division), and a cult or two (whether it be Satan or crops). However, I would be remiss if I didn’t tend to any unusual domestic activities on a more human scale. This brings us to The Babysitter (1980), Peter Medak’s chilling tale of live-in help with some serious boundary issues. She doesn’t do windows, but she will do away with you and your family.
Originally airing on Friday, November 28th, 1980 as part of the ABC Friday Night Movie, The Babysitter as well as NBC’s Friday Night at the Movies would get trounced by CBS’ top rated shows The Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas, but those were number two and one in the land, so nobody was breaking through that block, not even the nanny from Hell.
Let’s see...
Originally airing on Friday, November 28th, 1980 as part of the ABC Friday Night Movie, The Babysitter as well as NBC’s Friday Night at the Movies would get trounced by CBS’ top rated shows The Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas, but those were number two and one in the land, so nobody was breaking through that block, not even the nanny from Hell.
Let’s see...
- 5/7/2017
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Sneak Peek Titan Comics' "Penny Dreadful" #1, continuing the Showtime, Sky horror drama TV series, written by Chris King and illustrated by Jesus Hervas, with covers by Stephen Mooney, Rob Davis, Shane Pierce and Louis De Martinis. available April 5, 2017:
"...in 'The Awakening', part 1 of 4, 'Ethan Chandler' finds himself unable to move on.
"As he searches desperately for meaning in a world without 'Vanessa', ancient words echo across the centuries...
"...and he is called on once again to take up arms against creatures crawling out of the night..."
The "Penny Dreadful" TV series used many public domain characters from 19th-century British and Irish fiction, including 'Dorian Gray' from Oscar Wilde, 'Mina Harker', 'Abraham Van Helsing', 'Dr. Seward', 'Renfield' and 'Count Dracula' from Bram Stoker, 'Victor Frankenstein' and his 'Monster' from Mary Shelley and 'Dr. Henry Jekyll' from Robert Louis Stevenson.
Click the images to...
"...in 'The Awakening', part 1 of 4, 'Ethan Chandler' finds himself unable to move on.
"As he searches desperately for meaning in a world without 'Vanessa', ancient words echo across the centuries...
"...and he is called on once again to take up arms against creatures crawling out of the night..."
The "Penny Dreadful" TV series used many public domain characters from 19th-century British and Irish fiction, including 'Dorian Gray' from Oscar Wilde, 'Mina Harker', 'Abraham Van Helsing', 'Dr. Seward', 'Renfield' and 'Count Dracula' from Bram Stoker, 'Victor Frankenstein' and his 'Monster' from Mary Shelley and 'Dr. Henry Jekyll' from Robert Louis Stevenson.
Click the images to...
- 4/2/2017
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
If you were an enthusiastic horror film buff back in the ancient year of 1980, The Awakening might have seemed like a pretty cool option: - A cast that includes Charlton Heston, Susannah York, and a young, pretty Stephanie Zimbalist. - A young director by the name of Mike Newell -- who would go on to deliver features like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. - A screenplay by three veteran British scribes, based on a novel by Bram Stoker. - A nifty Egyptian setting and, best of all, a visual and thematic approach that feels like a combination of The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976). - Bonus movie geek points if you were excited to...
- 5/30/2012
- FEARnet
More long hidden horrors are now available as part of Warner's made-to-order Archive Collection. Oh, the classic terrors that await you, dearest reader! Dig it!
Head on over to the Warner Archives and order yours today!
The Awakening
Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Charlton Heston, Susannah York, Jill Townsend, Stephanie Zimbalist
Synopsis
Mention Bram Stoker’s name, and literature and movie buffs will conjure up Count Dracula. But there was more blood in Stoker’s pen. He also wrote The Jewel of the Seven Stars, later filmed with chilling effect as The Awakening, grippingly directed by Mike Newell (Dance with a Stranger, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and sensuously shot on Egyptian locations by veteran cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Charlton Heston stars as an Egyptologist with a passion that will trigger several mysterious deaths. He’s obsessed with a sorceress whose return has been prophesied – and whose tomb he opened...
Head on over to the Warner Archives and order yours today!
The Awakening
Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Charlton Heston, Susannah York, Jill Townsend, Stephanie Zimbalist
Synopsis
Mention Bram Stoker’s name, and literature and movie buffs will conjure up Count Dracula. But there was more blood in Stoker’s pen. He also wrote The Jewel of the Seven Stars, later filmed with chilling effect as The Awakening, grippingly directed by Mike Newell (Dance with a Stranger, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and sensuously shot on Egyptian locations by veteran cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Charlton Heston stars as an Egyptologist with a passion that will trigger several mysterious deaths. He’s obsessed with a sorceress whose return has been prophesied – and whose tomb he opened...
- 5/15/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Well we're back again with the bumper crop of must-have DVDs and Blu-rays for the month of May – from historic Italian epics to underground American sensations to a chilly, expressionistic film noir to movies where Raquel Welch plays a Vegas showgirl fleeing a murderer – we’ve got them all hear for you. So look on below to see what's worth your money this month....
"1900" (1976) Blu-ray
Why You Should Care: At the time of its release, Bernardo Bertolucci's historical epic was said to be the most expensive (requiring the financial commitment of three major studios – 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and United Artists) and ambitious ever mounted in Italy. It's a tale of two friends (played by Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu), born on the same day at the dawn of the 20th century, and the way that their lives crisscross, intersect, and diverge wildly over the rocky course of history.
"1900" (1976) Blu-ray
Why You Should Care: At the time of its release, Bernardo Bertolucci's historical epic was said to be the most expensive (requiring the financial commitment of three major studios – 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and United Artists) and ambitious ever mounted in Italy. It's a tale of two friends (played by Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu), born on the same day at the dawn of the 20th century, and the way that their lives crisscross, intersect, and diverge wildly over the rocky course of history.
- 5/3/2012
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
There's so much good horror being made these days, it's scary, but if you're terrified of missing out, Halloween is the time to catch up. In the week long build-up to next Saturday, cinemas are serving up a putrefying, maggot-infested smorgasbord of filmic fear – should you tire of pumpkin carving.
Rising to the occasion, the BFI has rolled out the black carpet and reanimated the corpse of Alice Cooper for a special horror evening (BFI Southbank, SE1, Fri, bfi.org.uk). The cadaverous rocker interrupts his tour to give an annotated talk on the "Nightmare Movies" that have mis-shaped his life, music and make-up strategy, including Nightmare On Elm Street (Cooper played Freddy Krueger's daddy), Vincent Price (did voiceovers for his album), and Tim Burton (Cooper's in his next movie). Old skull-face also holds a Q&A and introduces John Carpenter's Halloween. Another atmospheric one-off (alright, two-off) is the Jameson Cult Film Club,...
Rising to the occasion, the BFI has rolled out the black carpet and reanimated the corpse of Alice Cooper for a special horror evening (BFI Southbank, SE1, Fri, bfi.org.uk). The cadaverous rocker interrupts his tour to give an annotated talk on the "Nightmare Movies" that have mis-shaped his life, music and make-up strategy, including Nightmare On Elm Street (Cooper played Freddy Krueger's daddy), Vincent Price (did voiceovers for his album), and Tim Burton (Cooper's in his next movie). Old skull-face also holds a Q&A and introduces John Carpenter's Halloween. Another atmospheric one-off (alright, two-off) is the Jameson Cult Film Club,...
- 10/21/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Awakening
Written and Directed by Nick Murphy
Starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West & Imelda Staunton
UK, 2011
No, the horror remake strand hasn’t reached out to encompass the 1980 Charlton Heston horror The Awakening, where an archaeologist has a spot of bother with a mummy’s spirit possessing his daughter, with this debut feature writer / director Nick Murphy is instead taking us to London in the early 1920’s, the capital still in mourning under a shroud of gloom as the horrific hostilities of the First World War envelop the survivors and the bereaved. Florence Cathcart (a fiesty Rebecca Hall) is a prototype Dana Scully, a rationalist, atheist, successful author whose efforts to expose fraudulent spiritualists and purveyors of false séances to grieving victims mask her own sacrifice, having lost her beloved fiancé on the fields of Flanders. When she is approached by limping veteran turned school teacher Robert Mallory (Dominic West...
Written and Directed by Nick Murphy
Starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West & Imelda Staunton
UK, 2011
No, the horror remake strand hasn’t reached out to encompass the 1980 Charlton Heston horror The Awakening, where an archaeologist has a spot of bother with a mummy’s spirit possessing his daughter, with this debut feature writer / director Nick Murphy is instead taking us to London in the early 1920’s, the capital still in mourning under a shroud of gloom as the horrific hostilities of the First World War envelop the survivors and the bereaved. Florence Cathcart (a fiesty Rebecca Hall) is a prototype Dana Scully, a rationalist, atheist, successful author whose efforts to expose fraudulent spiritualists and purveyors of false séances to grieving victims mask her own sacrifice, having lost her beloved fiancé on the fields of Flanders. When she is approached by limping veteran turned school teacher Robert Mallory (Dominic West...
- 10/11/2011
- by John
- SoundOnSight
While the BBC casts a proud eye over Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin at Cannes, a new slate of feature films are set to follow in its success...
The feature filmmaking arm of the BBC has announced a list of films it will be backing in the coming months - including Rufus Norris’ Broken, starring Cillian Murphy, and Mike Newell’s version of the Charles Dickins novel Great Expectations, starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Jeremy Irvine.
Also on the agenda are Rose Tremain's Music and Silence, directed by An Education’s Lone Scherfig and StreetDance 2, which promises to carry a very different beat to the first film.
Christine Langan, Head of BBC Films has said: “The bold ambition of Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, which has been passionately embraced by critics in Cannes, represents what we are trying to do across the...
The feature filmmaking arm of the BBC has announced a list of films it will be backing in the coming months - including Rufus Norris’ Broken, starring Cillian Murphy, and Mike Newell’s version of the Charles Dickins novel Great Expectations, starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Jeremy Irvine.
Also on the agenda are Rose Tremain's Music and Silence, directed by An Education’s Lone Scherfig and StreetDance 2, which promises to carry a very different beat to the first film.
Christine Langan, Head of BBC Films has said: “The bold ambition of Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, which has been passionately embraced by critics in Cannes, represents what we are trying to do across the...
- 5/16/2011
- by jennifer.trevorrow@lovefilm.com (Jennifer Trevorrow)
- LOVEFiLM
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(May 2011)
Directed by: Craig McCall
Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and John Mills
An official selection of the Cannes Classics component of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, “Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff” begins with footage from an Academy Awards tribute by Dustin Hoffman, elucidating the impact of the legendary cinematographer. In “Cameraman,” director Craig McCall cleverly gives Cardiff carte blanche to share his tales from a variety of locations, including his home, where the cameraman scouts the room and the legacies of those stars who’ve died around him. In this way, McCall deftly and compellingly captures the cinematographer who made his mark on cinema’s landscape for 70 years.
Kid actor, runner, clapper boy and camera operator, Cardiff shares the secrets behind stars who knew their lighting, Marlene Dietrich first and most of all.
(May 2011)
Directed by: Craig McCall
Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and John Mills
An official selection of the Cannes Classics component of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, “Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff” begins with footage from an Academy Awards tribute by Dustin Hoffman, elucidating the impact of the legendary cinematographer. In “Cameraman,” director Craig McCall cleverly gives Cardiff carte blanche to share his tales from a variety of locations, including his home, where the cameraman scouts the room and the legacies of those stars who’ve died around him. In this way, McCall deftly and compellingly captures the cinematographer who made his mark on cinema’s landscape for 70 years.
Kid actor, runner, clapper boy and camera operator, Cardiff shares the secrets behind stars who knew their lighting, Marlene Dietrich first and most of all.
- 5/11/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(May 2011)
Directed by: Craig McCall
Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and John Mills
An official selection of the Cannes Classics component of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, “Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff” begins with footage from an Academy Awards tribute by Dustin Hoffman, elucidating the impact of the legendary cinematographer. In “Cameraman,” director Craig McCall cleverly gives Cardiff carte blanche to share his tales from a variety of locations, including his home, where the cameraman scouts the room and the legacies of those stars who’ve died around him. In this way, McCall deftly and compellingly captures the cinematographer who made his mark on cinema’s landscape for 70 years.
Kid actor, runner, clapper boy and camera operator, Cardiff shares the secrets behind stars who knew their lighting, Marlene Dietrich first and most of all.
(May 2011)
Directed by: Craig McCall
Featuring: Jack Cardiff, Martin Scorsese, Thelma Schoonmaker, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall and John Mills
An official selection of the Cannes Classics component of the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, “Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff” begins with footage from an Academy Awards tribute by Dustin Hoffman, elucidating the impact of the legendary cinematographer. In “Cameraman,” director Craig McCall cleverly gives Cardiff carte blanche to share his tales from a variety of locations, including his home, where the cameraman scouts the room and the legacies of those stars who’ve died around him. In this way, McCall deftly and compellingly captures the cinematographer who made his mark on cinema’s landscape for 70 years.
Kid actor, runner, clapper boy and camera operator, Cardiff shares the secrets behind stars who knew their lighting, Marlene Dietrich first and most of all.
- 5/11/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
UK TV director Nick Murphy will be making his feature film debut when he begins shooting the supernatural thriller The Awakening in June. No, this isn’t a reboot of Mike Newell’s 1980 film starring Charlton Heston. And no, it isn’t an adaptation of Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel about Edna Pontellier’s struggles with femininity, marriage and motherhood in turn-of-the-century South. Read on to find out about the plot and who has been cast so far.
- 5/13/2010
- by samueldzimmerman@gmail.com (Allan Dart)
- Fangoria
After helming "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time", Mike Newell could tackle yet another Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie, "The Lone Ranger". The possibility was suggested by Production Weekly, which mentioned that the director "is in talks" to direct the big screen adaptation of the popular masked Texas ranger.
Of the report posted on its Twitter page Thursday, April 30, Production Weekly wrote, "Mike Newell is in talks to direct Terry Rossio & Ted Elliott's big screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger" at Disney." If Newell is indeed joining the production team of the action adventure movie, the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" director will once again team up with his "Donnie Brasco" star Johnny Depp, who is set to star as Tonto.
Adapted from George W. Trendle's classic old-time radio and early television show of the same name, "The Lone Ranger" resolves around a masked Texas Ranger who...
Of the report posted on its Twitter page Thursday, April 30, Production Weekly wrote, "Mike Newell is in talks to direct Terry Rossio & Ted Elliott's big screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger" at Disney." If Newell is indeed joining the production team of the action adventure movie, the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" director will once again team up with his "Donnie Brasco" star Johnny Depp, who is set to star as Tonto.
Adapted from George W. Trendle's classic old-time radio and early television show of the same name, "The Lone Ranger" resolves around a masked Texas Ranger who...
- 5/1/2009
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Charlton Heston, the square-jawed movie star who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Ben-Hur and was famed for a number of other epic films, died Saturday night at the age of 84. Though an official cause of death was not initially released, the actor had announced in 2002 that he was battling Alzheimer's disease, and had withdrawn from professional appearances after the diagnosis. An actor at first well-known for his portrayal of historical figures -- in addition to his role as Ben-Hur, he also played Michelangelo, El Cid, Moses, and John the Baptist -- Heston's fame later in life was highlighted by his polarizing views on gun control, as the actor was elected president of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and vigorously defended the rights of gun owners throughout the country. Indeed the role of political activist, which he embraced throughout his life, almost overshadowed his impressive acting career, which started in theater and television before graduating to the silver screen.
Born in Evanston, IL, Heston was the son of a mill owner who found his life's ambition in acting and found his first big breaks on the Broadway stage and in the nascent medium of television. He made his debut in the 1950 film noir thriller Dark City, and within two years headlined (alongside established stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde) the 1952 Best Picture Oscar winner, The Greatest Show on Earth, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Though he continued to work in a number of lower-profile films, including Ruby Gentry and The Naked Jungle, it was DeMille who in 1956 gave the actor one of his most iconic roles, that of Moses in the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, a sweeping, captivating, over-the-top film that pioneered cinematic special effects with its parting of the Red Sea, and in its depiction of the turbulent political lives and love lives of its stars -- Heston, Yul Brynner as the Pharoah and Anne Baxter as the woman torn between them -- became the quintessential studio epic of its time, favored as much for its close-to-camp emotional broadness as well as its impressive scale. Heston did a 180-degree turnaround from that statuesque role with 1958's Touch of Evil, the Orson Welles thriller that remains a classic to this day in which he played a Mexican narcotics officer drawn into a lurid drug ring. Heston won his Best Actor Oscar in 1959 for another lavish, larger-than-life historical epic, Ben-Hur, which with its famed chariot race and story set against the backdrop of ancient Rome won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat not equalled until Titanic's similar win in 1997.
After Ben-Hur, Heston's status as a star was firmly cemented, and throughout the 1960s roles in such films as El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Greatest Story Ever Told (where he played John the Baptist), The Agony and the Ecstasy (his Michelangelo going up against Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II), and Khartoum followed. He found another legendary screen character in 1968's Planet of the Apes, as an astronaut who finds himself on a futuristic Earth now populated by evolved simians who have enslaved the human race. As with his other roles, Heston perfectly balanced the camp aspects of the story with a gravitas that helped ground the sci-fi thriller with a modern-day resonance that helped audiences identify with the hero's plight. (Heston briefly reprised his role in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes). The 1970s saw the actor again in futuristic roles in The Omega Man (based on the same story as last year's I Am Legend) and Soylent Green, as well as the disaster epics Airport 1975 and Earthquake. Heston's later film career was made up primarily of thrillers (Gray Lady Down, Two-Minute Warning, The Awakening), television appearances (most notably in Dynasty and its spinoff, The Colbys), and cameos in a variety of high-profile films (Wayne's World 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Hamlet, Any Given Sunday, and the remake of Planet of the Apes, among others). By 1978, Heston had received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild; on the down side, he also regrettably won a Razzie award in 2002 for his supporting performances in Cats & Dogs and Town and Country.
Heston's film career often became overshadowed by his political activities. In the 1960s he was an early, vocal and visible participant in the Civil Rights movement; joining Martin Luther King's march on Washington. In the 1980s and onward, as the former president of the Screen Actors Guild and onetime chairman of the American Film Institute he championed conservative causes and campaigned aggressively against gun control, becoming president of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and speaking out against then-President Bill Clinton on the subject. Becoming yet another icon, Heston found himself revered and reviled by supporters on both sides of the issue and became the surprising center of a highly emotional culture war, using his fame to speak out in favor of a number of conservative issues (he changed his political stance from Democrat to Republican in the late 1980s). Using his position as a Time-Warner stock holder he castigated the company for profiting from the sales of an Ice-T album which included the song "Cop Killer," reading the lyrics to the song aloud at a stockholder meeting. His career as gun-control opponent reached an apotheosis with his appearance in 2000 when he vowed that they could take his guns when they pried the weapons "from my cold, dead hands." Later, in Michael Moore's 2002 Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, a visibly diminished Heston refused to answer Moore's barrage of questions regarding gun deaths, particularly for the callousness of Heston attending an NRA meeting in Denver shortly after the nearby Columbine school massacres. A year later, Heston received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and he officially disclosed that he was battling Alzheimer's; he consequently withdrew from public life.
Heston is survived by his wife Lydia Clarke, to whom he was married 64 years, and their two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
Born in Evanston, IL, Heston was the son of a mill owner who found his life's ambition in acting and found his first big breaks on the Broadway stage and in the nascent medium of television. He made his debut in the 1950 film noir thriller Dark City, and within two years headlined (alongside established stars Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde) the 1952 Best Picture Oscar winner, The Greatest Show on Earth, directed by Cecil B. DeMille. Though he continued to work in a number of lower-profile films, including Ruby Gentry and The Naked Jungle, it was DeMille who in 1956 gave the actor one of his most iconic roles, that of Moses in the Biblical epic The Ten Commandments, a sweeping, captivating, over-the-top film that pioneered cinematic special effects with its parting of the Red Sea, and in its depiction of the turbulent political lives and love lives of its stars -- Heston, Yul Brynner as the Pharoah and Anne Baxter as the woman torn between them -- became the quintessential studio epic of its time, favored as much for its close-to-camp emotional broadness as well as its impressive scale. Heston did a 180-degree turnaround from that statuesque role with 1958's Touch of Evil, the Orson Welles thriller that remains a classic to this day in which he played a Mexican narcotics officer drawn into a lurid drug ring. Heston won his Best Actor Oscar in 1959 for another lavish, larger-than-life historical epic, Ben-Hur, which with its famed chariot race and story set against the backdrop of ancient Rome won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat not equalled until Titanic's similar win in 1997.
After Ben-Hur, Heston's status as a star was firmly cemented, and throughout the 1960s roles in such films as El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Greatest Story Ever Told (where he played John the Baptist), The Agony and the Ecstasy (his Michelangelo going up against Rex Harrison's Pope Julius II), and Khartoum followed. He found another legendary screen character in 1968's Planet of the Apes, as an astronaut who finds himself on a futuristic Earth now populated by evolved simians who have enslaved the human race. As with his other roles, Heston perfectly balanced the camp aspects of the story with a gravitas that helped ground the sci-fi thriller with a modern-day resonance that helped audiences identify with the hero's plight. (Heston briefly reprised his role in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes). The 1970s saw the actor again in futuristic roles in The Omega Man (based on the same story as last year's I Am Legend) and Soylent Green, as well as the disaster epics Airport 1975 and Earthquake. Heston's later film career was made up primarily of thrillers (Gray Lady Down, Two-Minute Warning, The Awakening), television appearances (most notably in Dynasty and its spinoff, The Colbys), and cameos in a variety of high-profile films (Wayne's World 2, Tombstone, True Lies, Hamlet, Any Given Sunday, and the remake of Planet of the Apes, among others). By 1978, Heston had received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild; on the down side, he also regrettably won a Razzie award in 2002 for his supporting performances in Cats & Dogs and Town and Country.
Heston's film career often became overshadowed by his political activities. In the 1960s he was an early, vocal and visible participant in the Civil Rights movement; joining Martin Luther King's march on Washington. In the 1980s and onward, as the former president of the Screen Actors Guild and onetime chairman of the American Film Institute he championed conservative causes and campaigned aggressively against gun control, becoming president of the National Rifle Association in 1998 and speaking out against then-President Bill Clinton on the subject. Becoming yet another icon, Heston found himself revered and reviled by supporters on both sides of the issue and became the surprising center of a highly emotional culture war, using his fame to speak out in favor of a number of conservative issues (he changed his political stance from Democrat to Republican in the late 1980s). Using his position as a Time-Warner stock holder he castigated the company for profiting from the sales of an Ice-T album which included the song "Cop Killer," reading the lyrics to the song aloud at a stockholder meeting. His career as gun-control opponent reached an apotheosis with his appearance in 2000 when he vowed that they could take his guns when they pried the weapons "from my cold, dead hands." Later, in Michael Moore's 2002 Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, a visibly diminished Heston refused to answer Moore's barrage of questions regarding gun deaths, particularly for the callousness of Heston attending an NRA meeting in Denver shortly after the nearby Columbine school massacres. A year later, Heston received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and he officially disclosed that he was battling Alzheimer's; he consequently withdrew from public life.
Heston is survived by his wife Lydia Clarke, to whom he was married 64 years, and their two children, Fraser Clarke Heston and Holly Heston Rochell. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
- 4/6/2008
- IMDb News
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