GREAT MEN: In a 1995 interview covering his film career and political activism, Charlton Heston said: “The egalitarian world view now considered politically correct makes us uneasy with the idea that one individual is better than the rest of us. But having played several great men, I can tell you that they are better than we are ....” (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
STRIKE: Walking the picket line, Heston waves to fans outside Paramount Studios in Hollywood during the Screen Actors Guild strike in August 1980. (Lennox McLendon / Associated Press)
ACTIVIST: Heston addresses gun owners as president of the National Rifle Assn. at a 2002 rally in Manchester, N.H. (Jim Cole / Associated Press)
HONOR: At the White House in July 2003, Heston receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom.