Heston Faces His Illness Squarely

“The world is a tough place,” Charlton Heston says with a chuckle. “You’re never going to get out of it alive.”

It is one of those gray, misty mornings that masquerades as a change in the weather in Southern California, and the Oscar-winning actor, known the world over for his larger-than-life roles in movies such as “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur” is seated outside, by his backyard pool in Coldwater Canyon. He is sitting down for his first interview since announcing in a videotape that doctors have told him he has symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease.

He appears rather frail and walks at a slower pace. The booming baritone that is so familiar on the big screen in characters from Michelangelo in “The Agony and the Ecstasy” to “El Cid” is replaced by a soft conversational tone.

But as he speaks Friday, the 77-year-old movie veteran is quick-witted and delivers vivid recollections of his early years in Hollywood as he looks ahead, he hopes, to years of acting before the curtain finally comes down on his acting career.

“I feel the way I have been always feeling,” Heston says. “Now, I understand the chances are very slim that they will remain that way.”

More than a movie star, Heston has been a lightning rod in political causes fueled by his unswerving support of gun ownership, which has propelled him into the national arena as president of the National Rifle Assn.

The announcement about his health triggered an outpouring of concern from President Bush to Sarah Brady, chairwoman of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Her statement that her group’s thoughts were with Heston and his family at a difficult time moved the actor.

Less than 30 minutes after the news broke, former First Lady Nancy Reagan, whose husband, former President Ronald Reagan, has Alzheimer’s, was on the phone to Heston and his wife, Lydia, giving them her private phone number and telling Lydia Heston she’s there if she’s needed.

Before a routine physical more than two weeks ago, Heston says, he had no idea that he might be given such a sobering diagnosis.

His grown son--producer, director and writer Fraser Heston, who sits with his father during the interview--notes that “to be honest, I noticed a certain amount of forgetfulness,” but he thought it was not unlike the memory lapses suffered by other people of the actor’s age.

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‘I Don’t Have It Now’

Alzheimer’s is a degenerative disease of the brain that affects roughly 4 million Americans, most of them older than 70. Its symptoms include memory loss, disorientation, impaired judgment and personality changes. In its final stages, it results in a coma and death.

What his doctors said, Heston says, is that his symptoms “can be consistent with Alzheimer’s.”

“That was the way they put it,” the actor notes. “ ... I can say for certain that I don’t have it now.”

But Fraser Heston, 47, quickly interrupts his father.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that is correct, Chuck. That is not quite what they told you. They are as certain as they are going to be. We are certainly talking to various physicians, and he’ll continue to be treated and tested. That’s about all the diagnosis that you get.”

Heston won’t talk about the precise course of treatment his doctors are recommending. But he notes that he and his wife work out daily with a personal trainer, John Lafleur, in their home. In fact, while Heston is being interviewed, Lydia Heston is going through stretching exercises in the living room under Lafleur’s supervision.

Heston and his wife have lived in the house near Mulholland Drive for more than four decades.

The post-modern style home was designed and built by the actor’s father after Heston won the Academy Award for best actor in 1959’s “Ben-Hur.” On a table in the backyard is a small statue of a Roman riding furiously in a chariot, similar to the one used in Heston’s gritty movie role.

Heston says he chose to make public his private medical condition because he feared that it would leak out eventually, and then it could appear that he was hiding something. Alzheimer’s, he stresses, is nothing to be ashamed of.

“It seemed the appropriate thing to do,” the actor says.

“We all sat down and talked about this,” adds his son. “It was a big decision. I felt from the beginning that the best thing to do would be to make an announcement right away, tell exactly what we were doing and to let the public know because, inevitably, word gets out.”

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Words of the Bard

Heston’s dramatic announcement, in which he appeared on screen before reporters in a tight head shot with a stark background, was a poignant and moving address to his fans.

At the end of the statement, he quoted lines from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” lines that he knew from memory.

“Be cheerful, sir.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.”

Heston says he has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of concern and good wishes from around the world since his Aug. 10 announcement.

Recalling Nancy Reagan’s phone call, he says: “She talked to Lydia and to me, and it was really a nice thing for her to have done. She didn’t really need to do that. After all, she’s the president’s wife. But she did.

“We knew her [years ago] in New York. We go back a long way. But still, it was a most generous gesture on her part. I wrote her a letter and thanked her, after talking to her on the phone.”

Then, last week, Heston received a brief call from President Bush, who had arrived at his Texas ranch for a vacation.

“He wished me well and was proud of what I had done for my country,” the actor recalls. “Which is, perhaps, overstating it a little.”

“He didn’t ask you to be the next vice president, did he?” Fraser jokes.

“I was hoping for that,” Heston replies with a broad grin. “Funny you should ask!”

Reflecting on Bush’s call, he adds in a sober tone, “That meant a great deal. If the president calls you, why, that’s a good thing.”

Heston then laughs about a letter he received from a friend who is not in show business. “He said, ‘Boy, what a deal. For the first time in my life’--how did he put it?--’the only big shot who remembers my name now says he may forget it.’ It’s a great line. I’ve been using it every day.”

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On Campaign Trail

Heston says he has no plans to leave the political arena. As president of the National Rifle Assn. since 1998, he says, he plans to hit the campaign trail this fall on behalf of candidates, both Republican and Democrat, with similar beliefs.

The fact that Heston is a longtime gun enthusiast has taken on special meaning because of the Alzheimer’s issue. After his announcement, news articles appeared, asking whether he might be forced to give up his guns.

Heston says they are locked up in his house. “I no longer hunt,” he says. “Guns in any house should be locked up.” And his son says that, as time goes by, he will evaluate the situation as necessary.

Throughout the interview, which stretches nearly an hour, Heston never stumbles over his words, gets lost in thought or struggles with his memory.

Indeed, he recalls colorful stories from his past, like the time the emperor of Japan came out of his palace to view “Ben-Hur” at a special screening and the film broke in the projection booth, or how legendary director Cecil B. DeMille chose Heston’s son to be baby Moses in “The Ten Commandments.”

At the hospital, he recalls, there was a telegram for Fraser from DeMille saying: “Congratulations, you’ve got the part.”

Looking ahead, Heston says, he does not think he is in a race to complete projects before Alzheimer’s takes hold. He has a movie project this fall, but is reluctant to give details about it.

(For now, he is enthusiastic about an animated version of “Ben-Hur,” with his son as an executive producer. The film was directed and produced by William R. Kowalchuk, with collaboration from producer John Stronach. The movie will come out next spring, with Heston delivering an introduction, narrating the story and providing the voice of the title role.

Why make an animated version of the classic Lew Wallace novel, especially when the 1959 feature movie, directed by William Wyler, won 11 Oscars, including best film?

“Because no one has ever done it,” Heston replies. “Animated movies are vastly popular everywhere, and to take a significant film like ‘Ben-Hur’ and do it as an animated version is something I think not many people do.”

Heston says his faith is carrying him through a difficult time. “I go to church. I don’t go as often as I should. But I believe in God, and I think the things that have happened to me would not have happened without his consent.”

He managed to get through World War II in one piece, serving in the Army Air Corps, he notes, when a lot of young men didn’t come back.

“You’ve got to think--one might dare to think--God wanted me to get through the war or make ‘Ben-Hur’ in the first place, or make ‘The Ten Commandments’ or to give me children that I am proud of more deeply than I can say. And my grandchildren. They mean a great deal to me. My wife--I couldn’t imagine being married to anyone else.”

Asked what he meant when he said in his announcement that he was facing the future with courage and surrender, he replies: “Sooner or later, the man with the scythe comes along and says, ‘It’s time.’ ”

Heston says that, when that time comes, he would like to say, “OK. I had a great run.”