Actor Charlton Heston dies at 84

April 05, 2008 The actor, who won an Oscar for the title role in 1959's "Ben-Hur," died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, said family spokesman Bill Powers, who declined to comment on the cause of death. Saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure," he began to exit the public stage, where he was known for his work with SAG and the American Film Institute as well as for political activism that saw him take up causes that ranged from civil rights to gun ownership. Heston's towering presence was tailor-made for the wide-screen epics of the 1950s and '60s, when he starred in such films as The Ten Commandments, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking, The Agony and the Ecstasy and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

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