Quote Originally Posted by Bob C. View Post
I guess I'm in the minority. I thought he was an awful, melodramatic over-actor who made a bunch of truly bad movies.
Believe it or not, actors have to key their performance to the requirements of the director. A good director gets really good performances, a so-so director will often get duff performances out of great actors. Acting styles also change with the passing of time. As scripts become more complex, or deal with previously taboo subjects, acting styles adapt. John Barrymore's performance in SVENGALI would be laughable today, just as Keanu Reeves performance in THE MATRIX would leave Heston's audiences baffled in the 1950s. Heston's career has to be judged in it's time, and by the standards of that time.

In my personal opinion Heston's prowess as an actor is best displayed in two films: A TOUCH OF EVIL, and BEN HUR. BEN HUR won 11 Academy Awards-- a record at the time. It would have probably won a 12th Oscar, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn't hand out statues for The Most Boring Picture of the Year, which BEN HUR certainly was. However, Heston's performance is superb (as is his laconic portrayal of "Chinese" Gordon in the film Khartoum).

Quite often viewers ascribe "bad acting" to a picture they either dislike (and I don't like BEN HUR) or don't understand-- well, all actors have the occasional bad day, but 9 times out of 10 it's the director who is at fault if the actor delivers a sub-par performance.

Mr. Heston was a consummate actor, always prepared and always on the set ready to work. Unfortunately, not every director was up to his standards.