US actor Charlton Heston is seen during a press conference in Munich on Friday, March 1, 2002. Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing 'Ben-Hur' and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, died Saturday, April 5, according to a statement from the actor's family. He was 84. - Ap

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Charlton Heston, the Oscar winner who portrayed Moses and other heroic figures on film in the '50s and '60s and later championed conservative values as head of the (United States') National Rifle Association, has died. He was 84.

The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said. He declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiselled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement.

Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.

An ideal star

With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past.

"I have a face that belongs in another century," he often remarked.

Heston famously used to say that the only way his gun would be taken away is "from my cold, dead hands".

Heston also engaged in a lengthy feud with liberal Ed Asner during the latter's tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild. His latter-day activism almost overshadowed his achievements as an actor, which were considerable.

Heston lent his strong presence to some of the most acclaimed and successful films of the mid-century.

Ben-Hur won 11 Academy Awards, tying it for the record with the more recent Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). He won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing Ben-Hur.

Heston's other hits include: The Ten Commandments, El Cid, 55 Days at Peking and Planet of the Apes.

At his birth in a Chicago suburb on October 4, 1923, his name was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St Helen, Michigan., where his father, Russell Carter, operated a lumber mill. Growing up in the Michigan woods with almost no playmates, young Charles read books of adventure and devised his own games while wandering the countryside with his rifle.

Charles's parents divorced, and she married Chester Heston, a factory plant superintendent in Wilmette, Ill., an upscale north Chicago suburb. Shy and feeling displaced in the big city, the boy had trouble adjusting to the new high school. He took refuge in the drama department.

Heston wrote several books: The Actor's Life: Journals 1956-1976, published in 1978; Beijing Diary: 1990, concerning his direction of the play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial in Chinese; In the Arena: An Autobiography, 1995; and Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years of American Filmmaking, 1998.

Actor Charlton Heston poses in character, in the title role of the motion picture 'Ben-Hur' on April 29, 1958, at Cinecitta studios in Rome, Italy. -ap