WASHINGTON, April 6: Oscar-winning US actor Charlton Heston — whose chiseled features and commanding presence won him epic roles from Moses to Michelangelo — died on Saturday night at age 84.

Heston died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, with wife Lydia at his side, the family said in a statement. Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar for the title role in Ben Hur in which he did many of the stunts, had announced in 2002 that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

“Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life,” the family said. “No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country. In his own words, ‘I have lived such a wonderful life! I’ve lived enough for two people’.” The family said a private memorial service would be held.

Heston’s most controversial role came not in a movie but as president of the National Rifle Association, the gun-rights lobby group, from 1998 to 2003. “He believed that the sanctity of American freedom was defined by the Bill of Rights and the Bill of Rights was what made the United States different from every country in the world,” Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the NRA, told CNN.

In his acting heyday, Heston’s rugged features and conservative lifestyle seemed to belong to another age. As director Anthony Mann said: “Put a toga on him and he looks perfect.”

Between super-spectacles (The 10 Commandments and Ben Hur), science fiction movies (Planet of the Apes) and disaster epics (Earthquake), Heston pushed for screen versions of Shakespearean plays, directing one, Anthony and Cleopatra.

Born John Charlton Carter (Heston was his stepfather’s name) on Oct 4, 1923, in Evanston, Illinois, he made his theatrical debut as Santa Claus in a school play at age 5. After a World War II stint as a gunner in the Army Air Corps, Heston headed to Broadway, where he briefly supported himself with nude modeling between acting jobs.

In 1944, he married fellow Northwestern University drama student Lydia Clarke and their marriage lasted 64 years until his death. They had two children, Fraser Clarke and Holly Ann, and three grandchildren.—Reuters