The longer I live, I have more opportunities to learn and experience things. The more I learn, the greater my realization becomes that there is so much more to know and so little time to learn it all.

With this realization comes sadness when you see people pass away. Charlton Heston, the epitome of the rugged individuals that are Americans, passed away at his home on Saturday at the age of 84.

The mention of his name conjures up a different iconic image for nearly every person. When you hear his name do you think of Moses? Or perhaps Judah Ben-Hur. Commander George Taylor from "Planet of the Apes" or Robert Neville from "The Omega Man" (yes, someone did play the role before Will Smith, in fact Vincent Price also portrayed the last man on earth before Heston). How about Michelangelo or Andrew Jackson? Perhaps Detective Robert Thorn from "Soylent Green" comes to mind.

All iconic roles, all quite memorable, all part of our pop culture's collective memory. That is the power of film. It captures a moment in time that can be replayed over and over again. I imagine that there are some people who recall Heston when reading about Moses. It's hard not to see that image of the parting of the Red Sea when thinking about "The Ten Commandments."

Heston, like many other actors, chose to be an active citizen, working for causes that he believed in. Ten years ago, he was elected president of the National Rifle Association, a position he held for a record four terms, retiring in 2001. He was an active warrior in the "Culture Wars," protesting those that were ""storming our values, assaulting our freedoms, killing our self-confidence in who we are and what we believe."

In 1992, appalled by the lyrics on "Cop Killer," a recording by the rap artist Ice T, he blasted the album at a Time Warner stockholders meeting and was a force in having it withdrawn from the marketplace.

Heston was one of those people on and off the screen that you always knew where you stood. There would be no spin control, he would see things as right or wrong. And you could expect a forceful argument from him, a fair but passionate fight for what he believed in.

Like many of my generation, I saw Heston as Moses on television, then as Judah Ben-Hur. Did you know that he did nearly all of his own work in that chariot scene, training with those white horses for weeks? He said he nearly tore his arms out their sockets trying to control the team.

When he portrayed Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy," he read hundreds of Michelangelo's letters and practiced how to sculpt and paint convincingly.

As a young boy, it was Heston's roles in science fiction that made him a hero in my eyes. Who could forget Taylor in "Planet of the Apes" hoping to find a brave new world because man had messed up the planet he left, only to find that he had returned to Earth and man had, in fact messed everything up? The final scene with the ruined Statue of Liberty is powerful. How about the first time he speaks to the apes: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"

Great stuff.

Heston's "Omega Man" and "Soylent Green" offered glimpses of a future that wasn't especially appealing, but there he was, doing the right thing, fighting the bad guys, trying to make sense out of madness.

To me, Charlton Heston was one of the last rugged heroes of the cinema, rivaling John Wayne as a cultural icon. He battled prostate cancer and Alzheimer's Disease in his final years and did it all with grace and class.

He wouldn't have had it any other way.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.