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Jitway

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Posts posted by Jitway

  1. Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jen-Hsun Huang's jeremiad against Intel heralds future melees with the chip giant over computer graphics technology. Behind the sound and fury lurks Moore's Law.

     

    Most observers agree that the graphics processing unit (GPU) is gaining on the central processing unit (CPU) as the single most important piece of silicon inside the PC. "When you start looking at a PC today, the (central) processor means less and less," according to Jim McGregor, an analyst at In-Stat. The GPU is simply becoming a better way for PC makers to differentiate in a landscape dominated by Intel CPUs, he said.

     

    The question is, who is going to be the largest provider of that differentiation and what form will it take? The pressure on Nvidia--expressed by Huang on Thursday at an analyst meeting--is understandable, as the company seeks to fend off both Intel and AMD, who are increasingly focused on graphics, said McGregor. "Nvidia faces serious challenges. One of their big customers (AMD) went out and acquired a competitor (ATI) and then (you have) Intel saying we're going into your territory." That has put Nvidia on edge. Intel, not surprisingly, is the biggest threat.

     

    "Intel is going to be as competitive as they can possibly be," said Dean McCarron, founder and principal of Mercury Research. "There is a pretty different vision between what Nvidia has and what Intel has about the future of the market. You seem to see a lot of pressure on some kind of integrated solution (from Intel). That is not compatible with a standalone graphics market, where Nvidia is the largest player."

     

    Huang sees his company doing battle not only with Intel but with a guiding principle put forward by one of the company's founders, Gordon Moore--that the number of transistors on a microprocessor would double every two years--as Intel continues to integrate more graphics silicon into its chipsets. "We can get integrated into anything. Integrated into a (chipset's) south bridge. If you're not good enough, then Moore's law is your enemy. Moore's law will stick you in some random chip. We get integrated into a speck of dust," Huang said at the meeting. Here he was saying that if Nvidia doesn't stay well ahead of Intel--where it is now--the CPU giant will simply integrate the graphics technology into its own silicon and Nvidia will become irrelevant.

     

    Huang is confident his company can maintain its lead. "GPU technology is far, far ahead of integrated graphics," he said. "We can innovate our way forward. The world already has computing companies that make processors for everybody. I'm supposed to add the secret ingredient that differentiates it for the few. Now the few that I'm talking about happens to be hundreds of millions of people. I'm OK with that."

     

    Intel sees a future where it is a bigger graphics player at the high end of the market. At the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai earlier this month, Senior Intel VP Patrick Gelsinger spelled out Intel's vision: ray tracing-based rendering technologies that can be used in high-end gaming, an Nvidia stronghold. "An intro of these capabilities into mainstream gaming we believe is possible in the future," Gelsinger said. Another prong of Intel's strategy is to offer a graphics platform, code-named Larrabee, based on the long-standing x86 instruction set.

     

    Referring to a question from the audience about Intel's Larrabee chip at the analyst meeting on Thursday, Huang responded: "The question from the gentleman is we haven't really talked about Larrabee and is he opening up a can of worms. Well, we're going to open up a can of whoop-ass in a little bit," Huang said, referring to future technology that Nvidia is working on.

     

    Bravado aside, to effectively do battle with a circa-2009 Intel that excels in both central and graphics processing and AMD-ATI, Nvidia must seek new partners. It is turning to one of the only other--aside from Intel and AMD--x86 processor suppliers to build an alternative PC platform. Billed as "The World's Most Affordable Vista Premium PC," the sub-$45 processing platform will combine Via's Isaiah processor with an integrated Nvidia graphics chipset.

     

    "Supporting Via's new CPU is not a big leap for them. And, it's a fantastic vote of confidence for Via because Nvidia wouldn't commit the engineering talent to it if Nvidia didn't believe the processor had a big opportunity," according to Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research.

     

    Nvidia, as it prepares for a long, grueling fight with Intel, got some solace on Friday from a report issued by Doug Freedman of American Technology Research itemizing why Nvidia may be in a better position than casual observers believe. These include:

     

    • Nvidia remains the No. 1 graphics supplier as up to 73 million Intel integrated Graphics Processors (IGPs) are unused in systems due to "double-attach" with a Nvidia solution. (Note: Market share calculations from researchers such as Mercury Research and Jon Peddie Research show Intel as the No. 1 graphics supplier--ed.)

     

    • Intel projects strong performance gains in IGP roadmap (10x performance in 2010), but from a very low performance base. 66 percent of top selling games fail or have issues in current IGP solutions.

     

    • Intel multicores do not handle tasks better than discrete GPUs, but they are complementary in a heterogeneous computing environment.

     

    • Integration of IGP with CPU does not present a threat, but may increase double-attach (adding a graphics card to a system with an existing integrated graphics chip) opportunities for Nvidia as it continues to add differentiated features for the few high-end graphics, gamer customers.

     

     

     

     

    I found this a very good read. Nvidia is on top now but if Intel does continue on the pace it has in CPU technology Nvidia could be a thing of the past in time. Motherboard will just have graphic onboard. It could happen.

     

    Source HERE

  2. Rock fans across the country who can brave the heat will have ample opportunities to see acts like Jack Johnson, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and the Raconteurs take the stage in an array of unconventional settings as part of the concert industry’s increasing wager on summer music festivals.

     

    Faced with an audience that has been atomized by the dizzying music choices available online, concert promoters are straining to book diverse shows in whatever open space is available, be it a ranch in Michigan, a soccer field in Colorado or a racetrack in Maryland.

     

    In a slumping music business such events pack a box office punch: the top five American festivals generated a combined $60 million in ticket sales last year, according to Billboard magazine’s estimates.

     

    At least four new festivals will make their debuts this summer, raising the total to more than a dozen. Various concert promoters are already warning of the dangers of oversaturation, and point to the clutch of stars headlining multiple festivals.

     

    The most extreme case: Jack Johnson, the laid-back singer-songwriter who has released the top-selling album of the year so far, is booked for at least five festivals, including two on the second weekend in August: the inaugural All Points West event in Jersey City and the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore.

     

    The risk of overlapping talent lineups means that each promoter must try to suffuse his event with a distinct flair. In Michigan, where organizers of the first Rothbury festival (July 3 to 6) have booked the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer and Snoop Dogg, fans can attend yoga sessions or sit in on a discussion of energy independence with a Stanford professor.

     

    But there is no guarantee that all the events will survive. Promoters of a planned festival in Vineland, N.J., canceled it to avoid direct competition with All Points West. Sales at some of the new events have been uneven, promoters say. The Mile High Music Festival in Denver (July 19 and 20), featuring the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer, is regarded as a breakout hit; the outlook for All Points West, featuring Radiohead for two nights and Mr. Johnson on the third, is more uncertain, based on early ticket sales.

     

    The established festivals do not appear to be suffering much. Lollapalooza, which was reimagined as a two-day festival in the lakeside Grant Park in Chicago in 2005 after sputtering as a touring attraction, is seen as an especially strong draw this year (Aug. 1 to 3), with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine and Kanye West among the acts.

     

    Charlie Walker, a partner in C3 Presents, Lollapalooza’s promoter, said sales were roughly 15 percent ahead of last year, with three-day tickets selling for $175 to $205.

     

    “It’s a big marketplace,” he said. “We’ve got a little ways to go before we see any saturation.”

     

    The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which began in 1999 at a polo field in the desert two hours from Los Angeles, stunned fans this week by adding Prince to a lineup that had been branded as underwhelming. (The event’s previously announced headliners included Roger Waters, Portishead and Mr. Johnson). Organizers of the festival, which runs from April 25 to 27 and customarily draws as many as 60,000 people a day, said before the Prince announcement that they were not concerned that it had not yet sold out. Last year’s edition sold out in February, mainly because of its booking of a reunited Rage Against the Machine, an event that Coachella’s promoter, Paul Tollett, called “an anomaly.”

     

    All the festivals, however, are coping with another X factor: whether the faltering economy will dampen ticket sales. That has not stopped organizers from trying to woo well-heeled fans and corporate clients. Lollapalooza offers private cabanas, with an all-day buffet, for $25,000 and up for parties of 20 or more. Bonnaroo, held on several hundred acres of Tennessee farmland, where fans camp for the weekend (June 12 to 15), is marketing V.I.P. passes, which include access to a private prefestival party and special restroom and shower facilities, for $1,169.50 per pair. (Scheduled bands include Pearl Jam and Metallica.)

     

    In general, rock festivals have built their reputations by offering fans the chance to pack months of club crawling into one weekend and discover new favorites. But some talent managers caution against the idea that emerging acts can build their names through playing the full complement of festivals, where artist sets are sometimes abbreviated, and fans can be distracted.

     

    Mike Martinovich, who manages the rock group My Morning Jacket, said the band had agreed to play the two most established festivals, Coachella and Bonnaroo, and turned down other offers to keep from seeming like too much of a commodity. “Doing a whole tour of festivals would be disastrous,” he said.

     

    And some promoters worry that similar talent lineups will limit the festivals’ collective appeal. Mr. Tollett said the fear was “that it could become homogenized, and everyone have the same bill and the same sort of feel at the festival.”

     

    “If every one of them is just a McFranchise,” he added, “there’s a specialness that’ll be lost.”

     

     

     

    I agree that this year should be better then last. Though last year was fantastic I thought. The only thing I have though is the price of the tickets just keep going up. If it continues this way soon only the rich will get to attend the concerts. I know that most bands don't want this. Because after all the reason to tour is for the love of playing live in front of all your adoring fans. If was not for us fans the bands would have no income. Also these prices for VIP tickets is really getting out of hand. I have bought a few in my time. Use to be $150 a ticket and last I bought was $300 a ticket for Megadeth but hell now they go for over a Grand and there is no way in hell I am paying that. Get your heads out of the clouds Musicians and bring it back to reality.

     

    Source HERE

  3. You could probably restore your cmos with jumpers. Most cmos now days have a backup feature. Check your jumpers in your manual to reset the cmos.

    Ya that is if you accidentally change you CMOS settings. But if you pull the battery and leave it out for any length of time all is lost. Backup and all.

  4. Well since you are living the life sorta like in the hit tv series Threes Company..except one of the women is your actual girlfriend. But just think what a eposide this would have made for the tv series. Jack comes home to have Janet and Chrissy watching porn...say some John Holmes stuff....lol. What a hit that would have been.

  5. Old rockers give new meaning to life and lyrics.

     

    The unlikely image of a 92-year-old war bride screaming The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" into a microphone backed by an elderly chorus has already captivated live audiences around the world.

     

    Now the film version is set to do the same.

     

    "Young at Heart" documents the group of U.S. senior citizens belting out songs by Sonic Youth through to James Brown. The small-town act has been running for some 25 years but international fame is now at hand.

     

    "A monster has been created," British filmmaker Stephen Walker joked in an interview about the film's rise.

     

    It started as a 2006 British television documentary and became an audience favorite at the Los Angeles and Sundance film festivals in 2007 and 2008.

     

    The opening sequence showing Eileen Hall, then 92, singing the 1982 hit from punk-rock group The Clash provided the inspiration for Walker when he first saw the group onstage in London in 2005.

     

    "I was totally blown away," Walker said. "It was an amazing way to look at this song afresh. It becomes a song about love and death and not about relationships."

     

    That led to Walker spending several months filming the group in Northampton, Massachusetts -- population 30,000 -- as members struggled to master lyrics from Sonic Youth's "Schizophrenia" to Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can."

     

    The film opens across the United States this week and, after scoring distribution deals, will soon open in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Australia.

     

    Besides giving new meaning to lyrics from popular hits, the film is comedic and poignant as it explores friendship, old age and death.

     

    It also addresses a society fed up with a "youth-obsessed and celebrity culture," Walker said.

     

    "People are getting something extraordinary from this," Walker said about the standing ovations at preview screenings in the United States. "Somehow a nerve is being touched here."

     

    Bob Cilman, the group's musical director for the past 25 years, said the popularity showed that audiences wanted to see more elderly people in the public spotlight, on stage or in film.

     

    "Whether it is Australia, France or America, everybody is obsessed with youth and we fly in the face of that," said Cilman, 54. "People applaud it because (youth culture) is not what people want but it is what people are spoon-fed."

     

    Stan Goldman, 78, shown in the film singing a duet of James Brown's "I Feel Good," told Reuters the group did not seek rock star status.

     

    "In our wildest imaginations we never anticipated this," he said.

     

    Pat Linderme, 77, said the goal was simple -- to sing and be happy.

     

    "You get so caught up in your singing you forget your pain," she said.

     

     

     

    Man this is cool as hell. I hope when I get to the ripe old age of 92...if I live that long...that I can still belt out a note or two. Rock on all you oldsters out there.

     

    Source HERE

  6. Employees of the Dr. Phil television show posted bail for a central Florida teenager jailed for taking part in a videotaped beating of another teen, a spokeswoman for the show's host confirmed Saturday.

     

    Staff members of the talk show helped one of eight teens facing charges in the case post bond this weekend, "Dr. Phil" McGraw's spokeswoman Terri Corigliano said in an e-mail.

     

    "We have helped guests and potential guests in the past when they need financial assistance to come on the show — assisting with clothing allowance, lost wages, accommodations, travel and necessities," Corigliano wrote. "In this case, certain staff members went beyond our guidelines (re the bail being paid)."

     

    "These staff members have been spoken to and our policies reiterated. In addition, we have decided not to go forward with the story as our guidelines have been compromised."

     

    The show's producers were in the process of booking guests for a program about the case, Corigliano wrote.

     

    Only two of the teens remained jailed late Saturday night, Polk County Sheriff's Office spokesman Scott Wilder said.

     

    The teens, whose ages range from 14 to 18, face kidnapping and misdemeanor battery charges. Three also face a felony charge of witness tampering. The state attorney's office says all will be tried as adults.

     

    They are accused of participating in a violent beating of another teenager, which was videotaped and has now been viewed widely on national television and the Internet.

     

    A judge on Friday set bails ranging from $30,000 to $37,000 for the teenagers.

     

     

     

    Can you say OOPS! So heads gonna roll on this one. Tsst tsst Dr. Phil guess you don't keep the staff on a short enough leash. :)

     

     

    Source HERE

  7. J.K. Rowling has arrived at a Manhattan courthouse to testify about her lawsuit against a publisher.

     

    Rowling says her copyrights are being violated by a fan who plans to publish a Harry Potter encyclopedia.

     

    The showdown between Rowling and the fan, Steven Vander Ark, is scheduled to last most of the week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

     

    Rowling is scheduled to testify Monday in a trial that is sure to generate huge interest among Harry Potter fans and the public. Her lawyer has arranged with the judge to have a private security guard for Rowling in the courtroom and for the author to spend breaks in the seclusion of a jury room — away from any die-hard Potter fans in attendance.

     

    The trial comes eight months after Rowling published her seventh and final book in the widely popular Harry Potter series. The books have been published in 64 languages, sold more than 400 million copies and spawned a film franchise that has pulled in $4.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

     

    Rowling brought the lawsuit last year against Vander Ark's publisher, RDR Books, to stop publication of the Harry Potter Lexicon.

     

    Rowling is actually a big fan of the Harry Potter Lexicon website that Vander Ark runs. But she draws the line when it comes to publishing the book and charging $24.95. She also says it fails to include any of the commentary and discussion that enrich the website and calls it "nothing more than a rearrangement" of her own material.

     

    One of her lawyers, Dan Shallman, on Friday told Judge Robert P. Patterson, who will hear the trial without a jury, that Rowling "feels like her words were stolen."

     

    He said the author felt so personally violated that she made her own comparisons between her seven best-selling novels and the lexicon and was ready to testify about the similarities in dozens of instances.

     

    David Saul Hammer, a lawyer for RDR Books, which plans to sell the lexicon, said the publisher will not challenge the claim by Rowling that much of the material in the lexicon infringed her copyrights.

     

    But the judge will decide whether the use of the material by the small Muskegon, Mich., publisher was legal because it was used for some greater purpose, such as a scholarly pursuit.

     

    In court papers filed prior to the trial, Rowling said she was "deeply troubled" by the book.

     

    "If RDR's position is accepted, it will undoubtedly have a significant, negative impact on the freedoms enjoyed by genuine fans on the Internet," she said. "Authors everywhere will be forced to protect their creations much more rigorously, which could mean denying well-meaning fans permission to pursue legitimate creative activities."

     

    In court papers, Vander Ark, 50, said he was a teacher and school librarian in Byron Center, Mich., before recently moving to London to begin a career as a writer.

     

    He said he joined an adult online discussion group devoted to the Harry Potter books in 1999 before launching his own website as a hobby a year later. Since then, neither Rowling nor her publisher had ever complained about anything on it, he said.

     

    In May 2004, he said, Rowling mentioned his website on her own, writing, "This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an Internet cafe while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home."

     

    The website attracts about 1.5 million page views per month and contributions from people all over the world, Vander Ark said.

     

    He said he initially declined proposals to convert the website into an encyclopedia, in part because he believed until last August that in book form, it would represent a copyright violation.

     

    After Rowling released the final chapter in the Harry Potter series that same month, Vander Ark was contacted by an RDR Books employee, who told him that publication of the lexicon would not violate copyright law, he said.

     

    Still, to protect himself, Vander Ark said he insisted that RDR Books include a clause in his contract that the publisher would defend and pay any damages that might result from claims against him.

     

    He said it was decided that the lexicon would include sections from the Lexicon website that give descriptions and commentary on individual names, places, spells, and creatures from Harry Potter stories.

     

    In his court statement, Vander Ark still sounds like a fan, saying the lexicon "enhances the pleasure of readers of the Potter novels, and deepens their appreciation of Ms. Rowling's achievement."

     

    But the affection no longer seems a shared experience.

     

    In court Friday, Hammer said Rowling's lawyers did not want Vander Ark in the courtroom while Rowling testifies.

     

     

     

    Oh come on let the dude make some money. After all he put a lot of hard work into his site. Hell Rowling even likes the site. It is not like the money he makes off it is going to hurt her in the pocket book. Really the biatch needs to lighten up a bit.

     

    Source HERE

  8. Sure, we had cable television, but back then that

    was only like 15 channels

    and there was no on screen menu and no remote control!

    You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!

    You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!

    You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the

    channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons

    on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?!

    We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

     

     

    Man this is so true. Now we have so many channels it is unreal. And with the internet there is even more. You youngins have no idea how could you have it...lol.

  9. Yeah... I have a very bad problem with my desktop PC and hope that someone can help me: I bought a SATA to USB converter and plugged it into my first USB hub, without external power supply and it got disconnected... so I thought, to many input, try the other one with external power supply... but didn't worked either, same probleme, all external devices got disconnected and the USB HUB was "dead".

    So I thought, I should probably try the normal USB... plugged it into and then all my connectors on the back of my PC lost connection! USB & PS2!

    So no mouse input etc.

    I don't know what I should do, my PC started into vista, but I couldn't control, so I've done a BIG failure: Removed the bios battery and hoped, that after that all will work like before, BUT now my PC awaits input and I don't even come into Vista anymore.

    HELP! I have a lot projects on my Desktop PC and don't know how to save them!

     

    Well the usb problem was most likely a driver problem with the converter at first. Vista is a pain about drivers and external devices. There is a possibility that you may have fried the usb ports but highly unlikely.

     

    Now the bigger problem. When you removed your battery from MB you lost your CMOS. Which is stored in the chipset of the MB. This is what tells your PC or MB where everything is. So guess what. Get another MB. There really is no way to restore the CMOS. You would have to input everything in your BIOS manually and that is not gonna happen. It is like when your battery dies in a MB samething happens. All I can suggest is getting another board.

     

    Hope this helps some. Sorry about your luck.

  10. I agree that record companies/labels are not needed anymore. But promoters are, you need a real good one to sell your stuff and get you the big gigs that really pay. Cause face it playing at big sold out shows is where the real money is. Just have to be careful when choosing a promoter cause they are those that like the RIAA will take you to the cleaners.

  11. Ouch! I bet he pays attention next time I know I did. I got nailed in the chest by a lined foul ball. Was setting 2 rows up on home dugout side at a Reds game. Man it took the wind right out of my pipes. Could not breath for a minute. No broken bones just a bruise the size of most of my chest.

  12. Good then your site will be linked here. Well just to say good luck on the site and I will try to post some later this week. Busy with life and 3 jobs makes it hard to spread the wealth. But good luck. The more emulation sites I say the better.

  13. Ya not the best if you want to send something that you don't want anyone else to see but you and the one you send it too. I have a gmail account but use it rarely. I suggest if you want a true email account that you can trust get on through a hosting site and get yourself a domain name. I have 4 and they have enough space to satisfy all my needs for privacy.

     

     

    Hell I can give ya one at jitway.net if you want. Say BK or BlackKnight@jitway.net....your call. No skin off my back either way.

  14. Charlton 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, 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.

     

    Powers 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 chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played," Heston's family said in a statement. "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."

     

    Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease, saying, "I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure."

     

    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.

     

    The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.

     

    In June 1998, Heston was elected president of the National Rifle Association, for which he had posed for ads holding a rifle. He delivered a jab at then-President Clinton, saying, "America doesn't trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don't trust you with our guns."

     

    Heston stepped down as NRA president in April 2003, telling members his five years in office were "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."

     

    Later that year, Heston was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "The largeness of character that comes across the screen has also been seen throughout his life," President Bush said at the time.

     

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

     

    He liked the cite the number of historical figures he had portrayed:

     

    Andrew Jackson ("The President's Lady," "The Buccaneer"), Moses ("The Ten Commandments"), title role of "El Cid," John the Baptist ("The Greatest Story Ever Told"), Michelangelo ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"), General Gordon ("Khartoum"), Marc Antony ("Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra"), Cardinal Richelieu ("The Three Musketeers"), Henry VIII ("The Prince and the Pauper").

     

    Heston made his movie debut in the 1940s in two independent films by a college classmate, David Bradley, who later became a noted film archivist. He had the title role in "Peer Gynt" in 1942 and was Marc Antony in Bradley's 1949 version of "Julius Caesar," for which Heston was paid $50 a week.

     

    Film producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca") spotted Heston in a 1950 television production of "Wuthering Heights" and offered him a contract. When his wife reminded him that they had decided to pursue theater and television, he replied, "Well, maybe just for one film to see what it's like."

     

    Heston earned star billing from his first Hollywood movie, "Dark City," a 1950 film noir. Cecil B. DeMille next cast him as the circus manager in the all-star "The Greatest Show On Earth," named by the Motion Picture Academy as the best picture of 1952. More movies followed:

     

    "The Savage," "Ruby Gentry," "The President's Lady," "Pony Express" (as Buffalo Bill Cody), "Arrowhead," "Bad for Each Other," "The Naked Jungle," "Secret of the Incas," "The Far Horizons" (as Clark of the Lewis and Clark trek), "The Private War of Major Benson," "Lucy Gallant."

     

    Most were forgettable low-budget films, and Heston seemed destined to remain an undistinguished action star. His old boss DeMille rescued him.

     

    The director had long planned a new version of "The Ten Commandments," which he had made as a silent in 1923 with a radically different approach that combined biblical and modern stories. He was struck by Heston's facial resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses, especially the similar broken nose, and put the actor through a long series of tests before giving him the role.

     

    The Hestons' newborn, Fraser Clarke Heston, played the role of the infant Moses in the film.

     

    More films followed: the eccentric thriller "Touch of Evil," directed by Orson Welles; William Wyler's "The Big Country," costarring with Gregory Peck; a sea saga, "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" with Gary Cooper.

     

    Then his greatest role: "Ben-Hur."

     

    Heston wasn't the first to be considered for the remake of 1925 biblical epic. Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster and Rock Hudson had declined the film. Heston plunged into the role, rehearsing two months for the furious chariot race.

     

    He railed at suggestions the race had been shot with a double: "I couldn't drive it well, but that wasn't necessary. All I had to do was stay on board so they could shoot me there. I didn't have to worry; MGM guaranteed I would win the race."

     

    The huge success of "Ben-Hur" and Heston's Oscar made him one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. He combined big-screen epics like "El Cid" and "55 Days at Peking" with lesser ones such as "Diamond Head," "Will Penny" and "Airport 1975." In his later years he played cameos in such films as "Wayne's World 2" and "Tombstone."

     

    He often returned to the theater, appearing in such plays as "A Long Day's Journey into Night" and "A Man for All Seasons." He starred as a tycoon in the prime-time soap opera, "The Colbys," a two-season spinoff of "Dynasty."

     

    At his birth in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, his name was Charles Carter. His parents moved to St. Helen, Mich., 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.

     

    "What acting offered me was the chance to be many other people," he said in a 1986 interview. "In those days I wasn't satisfied with being me."

     

    Calling himself Charlton Heston from his mother's maiden name and his stepfather's last name, he won an acting scholarship to Northwestern University in 1941. He excelled in campus plays and appeared on Chicago radio. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and served as a radio-gunner in the Aleutians.

     

    In 1944 he married another Northwestern drama student, Lydia Clarke, and after his army discharge in 1947, they moved to New York to seek acting jobs. Finding none, they hired on as codirectors and principal actors at a summer theater in Asheville, N.C.

     

    Back in New York, both Hestons began finding work. With his strong 6-feet-2 build and craggily handsome face, Heston won roles in TV soap operas, plays ("Antony and Cleopatra" with Katherine Cornell) and live TV dramas such as "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Of Human Bondage."

     

    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.

     

    Besides Fraser, who directed his father in an adventure film, "Mother Lode," the Hestons had a daughter, Holly Ann, born Aug. 2, 1961. The couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.

     

    In late years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.

     

    He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

     

    At a Time Warner stockholders meeting, he castigated the company for releasing an Ice-T album that purportedly encouraged cop killing.

     

    Heston wrote in "In the Arena" that he was proud of what he did "though now I'll surely never be offered another film by Warners, nor get a good review in Time. On the other hand, I doubt I'll get a traffic ticket very soon."

     

     

     

    What a great actor and gun activate. Charles you will be missed that is for sure.

     

     

    Source HERE

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