About 250 invited guests, including family members, politicians and film industry A-listers, attended the funeral service for actor Charlton Heston on Saturday at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades. ‘I certainly knew him as a great gentleman of great warmth and hospitality,’ said Rev. Michael Scott Seiler, who officiated at the services. Heston, 84, died April 5, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He and his wife, Lydia, had attended Sunday services at St. Matthew’s since the early 1980s. ‘The relationship between Mr. Heston and his wife made the greatest impression on me,’ Seiler told the Palisadian-Post on Monday. ‘Just a few days before he passed away, Lydia told me that they had just celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. They had one of those extraordinary rare marriages. Even after all the years they were married, you could sense there was a magic between them.’ Appearing frail and delicate, Nancy Reagan entered the church on the arm of actor Tom Selleck. Following the nearly two-hour ceremony, Reagan left the premises with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Entertainment-industry friends of Heston present at the funeral included actress Olivia DeHavilland, actor Keith Carradine, directors Oliver Stone and Rob Reiner, and singer Pat Boone. Several eulogies were delivered, including one by Shakespearean actor Julian Glover and a pair by Heston’s children. His daughter, Holly Heston Rochell, recalled her father’s love for Shakespeare and Tennyson, and Fraser Clarke Heston reminisced about his father’s fondness for tennis. One of the last stalwarts of Old Hollywood, Heston was as devoutly religious as he was patriotic. “Charlton sat every Sunday morning right there,” said Seiler at the service, pointing to a front pew. The reverend later told the Post that members of the congregation respected Heston’s celebrity and didn’t impose upon him. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Heston felt comfortable here,’ Seiler said. ‘There was a sense that they were a part of our community in a very wonderful and ordinary way.’ Recalling that Heston was the star of such biblical epics as ‘Ten Commandments’ and ‘Ben-Hur,’ Seiler added: ‘There was the one time when I had to read from the text of Moses and the burning bush and there he was near the front row,’ Seiler said, chuckling. ‘The irony was not lost on either of us.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
