For those of us of a certain age -- ok, our forties -- Charlton Heston was Moses and Ben Hur on TV, and the guy who kept science fiction alive pre-Star Wars. His line readings are classics in Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, and Soylent Green.

For geeks making their way through the 1970s, these films were cutting edge, dark, apocalyptic sagas that really captured the ire of the age. There were no happy endings. They were downright depressing.

Though younger filmgoers might think him somewhat of a kook, especially after his lamentable appearance in Michael Moore's anti-gun film, Heston marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and was one of the first big white movie stars to be featured in interracial love scenes.

And he was also funny. His SNL appearance was a classic, with a great Planet of the Apes intro, and this funny self-parody of his National Rifle Association affiliations:

via videosift.com

Here's a classic line from Planet of the Apes:

And here's the ending to that movie, a shocking scene at the height of the Cold War:

How's this for a feel-good movie of the 1970s: a vision of overpopulation, global warming, food shortages and chaos in which the chief food source is a cracker called Soylent Green:

Finally, the Omega Man, recently remade by Will Smith as I Am Legend:

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