SCI FI PI

Charlton Heston, star of such Sci Fi classics as The Omega Man and Planet of the Apes, died on Saturday night, Los Angeles time. He was 84. No cause of death has been released, although he had announced he was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease in 2002.

Heston made his first film in 1941 and his last in 2003. In one of the great Hollywood careers, he starred in over 120 films, including Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and Touch of Evil.

He was never a stranger to Sci Fi, performing in a string of late sixties and early seventies classics that helped redefine the genre.

These included The Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970), The Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1973).

In later years he appeared in Solar Criss (1990), SeaQuest DSV (1994), The Outer Limits (2000) and narrated Armageddon (1998). He also appeared in a cameo in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Lydia Clarke, and his two children, Holly and Fraser.