Rights and freedoms make my country great

Charlton Heston

Since then he has championed many causes - he marched with Martin Luther King, campaigned for US presidential candidate John F Kennedy and recently served six terms on the board of the Screen Actors' Guild.

He is currently president of the powerful United States gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, as he believes in the right to own guns.

"Among the many things that the founding fathers did in creating this country was to do with the rights and freedoms that are not found in other countries," he said.

"It is one of the things that makes my country great."

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Heston is best known for his screen portrayals of great figures in history.

He played Moses in The Ten Commandments and won Best Actor in 1959 for chariot-racing epic Ben Hur.

In his most recent performance, Heston played the role of Nazi geneticist Josef Mengele in the film Rua Alguem 5555.

Mengele was known as the Auschwitz Angel of Death, conducting experiments on "hereditary biology and racial hygiene". He died in exile in 1979.

Heston defended his decision to play such a controversial role.

"Bad men are very interesting. Actors always love to play bad men... This was an important part of history and the bad guy lost."