Wonder if he made a point of holding onto his weapon at the very end so that someone would have to pry it from his cold dead hands?
He made a lot of great films, and most especially I will give him props for Touch Of Evil, which was famously recut ten years ago according to Orson Welles wishes because Heston had saved Welles' notes. According to IMDb, Welles only got (and took) the directing gig because Heston pushed for it.