Oscar-winning US actor Charlton Heston, whose chiseled features and commanding presence won him epic roles from Moses to Michelangelo, died on Saturday night at the age of 84, his family said.

Heston, a former president of the influential National Rifle Association lobbying group, died at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, the family said in a statement.

The actor, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar for the title role in Ben Hur in which he did many of his own chariot race stunts, had announced in 2002 that he was suffering symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

The family said a private memorial service would be held.

In his heyday, Heston's rugged features and conservative lifestyle seemed to belong to another age. As director Anthony Mann said: "Put a toga on him and he looks perfect." Frank Sinatra once joked: "That guy Heston has to watch it. If he's not careful, he'll get actors a good name."

Actor Charlton Heston poses in character, in the title role of the motion picture Ben-Hur, on April 29, 1958, at Cinecitta studios in Rome, Italy. AP

Between super-spectacles (The 10 Commandments, Ben Hur), science fiction movies (Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green) and disaster epics (Earthquake), Heston pushed for screen versions of Shakespearean plays, directing one, Anthony and Cleopatra.

Heston's most controversial role was not in a movie but as leader of the National Rifle Association, the gun-rights lobby group, from 1998 to 2003. He often stood at the podium at conventions, holding an antique flintlock rifle above his head and telling gun-control advocates they would not get his gun unless they could pry it "from my cold, dead hands".

Born John Charlton Carter (Heston was his stepfather's name) on Oct 4, 1923, in Evanston, Illinois, he made his theatrical debut as Santa Claus in a school play at age 5 and studied acting at Northwestern University.

After a World War II stint as a gunner in the Army Air Corps, Heston headed to Broadway, where he briefly supported himself with nude modeling between acting jobs.

In 1944, he had married fellow Northwestern drama student Lydia Clarke and their marriage lasted 64 years until his death. They had two children, Fraser Clarke and Holly Ann, and three grandchildren Jack Alexander, Ridley and Charlie.

Heston gained attention in 1947 in Anthony and Cleopatra, which landed him a job in the Studio One television series that re-enacted famous plays.

The television work led to movies and Cecil B. DeMille put him in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), portraying a circus manager determined that the show must go on.

In 1956, DeMille cast Heston as Moses for The 10 Commandments, saying the actor reminded him of Michelangelo's statue. The $7.5 million epic was the most expensive film up to that time and became the second-biggest moneymaker of the time, behind Gone With the Wind.

In addition to playing Moses, Heston did the voice of God in the film. His 3-month-old son, Fraser, played the baby Moses floating down the Nile in a basket.

He took some roles in Westerns, with a break in 1957 for Orson Welles' Touch of Evil, followed by more epics.

Less successful were his portrayal of John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told about the life of Jesus and that of Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy, a 1965 commercial flop.