LOS ANGELES, Aug 9: The Oscar-winning actor turned gun-rights advocate Charlton Heston announced on Friday that he is experiencing symptoms consistent with the degenerative memory-loss Alzheimer’s disease.

In a message taped Wednesday and delivered on Friday in Los Angeles, Heston, 78, said his physicians have told him he may have a neurological disorder “whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer’s disease.”

“So I wanted to prepare a few words for you now, because when the time comes, I may not be able to.”

Heston earned an Academy Award in 1959 for “Ben-Hur” and has undertaken a string of biblical roles including Moses in “The Ten Commandments.”

He has maintained national prominence in recent years for his firebrand defense of gun rights laid out in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution.—AFP