ESTHER WILLIAMS:        

[Swimming superstar Esther Williams commented on her time at MGM]: ‘The popular ‘Andy Hardy’ series movies [starring Mickey Rooney] were MGM’s tests for its promising stars such as Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Donna Reed. If you didn’t make it in those pictures, you were never heard from again. All they ever did for me at MGM was change my leading man and the water in my pool. MGM made money off me, but they never understood the art form. Not until the fifth picture did I even get a choreographer. No-one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my underwater movements.’

BOB HOPE:                                      

‘Bing Crosby and I weren’t the types to go around kissing each other. We always had a light jab for each other. One of our stock lines used to be, ‘There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Bing, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for me. And that’s the way we go through life – doing nothing for each other.’

Crosby & Hope on the golf course

[Referring to both the film release of Mommie Dearest (1981), the biography of Joan Crawford written by her daughter Christina, and the equally scathing book about Bette Davis, written by her daughter] ‘Now I know why tigers eat their young.’

[On married couple, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz] ‘Lips and hands were all over one another. I never saw a couple loving each other more after Bogie and Bacall.’

ERNIE KOVACS:                           

[Fans of the comedy western North to Alaska (1960) will always remember with affection Ernie’s terrific performance as conman Frankie Canon opposite John Wayne. Hedda Hopper once asked him why he was ‘trying to kill himself’. This was his response]: ‘Some years ago I had a complete nervous breakdown, was dead broke and had to be put in a charity ward with 30 others. I was there 18 months and doctors didn’t give me long to live. So now each day to me is a special dividend, so I live it to the hilt.’ [Ernie died in a car crash in 1962. He was 42.]

ROBERT FULLER:                        

[The former star of Wagon Train (1957), Laramie (1959) and Emergency! (1972) turned 87 in July 2020. Here he talks about his time as a contract player at Universal Studios]: ‘Well, all the years that I did Laramie and Wagon Train, Tony Curtis’ dressing-room was directly across from mine. His and Rock Hudson’s. I did all three series at Universal Studios…I guess that was fifteen or sixteen years or something like that. But the row of dressing-rooms that I was on was called ‘Whiskey Row’. And the reason it was called ‘Whiskey Row’ was because the first dressing-room was Ward Bond, the second dressing-room was Frank McGrath, the third was Terry Wilson, the fourth was John Smith [the first three were ‘Wagon Train’ stars; Smith was in ‘Laramie’], the fifth was me and the sixth was Lee Marvin. And we all partied after lunch, so they called it ‘Whiskey Row’. Now, in the same amount of space directly across from us, were only two dressing-rooms and they were bungalows; they were fabulous. Ours were great; I mean we had dressing-room, living room, makeup, kitchen, and all that, but these guys were like a condominium, practically. Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson right across from us for all those years.’

Fuller (arrowed) in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

[In his dancing days Fuller landed a bit as one of the ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ dancers accompanying Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)]: ‘She was such a sweetheart and really just a child. She was actually very nervous, but great with all the dancers. I know some directors found her hard to work with, but she was fun with us. We rehearsed that number for three weeks and it took a week to shoot.’

THOMAS BRODIE-SANGSTER:             

[The child actor who played Liam Neeson’s son, Sam, in Love Actually (2003), celebrated his 30^th birthday in May 2020]: ‘I find it weird the way people get so excited about celebrity. If my friends are on the phone, their friends will say: ‘Is that kid from Love Actually there?’ And the phone gets passed around and I have to speak to this stranger asking: ‘Are you famous?’ I don’t know how to answer.’

SHELLEY WINTERS:                               

[According to Shelley, the following telephone conversation took place between her and actress Lauren Bacall when the latter rang her home asking after Shelley’s husband Anthony Franciosa]: Bacall: ‘I’ve been waiting for Tony for an hour. Where the hell is he?’ Winters: ‘You’re complaining to me because my husband is late for a date with you?’ Bacall: ‘If your husband doesn’t respect your marriage, why should I?’

LIAM NEESON:                  

‘I think I realized there were two communities in Northern Ireland when I was about nine or ten, not because there was any trouble but because in certain years my parents would keep us indoors on the 12^th of July. I couldn’t figure that out, because all my mates were out dancing in the streets and I wanted to go out and join them. So it was then that I sensed a ‘them and us’ attitude…I grew up in Northern Ireland, of course. Lived through all the Troubles; saw violence, the results of violence, at first hand. It’s always terrified me and fascinated me. So it was a gut reaction, something about how that rage can eat you alive. I can understand that. I haven’t known it myself, but I knew guys who did. Some of them aren’t on this planet anymore because of it.’

MICHAEL WILDING:       

[Wilding always said he was the worst actor he ever came across, adding]: ‘You can pick out actors by the glazed look that comes into their eyes when the conversation wanders away from themselves.’

EDWARD WOODWARD:             

[The fine British actor who memorably portrayed the title character in Breaker Morant (1980), recalled being introduced to Sir Noel Coward, who looked toward the ceiling, thoughtfully, and said]: ‘Edward Woodward…Edward Woodward…sounds like a fart in the bath!’