RANDOM QUOTES – PT67.

RANDOM QUOTES – PT67.

   

Henry Fonda | Biography, Movies, & Facts | Britannica

HENRY FONDA (1905 – 82)                     

[The father of actors Jane and Peter Fonda had this to say about them in 1976]: ‘I didn’t help or discourage them or lead them by the hand. I’m not trying to set myself up as a good father, because I wasn’t a good father. But I think I knew instinctively that if they did make it, they would like to know they’d done it on their own. I recognize all the problems my children have had, and I don’t claim any credit for what they’ve become. They’ve become what they are in spite of me.’

[On making War and Peace (1956), referring to the author of the book, Count Lev Tolstoy]: ‘When I first agreed to do it, the screenplay by Irwin Shaw was fine, but what happened? King Vidor used to go home nights with his wife and rewrite it. All the genius of Tolstoy went out the window.’

Dan Blocker | 35 TV Personalities You Haven't Thought of Since You Were a Kid | Purple Clover

DAN BLOCKER (1928 – 72)                     

[The man-mountain who played Eric ‘Hoss’ Cartwright in the hit TV series Bonanza (1959-72) recalled words of advice his father gave him]: ‘Son, the rate you’re growing you’re going to be one helluva fella. If you use your size and strength properly it can be a wonderful thing for you. If you don’t, heaven help you. One day you’ll start pushing some little guy around and he’ll pull a gun and blow your brains out!’

Noël Coward - Wikipedia

NOEL COWARD (1899 – 1973)                

[At a dinner party during which the issue of King Edward VIII’s abdication and his intention to wed his mistress Wallis Simpson was raised, Winston Churchill (surprisingly) made the comment: ‘Why shouldn’t he marry his cutie?’ to which Coward replied]: ‘Because England doesn’t want a Queen Cutie!’

Wallis Simpson's marriage to Edward VIII was shockingly miserable

Wallis Simpson & the Duke of Windsor

[Following the Duke of Windsor’s abdication in order to marry the divorced Mrs. Simpson, Coward commented]: ‘A statue should be erected to Mrs. Simpson in every town in England for the blessing she has bestowed upon the country.’

‘Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door in the midst of making love.’

[About playwright Oscar Wilde]: ‘It is extraordinary indeed that such a posing, artificial old queen should have written one of the greatest comedies in the English language!’

‘I don’t much care for Hollywood, I’d rather have a nice cup of cocoa.’

[On Method actors who believed they needed to know a character’s motivation to portray a role]: ‘If you must have motivation, think of your pay packet on Friday.’

Eric Stoltz Does `Kicking' Role On a Wing and Some Scares – Jae-Ha Kim

ERIC STOLTZ (1961 – )                             

[On his early love with virtually unknown actress Ally Sheedy]: ‘We met in history class. Neither of us were acting in films at the time. We were just kids in college. We lived together in a commune on Hollywood Boulevard. It was a huge old Victorian house called the Harris Hollywood House, and there were four or five rooms filled with ex-patriots from England, a handful of homeless people, lots of young, aspiring actors. It was cheap and the atmosphere was exciting. It was a wonderful, messy fervent time filled with crazy people starting their careers and very excited about what might happen.’

Ally Sheedy - Films, Âge & Biographie

Ally Sheedy

[My parents moved to American Samoa when I was three or four years old. My dad was principal of a high school there. It was idyllic for a kid. I had a whole island for a backyard. I lived there until I was eight years old and we moved to Santa Barbara. That was a rough transition to make. I remember being the only kid in second grade who couldn’t tie his shoelaces, because I had never worn shoes on the island.’

Tom London | The Files of Jerry Blake

TOM LONDON (1889 – 1963)                   

[Not a name that readily springs to mind for most movie-goers; Tom London had the distinction of appearing in more pictures than any other actor in cinema history. His official screen credit lists a staggering 656 films, yet the Guinness Book of World Records claims the total may well have ran into thousands! He mostly popped up in B Westerns from the 1920s until the B features died out in the late 1950s and with them his movie career. From then, until his death in 1963, he gained character spots on several TV series.

Ken Maynard (1895-1973) - Find A Grave Memorial

Ken Maynard

This much-loved player, however, found it impossible to get along with one star in particular, the Western matinee idol Ken Maynard]: ‘I did six pictures with him, then refused offers after that. He was mean to his horses and mean to the people he thought he could buffalo. He was often half drunk on a picture and sometimes didn’t even show up.’

ELMC Blog

JANE FONDA (1937 – )                              

[After winning the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a hooker in Klute (1971), she commented on her performance]: ‘Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.’

[Regarding working on the 1962 film Walk on the Wild Side]: ‘Acting with Laurence Harvey is like acting with yourself – only worse.’

[On her regrets about supporting the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War]: ‘It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless.’

[And regarding the infamous photo of her posing with a Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun]: ‘The biggest lapse of judgment in my life. I don’t regret going to North Vietnam. I’m glad I went. I’m glad I did everything I did – except that. I don’t know if I was set up or not…These soldiers sang a song; I sang a song in feeble Vietnamese. Everyone was laughing. I was led to a gun site and I sat down. And I was laughing and clapping, and there were pictures taken…I understand the anger about that.’

[After having her breast implants removed]: ‘My kids are so relieved. They tell me I look normal again.’

The Importance of Being Nancy.. 40 years after Anna May Wong, Nancy… | by  MarriedAtTheMovies | Medium

NANCY KWAN (1939 – )                           

[In a 1962 interview, two years after the release of The World of Suzie Wong]: ‘It’s not that I don’t like reading about myself, but I get unhappy with the kind of things that are written about me. For instance, after ‘Suzie Wong’…I was being written up as a kind of sex kitten. I’m not really at all like that.’

2 Comments

  1. Re: Noel Coward on footnotes. I agree with his sentiment completely. I have always preferred footnotes to be presented as endnotes because I could then, in good conscience, ignore them entirely.

    • I used to feel similarly about footnotes, Craig, until I read my first ‘Flashman’ book by George MacDonald Frazer. Each of the series is based around actual historical events – ‘The Retreat from Kabul, ‘The Indian Mutiny’, The Zulu War of 1879′, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, ‘The Battle of the Little Big Horn, ‘John Brown and Harper’s Ferry’, etc, and the footnotes (end-notes’ actually), are an integral part of the stories. Wonderfully entertaining books, each and every one.

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