EMMA STONE (1988 – )                            

The Favourite stars – (L to R) Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman & Emma Stone

[Actors and actresses appear to be an entirely different breed today than before, as we see when Emma describes her lesbian scene with actress Olivia Colman in The Favourite (2018)]: ‘When I fingered the queen [Olivia Colman], we had to put a sponge between her legs because it had to have movement. We couldn’t stop laughing, because I’m fingering a sponge and she’s making sounds. It’s a close-up of my face, but her face is off-camera. We just kept cracking up because the circumstance, this sponge was so ridiculous. So that one was tough.’

DENNIS QUAID (1954 – )                          

[Regarding his recovery from cocaine addiction]: ‘Well, a couple of times I had people come have a talk with me, but I was operating, for the most part, on two hours of sleep a night, and I realized, ‘I can’t do this and last very long.’ So I cleaned up (in the early 90s) and then the jobs stopped coming. You clean up your life and you think you’re supposed to be rewarded for it, but things actually got worse. On the other hand, if I hadn’t sobered up, I probably wouldn’t be alive today.’

JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (1962 – )       

Vic Morrow

[On the death of her father, actor Vic Morrow, on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He was estranged from Jennifer at the time and left her just $100 in his will.]: ‘I always hoped we could work together and, through that, resolve whatever needed to be resolved between us. Now that chance is lost. That’s the real tragedy.’

SANDRA OH (1971 – )                                

[Canadian-born actress Sandra Oh, aka Dr Cristina Yang in Grey’s Anatomy (2005-14]: ‘On a Canadian set, everybody is equal. You get paid the same. You live together in barracks. You have a communal kitchen. You buy and cook your own food.’

LARRY STORCH (1923 – )            

[He portrayed Corporal Randolph Agarn in TV’s F Troop (1965-7). At the end of WW2 he was still in his sailor’s uniform and hitch-hiking from Los Angeles to New York City, when he was picked up by bandleader Phil Harris. After listening to Larry doing a few of his impressions, Harris took him to Ciro’s nightclub and introduced him to a couple of people there. Larry recalls.]: ‘Sitting in an empty room was Lucille Ball listening to her husband Desi Arnaz rehearse the band for tomorrow evening’s opening. I did Frank Morgan and various other notable actors. Lucille Ball said lose the sailor suit, get into a blue suit and be here tomorrow at 8 p.m. You will lead off, and Des will follow you onstage. That’s the way it worked out.’

‘Sometimes, I walk out on stage, and you can hear from the balcony, ‘Hey, Agarn!’ It still tickles me after forty years. They don’t make them like F Troop anymore!’

P J SOLES (1950 – )  

PJ & Bill Murray in Stripes (1981)                              

[The Germany-born actress P J Soles (married in real life to actor Dennis Quaid at the time), played Bill Murray’s army girlfriend, Stella, in Stripes (1981), and spoke about working with Murray on the picture]: ‘That was really fun, although I’ll say, Bill is a kind of depressed guy, except when the camera’s rolling. Then he puts it all out there and tries to be funny and witty and a genius, but otherwise, he’s not that funny.’

MARGOT KIDDER (1948-2018)             

[The Canadian actress who found fame as Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the 1978 hit film Superman was an outspoken opponent of President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. In fact, after living in the US for 34 years, she became a US citizen in August 2004, just so she could vote against him as part of her protest against the war]: ‘God, he makes me want to slash my wrists. He’s so embarrassing I have to leave the room when he’s on the news. What a monkey!’

‘The thing about being famous is, first of all, it’s weird. The only people who get how weird it is are other famous people. So there’s this unspoken club where you go, and say to each other: ‘Oh God, if they only knew how ordinary I was, they wouldn’t be interested.’

JACK PALANCE (1919 – 2006)               

[On his aircraft accident in World War Two when his bomber crashed and burned, in which he received severe head injuries and required major facial reconstruction]: ‘There are some moments you never get over. That was one of them.’

DALE ROBERTSON (1923-2013)            

Dale in Dynasty

[On why his character was killed off in Dynasty (1981)]: ‘They got me to do fifteen episodes…but that was enough. They kept putting all this sex and stuff into it and I didn’t do it the way they wanted. I never had the ability to keep my big mouth shut.’

PAULETTE GODDARD (1910-90)                      

[The former actress wife of Charlie Chaplin commented]: ‘I think everybody at the studio thought I had a boyfriend who owned a garage because I used to go to work every morning in such big cars. Actually, you see, I was financially independent, and my passion was automobiles. I had three of them, all shiny and expensive.’

‘Nobody on-screen fascinates me as much as Paulette Goddard. I’m probably her greatest fan, bar none. I see my own pictures six or seven times. I also take in my own pictures to see what I do wrong or what I do right. Actors and actresses who say they never go to see their own pictures are talking through their hats. You don’t have to be a Sigmund Freud to know that the most fascinating person in the world – actors or anybody – is yourself.’

CHANDRA WILSON (1969 – )                  

[Texan actress Chandra, who plays Dr Miranda Bailey in Grey’s Anatomy (2005-21), made her stage debut in ‘The King and I’ at the age of five]: ‘Starting at age four, my mom decided that she was not going to have an idle child in the house. So I started taking dance lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then I was in acting classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I was modelling on Saturdays. And that was my childhood.’