HEDY LAMARR (1914-2000)                   

[On working with Clark Gable]: ‘Although I never quite understood his sex appeal, I thought he was one of the nicest people I’d met, and a great practical joker.’

Hedy & Robert Taylor in Lady of the Tropics (1939)

[On Robert Taylor, her co-star in Lady of the Tropics (1939)]: ‘One evening I came home and saw my spouse [Gene Markey] staring at a magazine and turning it every which way, and chuckling. I asked him what the joke was, and he replied that he was trying to decide which of us, Bob or I, was more beautiful…I also remember teaching Bob Taylor how to kiss more convincingly for the movie cameras, because his usual kiss seemed to me more like a school boy smooch when photographed in close-up.’

‘Mr. Mayer never spoke to me. One day I said, ‘Mr. Mayer, why don’t you ever say hello to me?’ He said, ‘Why should I? You’re not my wife.’ It was only because I wouldn’t sleep with him. I didn’t know anything filthy went on.’

MICHAEL RENNIE (1909-71)                  

[Best remembered today for his portrayal of the alien visitor to Earth (named Klaatu), in the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Michael Rennie had an unwarranted reputation as a ladies man, no doubt greatly enhanced when director Otto Preminger cited him as the third party to his counter-suit of adultery against his wife during their divorce proceedings in 1958. As Rennie told a reporter]: ‘I suppose women find me attractive because I am polite, charming and courteous…a gentleman. My romantic reputation is an exaggeration. The realities are a bit different.’

LESLIE HOWARD (1893-1943)                

[The British actor who played Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939), hated the role almost as much as most paying cinema patrons did, but he accepted the part nonetheless. The forty-seven year old actor had the following to say prior to his tragic death in 1943, when the airliner in which he was a passenger was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German fighters.]: ‘I hate the damn part. I’m not nearly beautiful or young enough for Ashley, and it makes me sick being fixed up to look attractive. I look like that sissy doorman at the Beverly Wilshire, a fine thing at my age.’

STEVE MCQUEEN (1930-80)                     

‘In my own mind, I’m not sure that acting is something for a grown man to be doing. I really don’t like to act. At the beginning, back in ’52, I had to force myself to stick with it. I was real uncomfortable, real uncomfortable. If I hadn’t made it as an actor, I might have wound up a hood.’

‘The Marines gave me discipline I could live with. By the time I got out I could deal with things on a more realistic level. All in all, despite my problems, I liked my time in the Marines.’

‘To me, a woman’s ass is important. Jane Fonda always works out and keeps her ass in A-1 condition. They call me a chauvinist pig. I am…and I don’t give a damn!’

NATALIE PORTMAN (1981 – )                

[On Scarlett Johansson]: ‘Seriously, I would really want to grab Scarlett’s breasts. She’s got beautiful ones.’

Scarlett Johansson

[On violence in the media]: ‘We live in a violent world, but since the success of films like Pulp Fiction (1994), it seems every movie has some violence in it, and it’s now being used as a form of comedy; audiences are now being encouraged to laugh when people get their heads blown off. I just don’t like hearing people laugh at violence.’

DANA WYNTER (1931-2011)                   

There seems to be a wide-spread concern among women that they dare not have a line or crease in their face. If they do, they run to the plastic surgeon and their faces wind up looking like dinner plates…Life is an adventure, and time brings change. But women are terrified of aging for some reason. Everyone clings to blonde hair and white teeth. I think that undermines womanhood.’

MELINA MERCOURI (1920-94)                                      

[Melina was the star of Never on Sunday (1960) and Topkapi (1964). Her father had become a member of the Greek Parliament at 22; her grandfather was once Mayor of Athens, so her response to the proclamation by the military dictator of Greece, Stylianos Pattakos, that she was to be stripped of her Greek citizenship and her property confiscated, was both expected and typical of her.]: ‘I was born Greek. I will die Greek. Mr. Pattakos was born a fascist. He will die a fascist.’

LANA TURNER (1921-95)            

‘A gentleman is simply a patient wolf.’

JAYNE MANSFIELD (1933-67)                                         

‘A 41-inch bust and a lot of perseverance will get you more than a cup of coffee – a lot more.’

‘We eat a lot of lean meat and vegetables. You are what you eat, you know. When I’m 100, I’ll still be doing pin-ups.’

‘I love sex…It should be animalistic; it should be sadistic; it should at times be masochistic…There are few rules and moral conventions.’

‘Men are those creatures with two legs and eight hands.’

Jean Harlow

[Upon learning that 20^th Century-Fox had lied to her about being considered for the lead in a film about the life of Jean Harlow]: ‘I have thousands of letters here, from people all over the world, saying I am the perfect Harlow. I even naturally have her mannerisms of caressing my body and arms in that way. But no, they can’t see me playing the dramatic side of Harlow’s life.’

MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ (1978 – )        

[On the long-time speculation about her sexuality, Michelle had this to say in a 2013 issue of Entertainment Weekly]: ‘I don’t talk about what I do with my vagina, and they’re all intrigued. I’ve never walked the carpet with anyone, so they wonder: ‘What does she do with her vagina?’ Plus, I play a ‘butchy’ girl all the time, so they assume I’m a ‘lesbo’…Eh, they’re not too far off. I’ve gone both ways. I do as I please. I am too fucking curious to sit here and not try when I can. Men are intriguing. So are chicks.’