SALLY FIELD (1946 – )                             

[In her 2018 autobiography titled In Pieces, Sally wrote of the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her step-father, actor and Hollywood stuntman Jock Mahoney, abuse that began in a variety of ways before her seventh birthday and continued for years]: ‘I am twelve and then thirteen, almost fourteen…I’m naked. How did I get naked? Did I do that? Did he? …and then he slides from the shower, wet and erect and I don’t know how he ever gets that thing in his pants, since I never see it in any other condition. He gently picks me up and sets me on the bathroom counter…He sets his penis, as muscular as the rest of him, between my legs and pulls my littleness towards him…and it. He loved me enough not to invade me. He never invaded me in all the many times. Not really…was that because he loved me?’

Jock Mahoney as Tarzan

[In 2004, she was asked about her hit TV series The Flying Nun (1967)] ‘I always certainly tried to do my best with it but deeply didn’t want to do it…I hated it every day. I hated the garbage. I felt it was just trivia I had to say. What appealed to me about Sister Bertrille and The Flying Nun? I tell you the truth. Nothing. Nothing. I didn’t want to do it.’

Director Bob Rafelson

[Sally also wrote about producer, writer and director Bob Rafelson, and how he played the ‘Weinstein game’ with her when he chose her for the lead opposite Jeff Bridges in Stay Hungry (1976). Insisting on a final, last-minute meeting with her at his home prior to casting, he had the actress remove her top in his bedroom before kissing her. Later, on location, he seduced her as well.] ‘…Bob, who was staying in the large suite directly above my tiny non-suite, showed up at my door late one night. I had no problem letting him into my room and my body…I can’t blame Rafelson – well, yes I can. When I look at it through today’s eyes and my now seventy-one years, I’d like to bash him over the head. But I wasn’t anyone’s victim. I was a twenty-eight year-old grown-up, and in ’75 it seemed like acceptable behaviour on his part.’

[Sally’s acceptance speech for her 1985 Oscar (her second) has been mercilessly lampooned by, among others, Jim Carrey in The Mask (1994). She is surely entitled to have her speech printed here in full, minus the embellishments. Here it is:] ‘This means so much more to me this time, I don’t know why. I think the first time I hardly felt it because it was all too new. But I want to say ‘Thank you’ to you. I haven’t had an orthodox career. And I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it. But this time I feel it. And I can’t deny the fact that you like me…right now…you like me. Thank you.’

AGNES MOOREHEAD (1900-74)                        

[On Marlon Brando, after visiting the set of The Chase (1966)]: ‘A wild set – with the great Marlon Brando. You couldn’t hear him speak. How do they get on? One take a day, practically, and he gets $1,000,000 a picture. It’s beyond me.’

[On what she prefers to be remembered for]: ‘I’ve been in movies and played theatre from coast to coast, so I was quite well-known before Bewitched (she played Elizabeth Montgomery’s witch-mother Endora), and I don’t particularly want to be identified as a witch.’

ESTELLE WINWOOD (1883-1984) in The Producers (1967)                   

[Speaking at the age of 100]: ‘I wouldn’t mind being dead – it would be something new.’

‘I don’t want to remember yesterday! It’s all I can do to remember today!’

[On appearing in the Mel Brooks comedy The Producers (1967)]: ‘Oh, that dreadful picture. I can’t bear to watch it, even on a small television. I must have needed the money. Living in Hollywood weakens one’s motives. It reminds me of the saying that nobody ever went broke underestimating the American public’s taste.’

ELIZABETH HURLEY (1965 – )                          

[On Charles, the Prince of Wales]: ‘I’ve always been a big fan. I’ve always thought he was the best-dressed man in the United Kingdom, possibly the world. His tailoring is amazing.’

 ‘I’d kill myself if I was as fat as Marilyn Monroe.’

WILLIAM HAINES (1900-73) with Joan Crawford in Spring Fever (1927)                               

[By the end of the silent era, Billy was being regularly named as the # 1 male box-office star, yet he was a devoted homosexual all his life]: ‘Joan Crawford thought we should get married. This was back in the 1920s, when I was a star and she was a rising flapper. It wasn’t just a crass question of her ambition; we were very good but platonic friends. I told her, ‘Cranberry’ – my pet name for her – ‘that isn’t how it works in Hollywood. They usually pair men who like men – and ladies who like ladies’. Because if we both liked men, where would we be as man and wife? She’d resent me, and that would be the end of our beautiful friendship.’

MICHAEL CRAWFORD (1942 – )                                   

[In his autobiography, Michael wrote of the time he was interviewed by the legendary dancer Gene Kelly about a role in the upcoming musical movie Hello Dolly!]: ‘What we’re looking for here’, said Kelly, ‘is for someone to play Cornelius Hackl. He’s an attractive idiot. Now, my wife…well, she thinks you’re attractive. And I…think you’re an idiot. So between us, I think you could be exactly right for this film. What I want is for you to do is go back to England and make a test. I want you to sing, ‘It Only Takes a Moment’. I’ll find someone to teach you to dance. Do some steps, sing the songs, and send it back. We’ll show it to the producers and I can have a look at you.’ [Michael did as bidden and landed the part].

RICHARD CRENNA (1926-2003)                        

[On his friend Charles Bronson]: ‘I don’t think reviews get to Charlie much, though, unless they’re especially personal. In the twenty-five years or so I’ve known him, he’s not changed much. He’s his own man. Stays pretty much to himself. If he cares what other people think of him, he doesn’t show it.’