JON PERTWEE (1919-96)                         

[He is best known for his portrayal of the third doctor in the BBC series of Doctor Who, a portrayal that lasted from 1970 to 1974. Fans may be unaware, however, of his work during World War Two as an RNVR officer and in a special division of British Intelligence]: ‘I did all sorts. Teaching commandos how to use escapology equipment, compasses in brass buttons, secret maps in white cotton handkerchiefs, pipes you could smoke that also fired a .22 bullet. All sorts of incredible things.’

‘I was thrown out of RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art], I’m afraid. I’d refused to be a wind. There was a lady who taught Greek dancing and Greek tragedy, and I just had to go ‘Wooooo’, and I thought it was terribly expensive for my poor father to pay for me to be a ‘wind’! So I rebelled. I refused to be a wind.’

[Pertwee joined a circus as a youth]: ‘I had to drive a converted Austin Seven on ‘The Wall of Death’, with a lion sitting strapped on a platform behind me. It was a very old lion so you had to kick it where it hurt to make it roar. Only the boss didn’t want it roaring. ‘Folks’ll see it ain’t got no teeth!’ he used to moan.’

HOPE LANGE (1933-2003)                       

[On working with Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, and the aging Joan Crawford on The Best of Everything (1959)]: ‘I was fortunate that there was this tension with her. Our scenes were built with tension, and there it was, even before the cameras rolled. It had to have been tough for her, to have these three young upstarts – and there she was, in a non-starring role.’

DONNA REED (1921-86)                           

[She was an anti-nuclear activist who made her views very clear]: ‘If nuclear power plants are safe, let the commercial insurance industry insure them. Until these most expert judges of risk are willing to gamble with their money, I’m not willing to gamble with the health and safety of my family.’

BARBARA EDEN (1931 – )  

Desi Arnaz & wife Lucille Ball

[In her autobiography titled Jeannie Out of the Bottle, Barbara writes of being pursued by Desi Arnaz on the set of I Love Lucy when she appeared on the show back in 1957.] ‘Everyone loved Lucille Ball, but there was no doubt, whatsoever, that Desi Arnaz was a world-class philanderer. It was common knowledge in Hollywood that he had a taste for young curvaceous blondes and that Lucy was deeply unhappy about Desi’s infidelity. Worse still, he was blatant about his activities and once even publicly boasted: ‘A real man should have as many girls as he has hairs on his head.’ ‘On the day of the final shoot, I locked my dressing-room door, put on my dress for the show (a nice if not particularly flattering number), and then tip-toed out, hoping against hope that Desi wasn’t around and waiting to pounce on me… Even to this day in Hollywood, you still hear stories of how Desi broke Lucy’s heart, but she still put her show first because she was smart and she was a professional.’

JFK & wife Jackie in 1957

[Barbara also wrote about her encounter with Senator John F. Kennedy at Idlewild Airport in November 1957 when she was twenty-six years old. She was accompanied by Booker McClay, 20^th Century Fox’s head of public relations on a promotional tour for her How to Marry a Millionaire TV series]: ‘…Booker came over to me and asked, ‘Barbara, would you like to meet Senator John Kennedy?’ I wasn’t in the least bit interested in politics, and the name Kennedy meant nothing to me at the time. [Pierre Salinger] ushered me into an ante-room. He declared, in a loud ring-master’s voice, ‘I want you to meet the next president of the United States.’ Senator Kennedy was handsome enough to rival any Hollywood star. When he clasped my hand firmly, I looked up into the clearest, most hypnotic eyes in the universe. I blushed and looked away. At that moment, fate intervened and my flight was called. I shook hands with the senator again. Then Pierre Salinger escorted me to the foot of the gangway’. As I boarded the plane in the ice-cold air, I tucked my hands into my pockets, and felt something in the left one. I pulled out a small piece of grey notepaper. Written on it were the initials ‘JFK’ and a phone number. Without any hesitation, I tore it up on the spot and handed the pieces to the stewardess to put in the trash’.

Burl Ives (L) & Tony Randall in The Brass Bottle (1964)

[Years later, Barbara co-starred with Tony Randall and Burl Ives in The Brass Bottle (1964), the picture that sparked the germ of the I Dream of Jeannie idea in the head of writer Sidney Sheldon]: ‘On the surface, Burl Ives was genial and kind. He was wonderful on the set, when other people were around, but at the end of the day, when it was dark, I didn’t dare risk walking by his dressing-room. He’d stand by the door like a big bad bear and beckon: ‘Come here, little girl. Come here.’ Then he’d lunge straight at me. Luckily, I was quick enough on my feet to sidestep him, then I’d run like hell. The first time it happened, I couldn’t believe my eyes. This darling, Santa Claus of a man, who was in his mid-sixties (which, as far as I was concerned, seemed like a hundred and ten!), was actually making a pass at me. Incredible!’

BUSTER KEATON (1895-1966)                           

‘Is Hollywood the cruelest city in the world? Well, it can be. New York can be like that, too. You can be a Broadway star here one night, and something happens, and then you’re out – nobody knows you on the street. They forget you ever lived. It happens in Hollywood, too.’

[On his time working as an uncredited gag writer for The Marx Brothers at MGM]: ‘It was an event when you could get all three of them on the set at the same time! The minute you started a picture with the Marx Brothers you hired three assistant directors, one for each Marx brother. You had two of ‘em while you went to look for the third one, and the first two would disappear.’