JULIA ORMOND (1965 – )                                     

[On Sabrina (1995) and her mid-1990s stardom]: ‘It was a fantastic learning experience and OK, I got slammed because I wasn’t Audrey Hepburn [she starred in the 1954 version], but you could have predicted that, if you’d opened your eyes wide enough. I found it all very scary. This fairy tale gets built all around you – as if you’ve been walking through the streets and then Sydney Pollack sees you and goes, ‘I’ll put you in something’, when you’ve really gone to drama school and rep, and then you’ve come to London and gone to auditions and you’ve worked solidly for years. But that all gets forgotten.’ 

BOB DENVER (1935-2005)                                    

[On his Gilligan’s Island co-star, Alan Hale Jr., who played the Skipper]: ‘He was a big, loveable man who made everybody feel good. He had a great time with his life.’

[On the popular series itself and his own role as Gilligan]: ‘It’s silly, yes, but children laugh and adults can if they want to. It’s aimed at the vast everybody. People thank me for giving them a break from life.’

TOBEY MAGUIRE (1975 – )                                  

‘I’m close to being a vegan, but I’m not one, technically. I don’t eat eggs, or nearly any dairy – no cheese or milk. I do eat honey, and a piece of milk chocolate here and there. It’s never really been that hard for me. I’ve never had any desire to eat meat. In fact, when I was a kid I would have a really difficult time eating meat at all. It had to be the perfect bite, with no fat or gristle or bones or anything like that. I don’t judge people who eat meat – that’s not for me to say – but the whole thing just sort of bums me out.’

RICHARD PRYOR (1940 – 2005)                          

[At the 1977 Academy Awards]: ‘I’m here to explain why black people will never be nominated for anything. This show is going out to seventy-five million people – none of them black. We don’t even know how to vote. There’s 3,349 people in the voting thing and only two black people – Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. We’re quitting. You’ll have to listen to Lawrence Welk.’

[On experiencing racism]: ‘I was just on the Today show, and they were telling me how wonderful I was – and then I walk out into the reality of America and I can’t get a cab.’

[Pryor was asked what attracted him about making Superman III in 1983.]: ‘It was really the four million dollars.’

RICHARD GREENE (1918 – 85)               

[The British actor whose most memorable role was playing Robin Hood in all 144 episodes of the 1960-65 TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, made no bones about preferring such roles to romantic ones]: ‘This swashbuckler stuff is rough on the anatomy, but I find it more exhilarating than whispering ‘mishmash’ into some ingénue’s pink little ear.’

JENSEN ACKLES (1978 – )                                    

[On working with his co-star, Jared Padalecki on the Supernatural series]: ‘Jared and I are lucky to get along so well without having any effort to make. One day the producers came to see us and told us they had never worked with actors who got along so well. It gives us the opportunity to make the relationship between Sam and Dean have credibility. I think the audience feels how much Jared and I like being together. I would jump in front of a bullet for him and not think twice.’

SHIRLEY EATON (1937 – )                        

[Middlesex girl Shirley Eaton attained international status when she portrayed Jill Masterson, the blonde beauty who was murdered then painted gold by her killer in the 1964 James Bond movie titled Goldfinger. Here she speaks of being painted gold by make-up artist Paul Rabiger, and her attitude towards nudity in general]: ‘He was as impersonal about gilding me as if he was painting a barn. I would never have done nude work. Although I look nude in Goldfinger, I was covered in gold paint. So I wasn’t nude was I?’

HARVEY WEINSTEIN (1952 – )                     

[Weinstein commented in 2017 about his wife, Georgina Chapman, after the scandal broke]: ‘She stands 100% behind me. Georgina and I have talked about this at length. We went out with [lawyer] Lisa Bloom last night when we knew the article was coming out. Georgina will be with Lisa and others kicking my ass to be a better human being and to apologize to people for my bad behaviour, to say I’m sorry, and to absolutely mean it.’ [Bloom resigned one day later; his wife, Georgina, left him less than a week later].              

Weinstein & wife Georgina Chapman

[A September 2009 article in ‘The Independent’, Weinstein spoke of the treatment of Roman Polanski and the US Government’s determination to return him to America to face a gaol term for the despicable crime he was convicted of and for fleeing justice decades ago]: ‘Roman Polanski is a man who cares deeply about his art and its place in the world. What happened to him on his incredible path is filled with tragedy, and most men would have collapsed. Instead, he became a great artist, and continues to make great films. I was with him the day he won the Legion of Honour in France, which was a spectacular day. I remember the incredible love and affection that people have for him…Whatever you think about the ‘so-called’ crime, Polanski has served his time…I’m not too shy to go and talk to the Governor of California [Arnold Schwarzenegger] and to ask him once and for all to look at this.’

JAMES COBURN (1928 – 2002)                

[On Steve McQueen]: ‘Steve has to prove he had a worse childhood than anybody else. Only one other person I know can compete with him and that’s Charles Bronson.’

‘Actors are boring when they are not working. It’s a natural condition, because they don’t have anything to do. They just lay around, and that’s why so many of them get drunk. They really get to be boring people. My wife will attest to that.’