CHARLTON HESTON (1923 – 2008)      

[From 1998 until 2003, Heston was voted President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) for an unprecedented five consecutive years. Once, when asked if he would ever surrender his gun, he replied]:’You can take my rifle…when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!’

‘Here’s my credo. There are no good guns. There are no bad guns. A gun in the hands of a bad man is a bad thing. Any gun in the hands of a good man is no threat to anyone, except bad people.’

[Actor George Clooney is rigorously opposed to the NRA and, by association, opposed NRA president Heston. In so doing, he made a controversial joke about Heston’s announcement that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Heston responded by comparing him with George’s much respected Aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney]: ‘It’s funny how class can skip a generation, isn’t it? I don’t know the man – never met him, never even spoken to him. But I feel sorry for George Clooney – one day he may get Alzheimer’s disease. I served my country in World War II. I survived that – I guess I can survive some bad words from this fellow.’

[Heston clearly believed that the USA was right in invading Iraq after 9/11, even though the terrorist attack had nothing whatsoever to do with that country. In 2003, he sent the following ‘hearts & flowers’ note to the US troops there]: ‘There is no duty more – noble than that which has called you across the world in defence of freedom. Yours is a mission of hope and humanity for the oppressed. Rest assured that while ‘pretend-patriots’ talk of supporting you, even as they condemn your noble cause, an unwavering vast majority of Americans share and take pride in your mission. You represent all that is good and right about America and are the true face of American patriotism. You walk in those same righteous footsteps of all those patriots who, before you, fought to preserve liberty for all. Our prayers and our personal gratitude are with you and your families. May God Bless You, Charlton and Lydia Heston.’

[On President Bill Clinton]: ‘America didn’t trust you with their health-care system; America didn’t trust you with gays in the military; America doesn’t trust you with our 21 year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don’t trust you with our guns.’

‘I’m pissed off when Indians say they’re Native Americans! I’m a Native American, for Christ’s sake!’

‘Jackson was one of my favourite Presidents. One mean son of a bitch.’

[2000]: ‘Vote freedom first. Vote George W. Bush. Everything else is a distant and forgettable second place. This is the most important election since the Civil War. Al Gore, if elected, would have the power to hammer your gun rights right into oblivion. Instead of fighting redcoats, we are now fighting blue blood elitists.’

KRISTIN SCOTT-THOMAS (1960 – )     

‘The parts I’ve been most successful in are the ones I’ve desperately, desperately wanted. One of them being Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). I couldn’t think of anyone better for that part than me. And the other was The English Patient (1996). Occasionally, you read scripts and, well, there you are on the page.’

‘People have always told me I was beautiful, but beauty isn’t the same as attractiveness and I don’t think I have ever been attractive … My sister Serena is beautiful and attractive, but not me.’

OLYMPIA DUKAKIS (1931 – 2021)        

[The actress who won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Moonstruck (1987) was a strong feminist]: ‘ When my children were born, I didn’t have them baptized because I felt baptism was about erasing Original Sin – something the Church said children got from their mother – and I absolutely refused to believe women carry  Original Sin.’

RICHARD JENKINS (1947 – )                  

[Richard Jenkins, who memorably played Devine, the private investigator in Shall We Dance (2004), spoke of landing a role in the 1985 western Silverado]: ‘I auditioned for this really great part, and I remember my manager called me up and said, ‘You got it! You’re Kelly.’ And I said ‘Who’s Kelly?’ I searched through the script, and I was in two scenes. I said ‘Howdy’ in the first scene, and in the second scene, I said ‘You can’t do that,’ and they shot me. And I was on the set for seven weeks. It was a cover set, which means if they couldn’t work outside with it snowing or bad weather, they would move inside and do that scene they were saving for bad weather, so I couldn’t go anywhere. I was hanging out in the Hilton Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and everybody else was working on the movie.’

PATSY KENSIT (1968 – )      

[On having her pubic hairs dyed the same colour each day for her nude scenes in Angels and Insects (1995)]: ‘The make-up people had to re-dye it every day to keep it pale. I mean, I am blonde, really, I do not want there to be any doubt about that! It is just a bit more ‘mousey’ than in the movie.’

ROBIN WILLIAMS (1951 – 2014)            

[Speaking about American President George W. Bush]: ‘There’s nothing Bush has said, apart from a few malapropisms, that we will remember. Comparing him to Churchill is akin to comparing Margaret Thatcher to Paris Hilton.’

SAM NEILL (1947 – )                                  

‘In 2000, George W. Bush, under the reasonable sounding ‘compassionate conservatism’, offered huge tax cuts. And he delivered. Take a look at America now. The rich are certainly richer, but the economy is in the tank, a healthy surplus has been converted into a massive deficit, and the U.S. is a place that cannot even afford the basics. Like maintaining levees in low-lying Louisiana. Might I suggest that tax cuts led indirectly to the flooding of New Orleans?’

[When asked which living person he most admired, Sam had no hesitation]: ‘My brother, Michael. He is an academic and has devoted his life to scholarship; my life seems trivial by comparison. Bastard.’

TELLY SAVALAS (1922 – 94)                 

[Of his mother, Christina Savalas]: ‘Mama says to me, ‘Being an actor is fine, but what are you going to do for a living?’ I took my mother to the premiere of The Dirty Dozen, and she said, ‘It’s disgraceful!’ I asked her how she liked my role, and she said, ‘You were ridiculous!