ROBERT DUVALL (1931 – )                     

[Robert Duvall says the work he is most proud of (by far) is his role as the former Texas Ranger Augustus McCrae in the outstanding 1989 mini-series Lonesome Dove]:  ‘Everybody likes to win’. One of the biggest disappointments was when I didn’t get an Emmy for Lonesome Dove. It’s political. It can be a popularity contest. I think I nailed a very specific, individual guy who represents something important in our history of the western movement. After that, I felt I could retire, that I’d done something.’

MEL BROOKS (1926 – )                             

‘I’m grateful to the army. Grateful to Hitler, too. The Producers (1967) made me the first Jew in history to make a buck out of Hitler.’

GENE HACKMAN (1930 – )                      

‘I came to New York when I was twenty-five, and I worked at Howard Johnson’s in Times Square, where I did the door in this completely silly uniform. Before that, I had been a student at the Pasadena Playhouse, where I had been awarded the ‘least-likely-to-succeed’ prize, along with my pal Dustin Hoffman, which was a big reason we set off for New York together. Out of nowhere, this teacher I totally despised at the Pasadena Playhouse suddenly walked by ‘HoJo’s’ and came right up into my face and shouted, ‘See, Hackman, I told you that you would never amount to anything!’ I felt one inch tall.’

‘I wanted to act, but I’d always been convinced that actors had to be handsome. That came from the days when Errol Flynn was my idol. I’d come out of a theatre and be startled when I looked in a mirror because I didn’t look like Flynn. I felt like him.’

‘The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.’

[In 2011, he was asked where he kept his Oscars]: ‘You know, I’m not sure. I don’t have any memorabilia around the house. There isn’t any movie stuff except a poster downstairs, next to the pool table, of Errol Flynn from The Dawn Patrol (1938). I’m not a sentimental guy.’

CHARLES BRONSON (1921 – 2003)       

‘I guess I look like a rock quarry that someone has dynamited.’

‘When I was a kid I was always drawing things. I’d get butcher paper or grocery bags and draw on them. And at school I was the one who got to draw on the windows with soap. Turkeys for Thanksgiving, that kind of thing. It seemed I just knew how to draw. I could draw anything in one continuous line without lifting the crayon from the paper. I had a show of my stuff in Beverly Hills and it sold out in two weeks – and it wasn’t because my name was Charles Bronson, because I signed them ‘Buchinsky’.

SIR ROBERT HELPMANN (1909-86)  in 55 Days at Peking (1963)     

[South Australian-born Helpmann became the principal dancer at Sadler’s Wells Ballet from 1933 to 1950, world renowned as both a dancer and a choreographer, and often performing with Dame Margot Fonteyn. He also acted in forty movies and/or TV series, including 55 Days at Peking (1963) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)]: ‘I was always nervous about coming back to Australia, which was a complete hangover of the days when I left when ballet was not accepted, when I was not accepted, when I was considered to be a freak for wanting to be a ballet dancer. And, to be 100% honest, I rather dreaded coming back…’

LARRY LINVILLE (1939 – 2000)            

[The actor who memorably portrayed Dr Frank Burns in the hit TV series M.A.S.H. was asked about the character he played]: ‘On the one side he was just kind of silly and stupid, and on the other side you have the danger of being very repulsive and ugly, so you must balance that so that it is believable enough to serve the comedy. Some people have said ‘Why didn’t the role progress? Why didn’t he become more understanding, more humane, more compassionate; more sensitive?’ I said ‘What did you want him to be, Alan Alda?’

WHOOPI GOLDBERG (1955 – )               

[Whoopi on her efforts to get a role in the film The Colour Purple (1985), when she approached Alice Walker, the author of the book on which the picture is based]: ‘I told her I would play a Venetian blind, dirt on the floor, anything.’

[On the misconception that she only dates white men]: ‘Nobody ever wrote about it when I was with a brother.’

[Regarding opportunity for African-American actors in Hollywood]: ‘I don’t know if I’m the one who should be commenting on the situation. I can’t complain about the amount of work that’s out there. I am black. But I didn’t become black yesterday. I’m black and I’m getting the work and I’m doing some good things, but I realize many black actors and actresses are not being given the opportunities. The industry has got to stop thinking in terms of black and white, and has to start thinking in terms of who is right, regardless of colour, for the role.’

MIRA SORVINO (1967 – )             

[Mira and Ashley Judd both lost their chance to play in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), after Harvey Weinstein had smeared them by spreading false rumors that they were difficult to work with, after they had rejected his advances. When comedian Bill Cosby was convicted on rape charges, Mira commented in May 2018]: ‘The Cosby verdict was a milestone for everyone. Please God, let Weinstein be next. I mean, we really need criminal proceedings against him. He’s lost his position, he lost what he loved to do, he lost some money, but he hasn’t lost his freedom. He committed numerous crimes, and he raped people I care deeply about, and he needs to pay for that… It was a very tumultuous fall for all of us who decided to speak out, and we had no idea where it was going to go. And it’s blossomed into something that’s really powerful, and really beautiful, and I’m proud to be a part of it. I’m proud to be part of a cultural sea of change that I think has the possibility of reducing the sexual misconduct, violence, and rape that has plagued the human species since time began. Because now, there’s such a collective voice… and we’re chipping away at that atmosphere of impunity for predators. So it’s starting to be not possible to get away with it.’