ELEANOR TOMLINSON (1992 – )                       

[The stunning actress who portrays Demelza Poldark in the Poldark series comments on her determination regarding nudity]: ‘I don’t do nudity. I don’t feel the need to do it. In fact, it’s sexier if you don’t do nudity. Especially nowadays when it’s become all that sells a series. Poldark has proven that you don’t need nudity to convey a sexual relationship. It can be something as simple as the hair on the back of my neck moving as he’s kissing me. It’s the tiny things that get you hot under the collar.’

DUNCAN RENALDO (1904-80)                            

[The Romanian actor who became a household name throughout the world portraying The Cisco Kid in the 1950 TV series, voiced his views strongly on the movies’ and television’s treatment of life in the Old West]: ‘We’ve taken all our fine western lore and splashed it with criminality and barbarism. The whole idea of these adult films is a fallacy. Nowhere did they ever shoot five or six men before breakfast. That quick-draw business, too, is a fake. Nobody can shoot accurately following a quick draw. Why bring kids up on this stupid craze?  Nowadays, you frequently read where some kid has shot off his kneecap or wounded a friend trying to perfect a quick-draw. A gun has become a plaything.’

JANE SEYMOUR (1951 – )                                     

[Jane Seymour recalled her test for her love scene with Richard Chamberlain in The Thorn Birds (1983)]: ‘After I had my first child, I stopped breast-feeding early because I had been told that there was a possibility that I might star in The Thorn Birds, which I wanted more than life itself. I went to do the screen test and everything went great until Richard Chamberlain and I did the love scene. I had stopped feeding for three weeks and unexpectedly my milk came in! I lifted myself up in my pink 1930s negligee – and it’s a wet T- shirt contest! I looked up and it was just terrible. There was a big puddle of white milk all over his bare chest. I mean a puddle. This was a serious incident. His reaction was not good. You just say, ‘What can you do?’ [Rachel Ward won the role, by the way}.

CARRIE FISHER (1956 – 2016)                                        

‘Acting engenders and harbors qualities that are best left way behind in adolescence. People-pleasing, going on those interviews and jamming your whole personality into getting the job, ingratiating yourself to people you wouldn’t fucking spit on if they were on fire,

‘My mother and my father were America’s sweethearts. They literally received that tag. Even my parents went along with the assumption that they were a good couple, but they probably weren’t a very good couple. Anyway, my father was best friends with a man named Mike Todd. Mike was married to Elizabeth Taylor. Mike Todd died in a plane crash, and my father consoled Elizabeth Taylor with his penis.’

Debbie Reynolds & Eddie Fisher’s wedding day

[On her father’s gossipy 1999 autobiography, Carrie caustically commented]: ‘I’m going to have my DNA fumigated.’

[On meeting Richard Nixon]: ‘My mother’s fault. I said to her, ‘I will not go. I want him impeached.’ She said, ‘I will take away your credit cards.’ I said, ‘I’m coming.’

JONATHAN HARRIS (1914 – 2002)                                 

[On his career as a stage actor]: ‘I got thrown out of that office every day. Finally the secretary took pity on me and I got to meet Mr. Miller. He cast me as a Polish flier in the show ‘Heart of a City’ He asked me if I could do a Polish accent, so of course I said yes, even though I hadn’t a clue. I went to the Polish Consulate to find out how they spoke, but everyone there had a different accent, so I went home and tried to make one up. At the first rehearsal I was shaking like a leaf, worrying that I’d get fired, when the director pointed at me. ‘You there, where did you get that accent?’ he bellowed. So I lied and told him my parents were Polish immigrants and this is how they spoke. Convinced, the director leaned over to the writer and said, ‘You owe me five bucks. I told you he was a real one.’ I’ve used that accent many times since, whenever they need something foreign. I’ve even used it for Chinese!’

[In 1998, Harris explained his approach to playing Doctor Zachary Smith in the TV series Lost in Space]: ‘I realized that the original concept of Smith was a deep-dyed snarling villain, and he bored me to death. There’s no longevity in a part like that. They’d have killed me off in five episodes, and I’d be out of a job, unemployed again, right? So I began to sneak in the things for which I am – at the risk of seeming immodest – justly famous. Comedic villainy.’

KEVIN COSTNER (1955 – )                       

[On being an Arsenal fan]: ‘My first introduction to English football was in 1990 when I was over there making Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and I got invited to an Arsenal game. Having watched sports all my life in America, there was no comparison in terms of the emotion that was in the stadium that day. And I never really forgot it.’

[At Whitney Houston’s funeral]: ‘I urge us all, inside and outside, across the nation and around the world, to dry our tears, suspend our sorrow and perhaps our anger just long enough, just long enough to remember the sweet miracle of Whitney.’

It would take a lot for me to vote for a Republican these days. My views don’t line up with what they believe. I believe in civil rights, gun control, protecting the environment, affordable education, not fighting in all these wars, fair taxation, and the Republicans take stances opposite of my views on almost all those issues.’

ROBERT DUVALL (1931 – )                      

[On Lonesome Dove (1989)]: ‘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.’