This series of celebrity quotes (about themselves or others) has been popular, though I confess it's often a means of keeping something new up on the blog before or after more labor-intensive posts. These are comparatively easy to assemble, even though I always create a new picture montage to go with each blurb. You may or may not have noticed that these generally lean towards an alphabetical order, though sometimes for effect I will move one or two around. That's because I'm burning my way through a book on the subject. So as you'll see, we're still in the "M"s! That means I'm far from finished with this, though I hope you enjoy them nevertheless. On we go...!
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| "He has extraordinary instinct. He's almost infallible." - LEE REMICK on JACK LEMMON (costars in Days of Wine and Roses, 1962, and Tribute, 1980.) |
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| "Lewis used to be one of my heroes. When I was a kid, I did pantomimes to his records. He was an enormously talented, phenomenally energetic man who used vulnerability very well. But through the years, I've seen him turn into this arrogant, sour, ceremonial, piously chauvinistic egomaniac. I'm just amazed at his behavior." - ELLIOTT GOULD on JERRY LEWIS |
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| "I'm a multi-faceted, talented, wealthy, internationally famous genius. I have an IQ of 190-that's supposed to be a genius. People don't like that. My answer to all my critics is simple: I like me. I like what I've become. I'm proud of what I've achieved, and I don't really believe I've scratched the surface yet. - JERRY LEWIS |
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| "Working with her was an education. She was an out and out 'pro'-no retakes for Maggie, no hint of temperament. She turned out to be a most down-to-earth lady with a delicious sense of irony, mostly directed at herself." - MICHAEL WILDING on MARGARET LOCKWOOD (costars in Dear Octopus, 1943, and Trent's Last Case, 1952.) |
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| "Gina's personality is limited. She is good at playing a peasant, but is incapable of playing a lady. That said, I don't think she's positively mad about me. Because I'm bigger than she? It's possible. Who knows?" - SOPHIA LOREN on GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA |
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| "I do not talk about Sophia. I do not wish to make for her publicity. She has a talent, but it is not such a big talent." - GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA on SOPHIA LOREN |
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| "She is not the most attractive lady in the world at first glance but, my God, two seconds late you felt you were in a dream world. Just for her to say 'Hello' was enough. You just capitulated. For me she is the most beautiful person I've ever met." - STEPHEN BOYD on SOPHIA LOREN (costars in The Fall of the Roman Empire, 1964.) |
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| "You could toss a bolt of fabric at Carole Lombard and however it would land on her she would look smart." - Costume designer TRAVIS BANTON on CAROLE LOMBARD |
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| "She overwhelmed me completely. There was just something about her that I found uncannily wonderful...She was the only Hollywood legend I found totally accessible and felt I could shake hands with. The others, like Garbo and Hepburn, were polite and friendly, but somehow in the early 1940s, untouchable." - GENE KELLY on CAROLE LOMBARD |
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| Then there was the question of Shelley's hair [during Hello Again, 1987]. We had to re-shoot the first ten days because it was wrong. All I can say about Shelley is that she is a perfectionist. - GABRIEL BYRNE on SHELLEY LONG |
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| "It's unbelievable that anyone could work as hard as she does, be on her toes always, accomplish things with dispatch and efficiency, buck the exhausting nervous strain of stardom...Her charm is that she never tries too hard. She is what she is; her freckles are honest, and so is her appraisal of herself. What she possesses, she exploits. What she does not have, she does not claim. That's the nicest thing I can say about anyone." - WILLIAM POWELL on MYRNA LOY (costars in fourteen films together!) |
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| "That silly horse, Jeanette MacDonald, yakking away at wooden-peg [Nelson] Eddy with all that glycerine running down her Max Factor." - JUDY GARLAND on JEANETTE MACDONALD |
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| "We always had lots of laughs, and we've shared a few sorrows, too. But I'd never worked with her. I heard she was a tough nut. Terms of Endearment (1983) was an important movie, and the work was tough. But tough and interesting. And playing with Shirl-like in the love scenes, which are funny, but also touching-was great." JACK NICHOLSON on SHIRLEY MACLAINE |
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| "She just behaved badly-like she was competing with me (on the set of Terms of Endearment, 1983.) I understand that Shirley grew up in a different era, when women had flesh under their fingernails from competing with one another, but I'm not like that. I was actually forever grateful when she won [the Oscar] because I thought that would shut her up for a while. Imagine my dismay when she just kept having 50th birthdays and doing interviews. Jack Nicholson called me up and said, 'Didn't we celebrate her 50th birthday in Texas?'" - DEBRA WINGER on SHIRLEY MACLAINE |
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| "Dramatic art in her opinion is knowing how to fill a sweater." - BETTE DAVIS on JAYNE MANSFIELD |
5 comments:
Wonderfully entertaining as always Poseidon.
That's a nice quote from Lee Remick about Jack Lemmon. He always spoke highly of her as well, from what I've read she was a genuinely nice woman as well as an excellent professional actress who remained on good terms with all she worked with...except Laurence Harvey but that apparently was because of his behavior when they worked on The Running Man which she categorically refused to speak of saying it was too horrendous to repeat!
Jerry Lewis, very talented and you can't fault his work for muscular dystrophy but I've heard repeatedly that he is an odious person to deal with who speaks of himself in the third person.
Ah the longtime feud between Gina & Sophia. Hours of good reading as they sniped at each other over the years.
Stephen Boyd was right about Sophia's beauty. It's unique and if you look at her closely her looks are not traditional, her nose is too long, her mouth too big for her face, etc. but it blends all together and along with the warmth she exudes it makes her beautiful.
As with Lee Remick I've rarely read a negative word about Carole Lombard, as well as how she was someone who possessed an effortless innate style, making her early death all the more of a tragedy.
Yet another example of what a pill Shelley Long was too work with...and we see how well that worked out for her.
Myrna Loy rocked pretty much across the board and she was a fierce liberal making her all the more lovable.
Love the Judy quote on Jeannette MacDonald-kitty had claws!
Speaking of claws we all know Bette Davis had them and Jayne felt them. I wouldn't say that her quote is completely fair, Jayne had her moments on screen, Rock Hunter, The Wayward Bus, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, but overall she hurt her career with her love of over promotion and emphasis on her figure.
"You could toss a bolt of fabric at Carole Lombard and however it would land on her she would look smart." - Costume designer TRAVIS BANTON on CAROLE LOMBARD
According to the '30s movie costume book "Those Glorious Glamour Years," Banton did exactly this for a set of 1932 Paramount publicity shots-- he wrapped a bolt of gold lame around Lombard and let her "work the garment":
http://68.media.tumblr.com/21f48c14c60a7455f9a4adde26d1bce3/tumblr_og3s3dJHru1qazanuo1_1280.jpg
Joel, a mid-sized book could probably be written about people who didn't like working with Laurence Harvey and the experiences they had! LOL Strangely, I think The Newmans didn't mind him somehow. It was a shame to see Remick die of cancer when she had so many more performances in her. I'm always amazed that Jerry Lewis is still alive (!) and that he appeared in a Nicholas Cage movie last year (!!) I found his auto-bio in a thrift store for $0.29 and was agog to see that it was hand-signed by him. He came off to me as very sensitive, passionate and needy, which together can cause some problems. Obsessive, too, especially about Dean Martin. RE: Shelley Long. I've always been allergic to her, always! But somehow have laughed at her recent work on "Modern Family" (where she's meant to be an annoying hot mess!) As for Bette, you know she was jealous, deep down, of any woman who had curvaceous, eye-catching looks. She could look really striking, jaw-dropping even, at times, but was never "beautiful" in the traditional sense.
hsc, thanks for the link to the photo! Lombard was a fascinating person and taken far too soon...
I love these quotes. For my brain they are better in small batches, which is why I love when you do them Poseidon.
I think Sophia on Gina is kind of on the mark. I have seen Sophia do both peasant and Lady and is always believable. Gina, not so much but I do like her a lot.
Love the picture of Travis Banton, he doesn't look like I expected him to.
Mean Judy! hilarious. She gets a big laugh out of just saying Jeannette's name on the Carnagie Hall concert album before launching into "San Francisco".
Thanks, Gingerguy. Glad you enjoy these!! I agree that in a HUGE lot of them, the individual aspects get a bit muddy as we breeze by. Of course, I have fun digging out photos to help set the stage, if you will! I agree about Banton! He was more sturdy/stocky than I would have guessed and had a ton of thick hair. And I actually have a CD of that Judy concert and remember her mentioning Jeanette!! About how she couldn't forget her... LOL! Riiiggghht.
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