As a matter of fact, they DO, at least in these posts on celebrity quotes, a continuing series here in The Underworld. We're still burning our way through the alphabet, now ending up in the Rs, so it won't be long until we have exhausted this particular resource. In the meantime...
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| "One of my favorite actors is in that [Yellow Sky,1948] - Greg Peck. I say that sarcastically. We made a good picture with him, despite him." - director WILLIAM WELLMAN on GREGORY PECK |
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| "I didn't care for [Sam] Peckinpah at all. He was one of those little guys who tries to bully big guys and he almost got his ass whipped for trying to do it to me. Every time I was going to throttle Peckinpah, [Steve] McQueen would come over and calm me down like a brother would." - JOE DON BAKER on SAM PECKINPAH (his director on Junior Bonner, 1972) |
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| "He's arrogant-the sort of man who expects women to fall at his feet at the slightest command; who throws his weight around. He gives the impression that he's the star, what he says goes and that nobody else is very important." - JOAN COLLINS on GEORGE PEPPARD (costars in The Executioner, 1970) |
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| "It was always Mary [Pickford] herself that shone through. Her personality was the thing that made her movies memorable and the pictures that showed her personality were the best." - LILLIAN GISH on MARY PICKFORD |
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| "Say anything you like, but don't say I love to work. That sounds like Mary Pickford, that prissy bitch." - MABEL NORMAND on MARY PICKFORD |
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| "With Roman [Polanski], it was the most difficult working experience I've ever had. My nerves were very much on end at the time, and it was a tough time for him, too. Maybe I should have talked to Jack [Nicholson] about it because he wasn't under pressure and was wonderful. But I don't think what Roman said was well-founded at all. Because it always takes two to tango, and he was insufferable. From what we all know now about his life, he's obviously got trouble with women. So it was a clash." - FAYE DUNAWAY on ROMAN POLANSKI (her director for Chinatown, 1974.) |
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| "He was the best looking thing I've ever seen in my life. Kissing him was like dying and going to heaven." ALICE FAYE on TYRONE POWER (costars of In Old Chicago, 1937, Alexander's Ragtime Band, 1938, and Rose of Washington Square, 1939) |
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| "Ty Power was the handsomest man I ever saw! He was very popular. Tragically, he died... in his 40s. Beauty is a great curse. It distorts lives, making the wrong things important. Do you know what it means to be that adored? These people may have luxurious lives, but somewhere along the line it becomes very difficult to live with. It was that way with Ty." ANNE BAXTER on TYRONE POWER (costars of The Razor's Edge, 1946) |
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| "I was warned about him--but could anybody really be that bad? Yeah, they could. Elaine May wrote a great screenplay. He took a piece of beauty and screwed it up. It was an incredible part...and he destroyed it. I have been the victim of some killers in my time. He's one of the biggest. He's a horrible man. Phew! But who ever hears of him anymore? Is he still alive?" - DYAN CANNON on OTTO PREMINGER (her director on Such Good Friends, 1971) |
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| "He never contributed a damn thing to music... He was successful--hard to account for. Oh, he sings well enough, I suppose." - BING CROSBY on ELVIS PRESLEY |
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| "He was a very sexual man, but I truly believe in the beginning it wasn't meant to be sexual, it just was because that was the way he felt when he played. I think later it became more of a performance, but at the beginning he just wanted to play that guitar and to feel it. It was natural." - BARBARA EDEN on ELVIS PRESLEY (costars of Flaming Star, 1960) |
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| "I personally like big acting like that of Anthony Quinn. He is the quintessence, if you'll pardon the pun, of the actor who is able to control big emotion for the screen. A lot of lightweight performances on the screen don't work for me because I can't see anything behind them. With Quinn, it's difficult not to see everything behind it." - STANLEY BAKER on ANTHONY QUINN (costars of The Guns of Navarone, 1961) |
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| "George Raft and Gary Cooper once played a scene in front of a cigar store and it looked like a wooden Indian was overacting." - GEORGE BURNS on GEORGE RAFT and GARY COOPER (costars of If I Had a Million, 1932, and Souls at Sea, 1937, but never a western) |
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| "I can't stand around like [Robert] Redford. I'm not that narcissistic. Not that photogenic, either." - WILLIAM DEVANE on ROBERT REDFORD (who never worked together) |
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| "It must mean he's as dull as his first wife, Jane Wyman, said he was." - BETTE DAVIS on the "stainless reputation" of RONALD REAGAN |
5 comments:
So it's unanimous, everyone hated George Peppard. I have never read one nice thing said about him. Funny thing about that photo, Joan almost always looks good in every decade. She always had fierce hair/wigs. Hard to take a bad picture of her.
"Chinatown"is brilliant and maybe it was worth the effort. Whatever he did to his actors, they all turned in amazing performances in that movie. No stranger to a reputation for being difficult, Faye's words seem to have a ring of truth.
I live for Dyan Cannon! and will look up this movie. She is my snarky childhood Goddess.
William Devane quote seems mean, I wonder what context it was made in? I always felt Robert Redford used his looks only to get what he wanted, like directing and starting film festivals, rather than being a puffed up movie star. Good Bette quote and photo. I love these quotey posts Poseidon.
My sentiments exactly, Gingerguy. I had no idea George Peppard was such a pill, but that seems to be the overwhelming consensus. I wonder if he was a jerk on the set of The A-Team. I can't imagine Mr. T putting up with any foolishness! For years I was only aware of Dynasty era Joan Collins as that was the only project I saw her in. Then I saw a pic of her from the 50s and 60s - wowza!
I recall reading that the "prissy bitch" quote by Mabel Normand about Mary Pickford was a joke and that they actually got on well. Little Mary was another one of those people who was a delightful actress but sort of a questionable human being at times. I believe both of her adopted children (with Buddy Rogers) said she was hypercritical and had little to do with them. Plus, she snubbed Joan Crawford when she married Doug, Jr because Joanie had once been a dancer. The nerve! Her later years were a bit Sunset Boulevard-esque.
I don't know much about Joe Don Baker, but he seems sort of assholey. Two of his abysmal movies were riffed on Mystery Science Theatre in the 90s. One of the cast members (Mike Nelson, I think) said he threatened to kick their asses over it and he was legitimately scared Baker would follow through when they coincidentally stayed at the same hotel once (nothing happened, of course). Come on, Joe Don! Have a sense of humor about yourself and your terrible movies!
I have mixed feelings about Faye Dunaway though I do think she's a brilliant actress. I am fully on board with her opinion about Polanski though. If anyone can identify an insufferable douche bag, it's our Faye! He may be a brilliant director, but he's a vile, creepy, misogynistic twerp. Same goes for Preminger. Don't even get me started on the brouhaha surrounding Polanski bringing his sorry behind back to the US.
Love the quote by Bette Davis about Reagan. I was a youngin' when he was president but even then, he struck me as being boring and rather phony. The kind of guy who only went to a burger joint on weekends because hamburgers were a "weekend food".
Lots of fun. Love this series!
Gingerguy, what's fascinating to me about Peppard and Collins is that he was the original Blake Carrington on "Dynasty"... filmed most or all of the 3-hour pilot movie, but was then replaced with John Forsythe!! I wonder if La Collins would have proceeded to take the life-changing role of Alexis the following year if prickly Peppard was still the series' lead...! I'm thinking not. I love for 1960s & early-'70s Dyan Cannon, too, and have also never seen "Such Good Friends." I need to. I thought that in that last photo, Davis showed a resemblance to Sarandon more than about any other time (outside of the Jane makeup), though Sarandon would have come closer had she worn bangs instead of the (generally incorrect) Margo Channing side part.
Andrea, Patricia Neal had a hellish time with Peppard, too. Where there is that much smoke, there's some degree of fire. ;-) "Dynasty" was an early entree for me to Collins, though I'd also seen "The Moneychangers" and "Fantasy Island" with her, but when I bought Past Imperfect and saw old pictures of her, I was similarly agog. I'm glad to hear that Mabel might have been kidding. I wondered what burr got under her saddle to say that! LOL One thing I always loved about Mary Pickford, whether she came up with it or now, was a quote that went something like, "We all have failures in life. It's not whether you fall down or not that counts, but how you get back up." I admired that outlook. Baker was good in several things, but ultimately emerged a sort of meathead with, as you say, not much humor at all... These color photos of Reagan are just about the only time EVER that I thought he seemed even remotely appealing physically. Just not my sort at all for some reason. He always looked old to me, even as a youth! But in color with his tan, it's better than I can recall previously. Zzzzzz
Thank you, Scooter!
Actually, George Peppard was horrible on the set of The A Team, as well. He was jealous of Mr. T's popularity and increased prominence on the show. He seemed like a really petty, unpleasant man.
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