In this latest installment of quotes from and/or about celebrities, we're pulling out some big guns. The back end of the alphabet seems to contain some of showbiz's more prominent figures and we share some reflections on them by their peers (or others) with pics to go with. Hope you enjoy the remarks!
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| "She's an ox when it comes to acting. She eats words for breakfast. Working with her is like playing tennis with Chris Evert-she keeps trying to hit the perfect ball." - DUSTIN HOFFMAN on MERYL STREEP (his costar in Kramer vs Kramer) |
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| "Before I saw Sophie's Choice the alleged magic of Meryl Streep eluded me totally. I didn't understand what the fuss was about. At best she seemed like a frozen, boring blonde, with ice water in her veins, from the Grace Kelly-Tippi Hedren School of Dramatic Art. I simply didn't get the message. Now I do. As Sophie...she is positively mesmerizing." Film critic REX REED on MERYL STREEP |
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| "Oh God, she looks like a chicken." - Writer TRUMAN CAPOTE on MERYL STREEP |
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| "I had no disagreement with Barbra Streisand. I was merely exasperated at her tendency to be a complete megalomaniac." - WALTER MATTHAU on Hello Dolly co-star BARBRA STREISAND (He also said, "I'm number 10 [at the box office]. Right under Barbra Streisand. Can you imagine being under Barbra Streisand? Get me a bag, I may throw up.") |
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| "Filming with Barbra Streisand is an experience which may have cured me of movies." - KRIS KRISTOFFERSON on A Star is Born co-star BARBRA STREISAND |
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| "I think Barbra Streisand is a genius, the creativity she has! And I am very impressed with her as a person. Some years ago when I was on the Academy Awards broadcast, she came up to me. I was standing in the wings and Barbra walked across the stage to greet me. Very polite, very nice. You don't find many young women who extend that kind of courtesy to an older woman. Audrey Hepburn does. And Barbra. I've not forgotten how charming she was." MYRNA LOY on BARBRA STREISAND |
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| "She is a sullen, opague creature, an unknowable, but as enkindled as a young lioness." - Columnist ADELA ROGERS ST. JOHN on GLORIA SWANSON |
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| "Gloria, how you wear me out! Where do you get all this energy?" - GRETA GARBO on GLORIA SWANSON |
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| "Wobbling her enormous derriere across the screen [in Hammersmith is Out] in a manner so offensive it would bring litigation from any dignified, self-respecting performer, and saying lines like: "I'm the biggest mother of them all," inspires pity instead of laughs. She has been announcing plans to retire from the screen. Now is as good a time as any." - Critic REX REED on ELIZABETH TAYLOR (in 1972.) |
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| "I love her, not for her breasts, her buttocks or her knees but for her mind. It is inscrutable. She is like a poem." - (Two-time) Husband RICHARD BURTON on ELIZABETH TAYLOR |
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| "Remember that there isn't anything as important as the sleep and rest of Elizabeth Taylor." - (One-time) Husband EDDIE FISHER on ELIZABETH TAYLOR |
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| "During this depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles." - President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT on #1 box office attraction SHIRLEY TEMPLE |
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| "She was a nice kid, with a really wonderful mother and father. We all liked her. But she was brilliant. She knew everyone's dialogue, and if you forgot a line, she gave it to you. We all hated her for that." - ALICE FAYE on SHIRLEY TEMPLE (with whom she worked in Now I'll Tell, Poor Little Rich Girl and Stowaway) |
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| "I remember Spencer Tracy, who was one of the great film actors, telling me that when he was a young man in New York, he would wait outside a certain theatre at a certain time just to see Lionel Barrymore leave. He couldn't afford to see him act on the stage but at least he could watch and see him walk out of the theatre. I think this is terribly important." - ROBERT RYAN on SPENCER TRACY (with whom he acted in Bad Day at Black Rock) |
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| "I also liked Spencer Tracy...although think it a bit excessive to describe him as the greatest film actor. What he had was a deliberate, delicate mechanism that could cogently envisage a vast area of experience." - PAUL SCOFIELD on SPENCER TRACY (with whom he never worked.) |
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| "Spencer does it. That is all. Talks. Listens. He means what he says when he says it, and if you think that's easy, try it." - HUMPHREY BOGART on SPENCER TRACY (his costar in Up the River, their only appearance together.) |
5 comments:
Elizabeth Taylor in bed with John Schuck??? Never thought I'd see that.
Right?? That gave Schuck and Rock Hudson something to chat about between takes during McMillan & Wife a couple of years later! LOL (Also, Reed wants to pick on Liz's derriere, which if you look at other pictures was not that big, but gives lard-assed Schuck a hall pass?!)
Heavy hitters is right. This is a fun read. Very actor-y comment from Dustin on Meryl. I wonder what he would have thought of Kate Jackson, who I read was supposed to play that role. I was also flabbergasted at seeing John Schuck (in tube socks no less), in bed with Liz. The 70's were not her decade. But saying that, I can never get enough of her. Such an easy target as she aged and gained. I think she got the last laugh on everyone. Rex Reed sure was bitchy, which made for entertaining reading. I talked to him at a bar once(very brave of me)and again at a party, and both times thought he was kind of nice, so I think the waspishness was an act. Walter probably had some valid points on Streisand, but it reads a little sexist,he may have found her audacious as she was only 28 then. Reading these I have to say I almost always come out on the side of the Ladies.
"Elizabeth Taylor in bed with John Schuck??? Never thought I'd see that."
I'll bet Schuck didn't either!
Gingerguy, it's been a looonng time since I saw "Kramer vs Kramer" and I do remember thinking that Meryl's character was rather unsympathetic (at least to whatever moral compass I was possessing at the time.) I can't imagine Kate faring any better because even though I liked her, I never saw her as particularly vulnerable or sympathetic; more analytical and cool. Of course, a part like that surely would have changed her career, so no wonder she was crestfallen to lose it! As for la Streisand, I think she was a stunning talent who just had a lot of trouble relinquishing control whether it was her place or not (and eventually got it in many cases, and not always to her own benefit.) She was unique and probably was sensitive to anyone who didn't share her vision of what she was after, be it her music or her looks on-screen. I think (and hope!) that Jimmy Brolin helped her to mellow out. Liz definitely had the last laugh up until Larry Fortensky, that was a mess, but then rebounded yet again as she ALWAYS did! You have to love her resiliency.
And everyone, including Al in PDX, seems as shocked as I was to see Liz and John Schuck in a love scene (?) - I've never seen it!
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