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- “Art is theft, art is armed robbery, art is not pleasing your mother.” — Janet Malcolm
- “I’m one of those people who thinks you can have a happy life and still be an artist.” — Shelley Duvall
- “There’s a difference between writing about something and living through it. I did both.” — poet/novelist Margaret Walker
- “I believe what Camus says. When the curtain rings down, your job is done.” — Warren Oates
- Physical Media Booklet Essay podcast interview
- “My voice isn’t an instrument I can just hang up on a hook.” — Audra McDonald
- “You can’t be on top all the time. It isn’t natural.” — Olivia de Havilland
- “If I don’t feel it, I can’t play it.” — James Cotton
- “I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.” — Lena Horne
- “But man has always succeeded in rising again.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
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- sheila on “All I actually wanted was for my work to be useful.”–Claudius Afolabi Siffre
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Category Archives: Actors
“Dancing in Tijuana when I was 13 — that was my ‘summer camp.’ How else do you think I could keep up with Fred Astaire when I was 19?” — Rita Hayworth
It’s her birthday today! In early 2016, it was all Rita Hayworth all the time at my humble abode, due to the research I did for my essay on Gilda, included in the Criterion Collection release of Gilda. Gilda represented … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Cyd Charisse, Fred Astaire, Gilda, Rita Hayworth
26 Comments
“I guess I became an actress because I didn’t want to be myself.” — Jean Arthur
It’s her birthday today, one of my all-time favorite actresses! First up, two pieces I wrote for Film Comment: For my “Present Tense” column, I wrote about her career and her distinctive voice. For TCM Diary, I wrote about onscreen … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day
Tagged Cary Grant, Frank Capra, Jean Arthur, Only Angels Have Wings
16 Comments
“Quite frankly. I was all talent and no looks.” — Angela Lansbury
It’s her birthday today. Even if you came to Gaslight clean, without knowing a thing, which is hard to believe, but let’s just pretend: Even if you knew nothing about it, it would be instantly obvious that the teenage girl … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, Music, On This Day, Television, Theatre
Tagged Angela Lansbury, Elvis Presley
10 Comments
“All my life I have been happiest when the folks watching me said to each other, `Look at the poor dope, wilya?” — Buster Keaton
It’s Buster Keaton’s birthday today. As a small boy with a talent for acrobatics (and a high tolerance for pain), Keaton performed with his parents in a family act (an act notorious for its wild violence) before launching off on … Continue reading
Substack: Interview with Jeremy Richey about Sylvia Kristel
Today is Sylvia Kristel’s birthday, the Dutch actress mostly known for the notoriously soft-core Emmanuelle (1974)- but she did a lot more and worked with some of the greatest directors and actors of her era (70s). In his book about … Continue reading
“Our humour is armour… a shield used to deflect doom and gloom.” — John Lynch on Irish-ness
It’s the birthday of the fine Irish actor John Lynch. He hails from Northern Island (County Armagh), and made a very striking debut in Cal, based on the novel by Bernard MacLaverty, a novel of “the Troubles”. Lynch plays a … Continue reading
All About Al podcast: Discussing Dog Day Afternoon
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the release of Dog Day Afternoon. I can say, without exaggeration (for once), that Dog Day Afternoon changed my life. I was 13 when I first saw it – on network television ! – … Continue reading
“I am the old story. L’histoire ancienne. But an old story can still be a good story, no?” — Anna Karina
It’s the birthday of French New Wave star Anna Karina, muse to many, fascinating onscreen persona, director of her own films. Anna Karina died in 2019, and you felt the loss in an almost palpable way, particularly in the New … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Agnes Varda, Anna Karina, France, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, women directors
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“More Than This / There Is Nothing”: Bill Murray in Lost in Translation for Sofia Coppola Month
This piece originally appeared on Jeremy Richey’s awesome blog Moon in the Gutter, as part of his “Sofia Coppola Month” back in May 2013. He had guest writers take on all number of topics, and I wrote about Bill Murray … Continue reading