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- “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
- June 28, 1914: “But if ever a man went anywhere of his own free will, Franz Ferdinand went to Sarajevo.”
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Category Archives: Actors
“What good is a character who’s always winking at the audience to let them in on the secret?” –Gene Wilder
It’s his birthday today. Where does the humor lie? Can this moment be broken down to discover its secret? Is it the eye pan to the right? Is it the delayed eyebrow raise? Is it what’s happening with his mouth? … Continue reading
“If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.” — Judy Garland
It’s the great, the irreplaceable, Judy Garland’s birthday. The screengrab above is from John Cassavetes’ 1963 film A Child is Waiting. This film is not really well-known, except among Cassavetes/Garland completists – but some serious Cassavetes fans don’t know about … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged John Cassavetes, Judy Garland, Stanley Kramer
6 Comments
“I was smart enough to go through any door that opened.” — Joan Rivers
It’s her birthday today. A couple of days before Joan Rivers died, when there was still some hope she would pull through, I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about this legend with someone who loves her, … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day, Television
4 Comments
“I want them to think ‘He was a nice guy. He did pretty good and we loved him’.” — Dean Martin
From Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, by Nick Tosches. Getting to the heart of it all. His schoolmates had never really known him. Even his loving family could not tell for sure what lay within this … Continue reading
“I’m not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.” – Marilyn Monroe
It’s her birthday. Marilyn Monroe: People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, On This Day
Tagged Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, John Strasberg, Lee Strasberg, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Bogdanovich, Some Like It Hot
28 Comments
“Only the bad directors tell you how to read a line, how to define your character. The good ones let you do your job.” — Carroll Baker
It’s her birthday today. When you look back on your life – especially once you’re, how you say, OLD – it’s sometimes interesting to try to untangle some of the strands, the things that happened that made you who you … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Baby Doll, Carroll Baker, Elia Kazan, James Dean, Lee Strasberg, Memoirs, Something Wild
4 Comments
An Acting Lesson: John Wayne and the “Reality of the Doing”
An old piece, re-posted for John Wayne’s birthday: In one lengthy scene in Hondo, filmed in one almost unbroken take, Wayne makes horseshoes in the little outdoor smith in the yard. Geraldine Page hovers nearby. He talks to her about … Continue reading
“Boredom is very important in life. It helps you feel when something is wrong.” — John Strasberg
It’s John Strasberg’s birthday today. I told this story before on here years ago, when I used to write like this on here, on occasion. Figured I’d re-post it. He is very very important to me. Back in the late … Continue reading
“It’s an absolute miracle that I’m still around.” — Dennis Hopper
It’s his birthday today. I’m so glad I used one of my columns at Film Comment -now on hiatus – to sing the praises of Dennis Hopper’s wild and nihilistic Out of the Blue, starring Linda Manz and Hopper. Of … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Art/Photography, Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Actors Studio, Croatia, Dennis Hopper, Out of the Blue, photography
2 Comments
For Joseph Cotten’s birthday: Gaslight: His Listening Is Active
Except for a couple of brief encounters in public settings, Joseph Cotten’s Brian Cameron and Ingrid Bergman’s Paula Asquist never meet until the final scene of Gaslight. Cameron is obsessed with the unsolved murder of Paula Asquist’s aunt, and is … Continue reading