I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery. Anthony Hopkins
My acting range has always been something between the two extremes of ‘raises left eyebrow’ and ‘raises right eyebrow’. Roger Moore
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpischore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros. Ethel Barrymore 1879-1959, American actress
In my opinion, the chief requisite for an actor is the ability to do nothing well, which is by no means as easy as it sounds. He should be willing to be utilised and wholly integrated into the picture by the director and the camera. He must allow the camera to determine the proper emphasis and the most effective dramatic highlights. Alfred Hitchcock
Garbo’s visage had a kind of emptiness into which anything could be projected – nothing can be read into Bardot’s face. Simone de Beauvoir, 1908-86, French novelist & feminist, ‘Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome’, 1959
No-one’s ever caught me acting. Robert Mitchum, interview The Parkinson Show
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult. Laurence Olivier, Time 3rd July 1978
I don’t like actors very much. Richard Harris, interview The Parkinson Show 1973
I never wanted to be anything else. John Mills, NFT interview 1973
Just say the lines and don’t trip over the furniture. Noel Coward
All right, Mister De Mille, I’m ready for my close-up. Sunset Boulevard 1950 starring William Holden & Gloria Swanson & Erich von Stroheim & Nancy Olson & Fred Clark & Lloyd Gough & Jack Webb & Franklyn Farnum & Larry J Blake & Charles Dayton et al, director Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond
He had everything going for him with a Hollywood career already marked out by critical acclaim yet at just twenty-eight the actor Heath Ledger is dead ... His family called it a tragic accident. ITV News at Ten report
Elizabeth Taylor made over seventy films and won two Oscars. But she is equally remembered for her seven marriages, her diamonds, her illnesses and her flamboyant lifestyle. Elizabeth Taylor: England’s Other Elizabeth – Omnibus, BBC 2013
National Velvet (1944), director Clarence Brown ... Lassie Come Home (1943), director Fred M Wilcox ... A Place in the Sun (1951), director George Stevens ... Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), director Richard Brooks ... Butterfield 8 (1960), director Daniel Mann. ibid.
The man who had meant so much to Elizabeth Taylor was dead after only four hundred and fourteen days of marriage. ibid.
Cleopatra began filming in 1960 ... production relocated to Italy ... The most expensive movie ever made but for Elizabeth's one million dollar fee. ibid.
‘I think she is one of the world’s greatest screen actors.’ ibid. Burton
He was the most charismatic actor of the last century. The boy from South Wales conquered the London stage, scaled the heights of Hollywood and married the world’s most beautiful woman. Now, private diaries he wrote at the peak of his fame reveal Richard Burton in his own words. The Richard Burton Diaries, BBC 2013
Burton’s sense of excitement and sheer erotic rapture shines out in the writing. ibid.
‘The fundamental basis of being an actor is simply to make money.’ ibid. Burton
His own melancholy and anger which directors had used to draw out some of his best screen performances were never far from the surface. ibid.
31st August 1969 diary entry: ‘Yesterday was another terrible day – insulting Elizabeth. Drunk …’ ibid.
Elizabeth’s large entourage – a constant presence in their marriage. ibid.
Time and again in the diaries he is scathing about the film business and disdainful of his own profession. ibid.
The great passion in his life was the English language. ibid.
Burton’s heroes were writers and scholars. ibid.
Camelot: Some nights I hardly have the strength to pull my sword out of its sheath and wave it around a bit. Burton and Taylor 2013 starring Dominic West & Helena Bonham Carter et al, director Richard Laxton BBC 2013, Burton to Taylor
Read it? God no. No. I always make it a rule never to look at anything until I’m starring in it. ibid. Taylor to Burton
Elizabeth, this is serious. We open in ten days. ibid. Burton to Taylor
Richard, I was unprofessional but you were rude, which is much worse. ibid. Taylor to Burton
Love: What is the critical element around which everything else clusters? ibid. Burton to Taylor
We’re addicts, Elizabeth. You and I. (Film & Drunk & Addiction) ibid.
No brighter light has ever dazzled the eye than Eve Harrington. All About Eve 1950 starring Bette Davis & Anne Baxter & Marilyn Monroe & George Sanders & Celeste Holm & Gary Merrill & Hugh Marlowe & Thelma Ritter & Gregory Ratoff & Barbara Bates et al, director Joseph L Mankiewicz, opening remarks
They’re nobody’s fans, they’re juvenile delinquents, they’re mental defectives, they’re nobody’s audience. ibid. Margot
You want to know what a theatre is? A flea circus. ibid. Bill
All the religions in the world rolled into one, and we’re gods and goddesses. ibid. Margot
Fasten your seatbelts – it’s going to be a bumpy night. ibid. Margo
I don’t want to make trouble; all I want is a drink. ibid. Monroe
I detest cheap sentiment. ibid.
The world is full of love tonight. No woman is safe. ibid.
The mark of a true killer – sleep tight, rest easy and come out fighting. ibid. Addison
We’re given the springboard of the text, a plane ticket, told to report to Alabama, and there's a group of people all ready to make a film and it’s a marvelous life. Albert Finney, interview Paul Fischer 2003
People call me an ‘actor’. What’s that? In any case, it has nothing to do with the shit that people have always blabbered about it. It’s neither a vocation nor a profession – although it’s how I earn my living. But then so does the two-headed freak at the carnival. It’s something you have to try and live with – until you learn how to free yourself. It has nothing to do with nonsense like ‘talent’, and it’s nothing to be conceited or proud of. Klaus Kinski, Kinski Uncut : The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski p310, 1996
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;
To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,
Live o’er each scene, and be what they behold –
For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage. Alexander Pope, Prologue to Addison’s Cato
We’re actors – we’re the opposite of people! Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
When you talk about a great actor, you’re not talking about Tom Cruise. Lauren Bacall
Any actress who appears in public without being well-groomed is digging her own grave. Joan Crawford
Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you. Gary Oldman
Where solitude endeth, there beginneth the market-place; and where the market-place beginneth, there beginneth also the noise of the great actors, and the buzzing of the poison-flies. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
The American actor is very lucky ... Because so little is asked of him. Sanford Meisner, Sanford Meisner on Acting
The varying physical characteristics of the actors may also necessitate changes. Sean Connery is six feet four. Dustin Hoffman isn’t. Sidney Lumet, Making Movies
I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic, and a progressive religious experience. Shelley Winters