Quotes

[about Westerns] They have been the mainstay of the industry ever since its beginning. And they have been good to me. Westerns are a type of picture which everybody can see and enjoy. Westerns always make money. And they always increase a star's fan following.

Frankly, I don't like publicity. I always remember something that David Belasco said and had incorporated in the contracts of his stars. His theory was, "Never let yourself be seen in public unless they pay for it". To me, that makes sense. The most glamorous, the most fascinating star our business ever had was Garbo [Greta Garbo]. Why? Because she kept herself from the public. Each member of the audience had his own idea of what she was really like. But take the other stars of today. There is no mystery about them. The public knows what kind of toothpaste they use, whether they sleep in men's pajamas and every intimate fact of their lives. When I read publicity about them, I can tell just which press agent they employ.

I had always been a fatalist about my career. What was to be was to be. At least it worked out that way in my case. My retirement is both voluntary and involuntary. One reason, and this is voluntary, is the impact of television. All old movies are turning up on television, and frankly making pictures doesn't interest me anymore. Another reason is that the film industry is in a declining state.

[on his mother] She was an old-fashioned Southern lady who always contended movies were not here to stay, My five sisters took her to see me in a film and the first time she saw me on the screen, she said, "Oh, no! That can't be Randolph. This feller's older than Randy and not so good-looking".

[on his short marriage to heiress Marianna du Pont Somerville] Our separation is entirely friendly. It's merely a case of being separated too much, which did not prove compatible with marriage.

[on his father] He went to see all my films--not because he had a son starring in them, but because he thought I looked like Wallace Reid, his favorite actor.