Quotes

[11/61, interview in Photoplay magazine] I neither condemn nor condone the morals of others. I think there are very few, really, whose conduct reflects unfavorably on the rest of us in this mythical kingdom of Hollywood. There are men who need many women in order to bolster their egos--half the time, they don't remember the girl's name afterward. But I've got a good ego to start with, and I'm too sensitive for a quick relationship with a dame and sex alone would never be enough for me. Marriage is something that goes way beyond the flesh. Each human being has his own need for security . . . It's great to have someone to lean on . . . it's great to have someone lean on you.

[about The Wild Wild West (1965)] We always put in lot more (fighting) than we really wanted to see. (The censors) would say, "We're going to take out two punches . . . two of this . . . three of that . . . ". So when they finished,we were still left with what we really wanted anyway.

[3/61, interview in Motion Picture magazine] Sometimes I'm so preoccupied you have to drop a bomb to communicate with me and most of the time I only average four hours sleep. I don't mind. I wanted to work this hard.

[10/62, asked in interview in Photoplay magazine if his daughter were to marry as a teenager like he did] If some sixteen-year-old punk were to come to me and say, "Sir, I want to marry your daughter" I'd say, "Fine", and escort him to an analyst. The average boy that age isn't remotely capable--from any point of view, including the emotional--of supporting a family.

[10/62, interview in Photoplay magazine] If one of the girls came to me before she had finished high school and announced that she had intended to marry a boy with no job and little education, I'd forbid it--just like a stern father in a melodrama.

[on his disapproval of Loveless being rewritten as an amputee man instead of a dwarf for the Wild Wild West movie] There are so many actors who are dwarfs, midgets, little people who could have qualified for that role. How dare you!

[2007, thoughts on the 1999 Wild Wild West film] I never saw the film and the casting of Will Smith would be similar to me being cast to play Martin Luther King. It was just bad casting and from what I read in the reviews, a bad movie and I lambasted it and would do it again. It was not well done, terribly reviewed and it was miscast.

[on the rumors that he didn't get along with 'Wild Wild West' co-star Ross Martin] It was a great relationship because he gave me things I wasn't exposed to and I think I gave him things. He would go to the opera or ballet, theatre on weekends, and I would go Thursday nights to the Olympic auditorium to the fights. It was a perfect relationship, perfect, 'cause we weren't in conflict and didn't have the same interests. But when we worked together as actors, it just worked.