Quotes

Upon telling his family he wanted to go into show business: "My dad hit the roof and I hit the road, simultaneously."

I don't know who the hell Paul Lynde is or why he's funny, and I prefer it to be a mystery to me. An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.

I have so many friends who were lovers. After they got married, it was over.

I'm used to living alone, and I like it that way. You become so selfish living alone...I'd make a terrible husband anyway.

I don't meet enough women outside show business, and I wouldn't marry anyone in this field. [in 1969]

Sometimes, I think you're better off not being married today. When you see your married friends split up, it's devastating. Call it scared! Call it an obsession. But I took it for granted I was going to marry a girl I went with for nine years. That is, until I received her wedding invitation. [in 1974]

I was in 'Bye Bye Birdie' on Broadway - played the father. I was in the film version, but they should have retitled it 'Hello, Ann-Margret!' They cut several of my and the other actors' best scenes and shot new ones for her so she could do her teenage-sex-bombshell act.

I had a drag scene in Doris Day's The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). An elegant gown. Actually, it was more expensive than any of the ones Doris had to wear. That day that I came in fully dressed and coiffed, I was the belle of the set! Everybody went wild! Doris came over and looked me up and down and told me, 'Oh, I'd never wear anything that feminine.'

I always wanted to be Anna May Wong. She seemed so much more exotic and exciting than plain ordinary folk. But no-go. I wasn't fated to be Wong, just white.

[to a traffic cop who had flagged him down for drunk driving] I'll have a double cheeseburger and a chocolate shake.