As a matter of fact, I've got a film called "Pass the Ammo" opening tonight in Los Angeles. I play the Reverend Ray who is sleeping with half the choir in his church in Arkansas. Just like Jim and Jessica. Ah do mah Arkansaw accent. In a piece of rather clever timing, we began filming "Pass the Ammo" a year ago in the middle of the PTL scandal. Now it's opening the week of the Jimmy Swaggart scandal. Denver Rocky Mt. News Mar. 6, 1989.

I was lucky to be born in 1946 because I grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald and the Modern Jazz Quartet and Louis Armstrong. Then I went through the very dull '50's. I was at junior school at Plymouth and went to boarding school when I was 10--a methodist school in Bath. Denver Rocky Mt. News Mar. 6, 1989.

I did like it [rock 'n' roll]. But I stopped doing it because I wanted to live. I guess I worked out my Dionyalac urges. Denver Rocky Mt. News Mar. 6, 1989.

I flew to London to see Robert Lindsay in it ["Me and My Girl"]. It is an irresistible show. Bill Snibson is the sunniest character on the face of the Earth. For somebody like me who has played so many dark people, it's a treat. Snibson is a total optimist. He doesn't draw a breath from the beginning to the end of the show. Denver Rocky Mt. News Mar. 6, 1989.

|I do like iconoclasts. They're bloody wonderful people to play, full of life, energy, celebrity. I love this play ["The Art of Success"] because it has such an intense dynamic, it's ambitious, poetic. This is off-Broadway, but I think it's right for this play. I enjoyed being on Broadway before. Before "Amadeus," I had been here with "The Rocky Horror Show," but it didn't last long. That same year, I was in "Travesties," so I had the distinction of being in a serious flop and a hit the same season. NY Daily News Dec. 28, 1989.

When I got out [of college], at 22, I was so tired of going to classes, I didn't want to study any more, so I went off to London and talked myself into a role in the musical "Hair." I was supposed to stay 18 months, but my contract read that if I got a better job--one that was an improvement--I could leave earlier. Finally, when I was offered a job with the Royal Shakespeare, I rushed to get out of my contract. I didn't dare tell them, however, that the role I was signed for was a hippie. After [Rocky Horror] closed on Broadway, I stuck around because I was intrigued with the energy here, and I came back as often as I could. N Daily News Dec. 28, 1989.

I grew up watching American movie musicals. My mother loved them and would take us to them every weekend. My attraction for them was one of the reasons I did "Annie." And I was in the national company of "Me and My Girl," which is sort of a Hollywood-style musical that Hollywood doesn't seem to make anymore. I did that one because it seems I tend to play driven, dark people. It was nice for a change to play someone sunny. Then, we all thought "Annie" might be the last really big one. And we might have been right. NY Daily News Dec. 28, 1989.

It's much more a matter of playing the characters as they were written by the authors because of the liberties that have been taken with pretty much all of them. They've all been distorted in one way or another, because the authors have hardly stuck to the facts. When I was playing Mozart, I really read very little about him, because I thought what was really important was to play not only Peter Shaffer's Mozart but also the Mozart who's seen through the eyes of his enemy Salieri. I think that if you get too close to the character, if you do too much historical research, you may find yourself defending your view of a character against the author's view, and I think that's terribly dangerous. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

I just looked at the pictures. [There was little point in doing extensive historical research for "The Art of Success,"] because it's really a very modern play. Hogarth has really been taken hostage to Nick Dear's view of Thatcher's England. The sort of economic greed of the 80's, at the end of the Industrial Revolution, is very similar to the part of the 18th century shown in the play, which was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and indeed of the British Empire. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

[The play is really about] the moral responsibility of the artist--is there one, really?--and indeed the political responsibility of the artist. They're the kind of questions any artist in the 20th century would be asking hmself. Why am I doing this? Am I doing this for any kind of really valid reason? I think artists are driven by the engine of their own talent, but it's a question of what use they put it to. [The play] is also a discussion about how the wheels of censorship grind into motion and why it's important that they be stopped. Reading the play, you couldn't help but think of the Mapplethorpe photographs. Anything to strike a blow in Mapplethorpe's defense is well worth doing. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

I was in the first play in London to be done after the theater licensing act was repealed. It was repealed the day before I started to work in "Hair" in 1968. So between the 1730's and 1968 there was more than 200 years of censorship in England. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

I was a boy soprano. I sang in church from the age of 6 or 7, which I guess started it really. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

At the time I wasn't really sure whether I wanted to be an actor or a singer; so I talked my way into "Hair" and postponed the decision for another year or so. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

When I did "Amadeus," I hadn't done a play for five years. And I was so happy doing it and felt so foolish that I hadn't done a play for such a long time that I wanted to go back and really kind of reach out for a classical career. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

A dreadful, abortive production of a play I'd always wanted to do and then made a terrible pig's ear of. [The Threepenny Opera] NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

It [rock-and-roll] really is a young man's game. [Now I am] pretty much concentrating on acting. I moved to L.A. because that's where they point cameras at you. And that's what I'd like them to do. NY Times Jan. 24, 1990.

I tend to play 'doing' parts. It was interesting to play somebody who was 'done to.' (on his part in "The Hunt for Red October") Us Nov. 26, xe "1990: Hunt for Red October"1990.

It was great to watch an icon work. Sean has to do so little. That face could be on Mount Rushmore. It took shear dogged stubborn persistence for Sean to get there. Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I do those characters [referring to his part in "It"] once in a while -- the ones they can't cast. The really off-the-wall peculiar kind. You can play them very broadly, but the trick is in finding a level that can also be effective. Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I had in mind something sub-Buddy Hackett. That sort of Catskills comic stuff seems to work very well for the kind of cheery vaudeville dialogue I have. There's something chilling about that sort of 'Take my wife, please' kind of voice. (on his part in "It") Us Nov. 26, 1990.

They had built an entire prosthetic face and I just didn't want to wear it -- I thought being a clown was enough. When I did "Legend", I was rubber from the waist up. It took six and a half hours to put on and an hour and a half to get off. It is very hard to inhabit that stuff. You risk coming off as a kind of Muppet. (on his part in "It") Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I never was trained really. I could sing and do an American accent and I could vaguely boogaloo. When anyone didn't show up or was too stoned to appear, I did their role. It was like drama school to me. (on "Hair") Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I set out deliberately to build the broadest based career I possibly could, because I thought I was capable of it. Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I was very pissed off about it for a while. I'd gone on. But I learned to let go. There's nothing you can do about it. It's not really a problem anymore. I'm very proud of it. It's pretty amazing to star in a movie that's run for 15 years. It's a classic of its kind. (referring to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show") Us Nov. 26, 1990.

My character is a really sweet guy. I even get the girl. (referring to his character in "Oscar") Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I think if you can do it, you should. Classical theater, Broadway musicals, Stoppard, Hollywood movies, historical British television, rock & roll records. I do all that stuff. The classic American career is, once you find a niche, put a large bow around it and do it until they take you to the motion picture home. Which is fine, but it wouldn't interest me. Us Nov. 26, 1990.

The danger is becoming famous for something you then have to keep doing. (on having a mainstream hit) Us Nov. 26, 1990.

I developed whatever charm I have fast, as most service brats do. People Jun. 3, 1991.

Larger than life to me means no life. People Jun. 3, 1991.

All Brits are gardeners. On our 30th birthday, we reach for a trowel. People Jun. 3, 1991.

My specialty roles are Louche, Brio, and Bravura. Vogue Dec. 1992.

Yes, but not for years. I won't see it again. No, I couldn't. I'd end up doing an impression of Peter O'Toole. (on whether he had seen the movie "My Favorite Year") Vogue Dec. 1992

I live with him quite comfortably now but there was a period when I couldn't stand him. At the height of the cult, people would follow me home, furtively pressing satanic literature into my hand. They'd go through my garbage. I used to be concerned that Frank 'n Furter was how I was actually perceived. Vogue Dec. 1992.

You never know with musicals because there's more to go wrong! What if it goes right? There's nothing like it, nothing makes us feel better or so ... swell. Vogue Dec. 1992.

Their creative energy was irresistible. They had such attack and brio. I've done a musical now about every five years. It's sort of like having a baby; you just forget the pain and remember the joy. Harper's Bazaar Dec. 1992

I think it would be foolish for me to even think about Peter O'Toole now. The choice will be whether to play my own age, which is 46, or older, though I think my real age works for the story. There's no reason you can't be washed up and drunk with a daughter in college at 46. The bravura of the role will take care of itself. After rehearsals, I read the script a lot in the evenings, because sometimes clues suddenly throw themselves at you. Harper's Bazaar Dec. 1992

Well, you've given me a chin at least though I look something like Beatrice Lillie. (on his caricature at Sardi's) Harper's Bazaar Dec. 1992.

The most exciting month I ever had in the theater was "Amadeus" in Washington. One scene was rewritten virtually every day, which gave new meaning to the phrase 'live theater.' But I've gotten to a point where I know what I can make work. I've got a sense of my own comfort without being scared of compromising it. Harper's Bazaar Dec. 1992.

Brits play butlers and villains in Hollywood. But the villain roles are often the best written and most fun, so I didn't mind. I chose to live in L.A. because I wanted a garden and some regular hours for a while. But, once an adrenaline junkie, always. Harper's Bazaar Dec. 1992.

I first met this creative team [composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens] in a big old ballroom at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel in Los Angeles. The energy of those two was so contagious, I imagined I was sitting in on a baby version of Comden and Green. It was all so exciting then. I thought next thing we'd do is all go out in the hall and do a rendition of 'On the Town.' But actually their show fascinated me. There's something so right about the period it's set in, and the score fits it so well. I feel as if I'm in one of those old Technicolor musicals that absolutely obsessed me as a child. NY Daily News Dec. 6, 1992.

I knew I was going to be an actor even then [in college], but I wanted to be an actor with a piece of paper. I'm glad I did. It was a wonderful way to spend three years--isolated with people your own age, all deciding what to do with the rest of their life. Besides, I thought I owed it to my father. He always felt he missed out on a good career by not having gone to college. His father didn't think it was necessary and wouldn't, or maybe couldn't, pay for him to go. NY Daily News Dec. 6, 1992.

The only time I ever had a vocal coach was when I did "Pirates of Penzance" in London, and the Public Theater had sent over their coach. Up to then, my warmups tended to be a cough and a spit. I'm about to have one [a coach] now, however. Being in a musical is very hard on your voice. But one thing is good--it's the best diet in the world. When I toured in "Me and My Girl," by the time it was over, I was down to 145 pounds--skin and bones for me. NY Daily News Dec. 6, 1992.

That's the music I listened to when I was growing up. [Billie Holiday, Teddy Wilson, Duke Ellington, etc.] I was completely obsessed by her [Holiday] then. Still am, really. NY Daily News Dec. 6, 1992.

I'm tempted to find a place here now. I feel I've been awakened from a deep sleep. NY Daily News Dec. 6, 1992.

I was going to get myself a pin that read 'TIT'--'Terrific in Turkeys.' LA Times Calendar Dec. 6, 1992.

I wanted to be in a movie that people saw. (on Home Alone 2) LA Times Calendar Dec. 6, 1992.

I remember when the notices [for "My Favorite Year"] appeared in the papers that this was going to be staged, I sort of cocked an eye and thought, 'Oh no.' But when it really started to get off the ground and they started calling ... I figured out in the end that I was scared. So I came. LA Times Calendar Dec. 6, 1992.

The O'Toole-Swann parallel was one of the reasons why the film was extraordinarily moving as well as funny. Not that I haven't done a lot of the same research. But it was clear from the way the script was going that the creative team had long since abandoned the movie. And I think there are 10 crucial years here: Peter was in his mid-50's when he did it, and that's quite different from your mid-40's. And I think the demands of the musical are a quite different thing. To some extent, too, there's been a marginal attempt to tailor things in the show to what I can do, just the way, as Lainie Kazan explained, things were tailored to O'Toole in the movie. LA Times Calendar Dec. 6, 1992.

Musicals are famous for being in a constant state of flux. 'Send in the Clowns' was added just two days before ["A Little Night Music"] opened. There's nothing more daunting than a musical, but there's also no more direct line to joy. Getting there, though, is like pushing treacle up stairs. LA Times Calendar Dec. 6, 1992.

You can't stay away from the theater too long. It's not even about craft, it's about attitude--attitude and stamina and the courage to go up there and create a world every day, just to physically slice through the air. When I did "Amadeus," I hadn't done a play for five years. One of the things that made me want to go back on stage was going to the ballet a lot and seeing people displace air and light. And feeling horribly envious. LA Times Calendar Dec. 6, 1992.


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