Lancaster Quotes

I`ve finally gotten away from Burt Lancaster. My luck has changed for the better. I`ve got nice-looking girls in my films now.

(on Burt Lancaster) John Wayne was a great star. But he always played Wayne. Anything else he didn`t regard as manly. Now someone like Burt Lancaster is just the opposite. The living proof that you can be a sensitive actor and macho at the same time.

Somebody once approached Kirk Douglas and said they had enjoyed his performance in Ben-Hur (1959). So he said, `That wasn`t me, that was another fellow.` And the man said, `Well, if you aren`t Burt Lancaster, who the hell are you?`

I first felt successful when I was 13 and in a show called Seesaw. I came offstage and heard the applause of the theater audience and felt a sense of accomplishment. Around that time my role model for success was Burt Lancaster. He was one of the first actors In Hollywood to start his own production company, and I respected him because he created something he believed in. Nowadays I look to spiritual people, such as Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama, since I`m always asking myself, `What do I have to give?`

It had to have rocks in the distance, so the water could strike the boulders and shoot upward -- all very symbolic. The scene turned out to be deeply affecting on film, but, God, it was no fun to shoot. We had to time it for the waves, so that at just the right moment a big one would come up and wash over us. Most of the waves came up only to our feet, but we needed one that would come up all the way. We were like surfers, waiting for the perfect waves. Between each take, we had to do a total cleanup. When it was all over, we had four tons of grit in our mouths--and other places. -- DK, referring to her famous romantic beach scene with Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity"

(from a 1988 interview) I`ve never looked at acting as "Ahhh!" and "Gee!" I started in vaudeville when I was five and for me it was just walking on a stage and I`m gonna perform. Later on I was impressed by many things, like when I worked with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in Tough Guys (1986). That was an "Ahhh!" for me. When I look back, even today, I guess I can go "Ahhh!" because I worked with Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell in Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) when I was nine. Then they were just grown-ups on the stage. As I look back, I`m more awed now than I was when I was actually doing it.

Burt Lancaster was largely responsible for me becoming a director.

I`m selfish. We could have been here when I played at Lancaster. I wasn`t going to miss my friend win this. I`ve seen these kids grow up since sixth or seventh grade.

We played about a good quarter and a half. We came out a little flat in the second half. (Lancaster) did a good job.

Until we saw the article, we had had to go back and forth to Lancaster. We were amazed that there was a community right there.