Deborah Walley Quotes

When I was discovered, I was doing Chekhov. I was in "The Three Sisters" off-Broadway, and I went from "Three Sisters" to Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961). I rode on a Sixth Avenue bus from one end of Manhattan to another, crying my eyes out. "Gidget" was so huge, I guess I knew on that bus that day that part of my dream of being a serious actress was kind of destroyed.

(referring to being cast in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)) I wasn`t really a movie fan. I lived in New York City; I was an actress on the stage and did some television out of New York. But I was so wrapped up in theater, and this was my dream - I was going to be a Broadway star - that I didn`t pay too much attention to film. I was actually quite disappointed when I got the part to begin with."

I get things from 14-year-olds, and 15-year-olds, 16, 17, you know, saying, "Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) is my favorite movie" and "I loved you in this and that". And they know everything I`ve done, or at least everything that`s available on video, or has been played on television. And it`s so different from what`s going on today. Maybe that`s the appeal. It is so diametrically different. It`s so clean and fresh and fun-filled, as opposed to the movies they make for teenagers today.

When I was discovered, I was doing Chekhov.