John Carradine Quotes

I am a ham! And the ham in an actor is what makes him interesting.

Never do anything you wouldn`t want to be caught dead doing.

(on Cecil B. DeMille) I was very fond of him. I never saw him direct an actor; his specialty was the camera. He simply hired the best actors he could get and let them do their job. He didn`t interfere with them unless something was drastically wrong. DeMille`s specialty was the camera, the pageantry.

As for making movies, who can act at eight o`clock in the morning? Let`s face it!

I`ve made some of the greatest films ever made - and a lot of crap, too.

(on Darryl F. Zanuck) Nobody liked working for Zanuck, the little goddamn Napolean, always walking around with his polo mallet. Nobody had any respect for him except as an executive. And he was a good editor at one time, but he fancied himself a writer, and he was not a good writer.

Directors never direct me. They just turn me loose.

Lionel Barrymore then had hands like mine are now - arthritic talons.

(on John Ford) Oh, Ford was a peculiar man. You had to know how to handle him. Actors were terrified of him because he liked to terrify them. He was a sadist.

(His last words before passing away) "Milan. What a beautiful place to die."

Ingmar Bergman said he cast David Carradine in The Serpent`s Egg (1977) "because he has the princely blood of his father in his veins."