Quote

My wife says that stage acting is like being on a tightrope with no net, and being in the movies, there is a net - because you stop and go over it again. It's very technical and mechanical. On stage you're on your own.

Eli Wallach

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Eli Wallach
Age: 98 †
Born: 1915
Born: December 7
Died: 2014
Died: June 24
Actor
Autobiographer
Character Actor
Film Actor
Film Producer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
New York City
New York
Eli Herschel Wallach
Stage
Wife
Stop
Movie
Tightrope
Acting
Mechanical
Like
Technical
Movies
Says

More quotes by Eli Wallach

Image
I love to tell stories and this is my way of getting them down on paper.
Eli Wallach
Image
Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck.
Eli Wallach
Image
I don't act to live. I live to act.
Eli Wallach
Image
Fifty million dollars is not to be sneezed at. Of course, I never catch cold.
Eli Wallach
Image
But I went to the University of Texas in the 30s, and while there I learned to ride. Mostly polo ponies.
Eli Wallach
Image
What do I need a movie for? The stage is on a higher level in every way, and a more satisfying medium. Movies, by comparison, are like calendar art next to great paintings. You can't really do very much in movies or in television, but the stage is such an anarchistic medium.
Eli Wallach
Image
No, I never thought of it in those terms. I used to go into agents' offices and they'd have pictures of these handsome movie men and I knew I'd never be up there. I'm a journeyman actor. I didn't think about stardom.
Eli Wallach
Image
Well, I was getting a lot of money then, and I wasn't getting any Hollywood films, so I just did those. I'd always do a play in between. Whenever I ran low on funds, I'd always rush off to do a movie somewhere.
Eli Wallach
Image
But Clint I love, because Clint was my mentor. I knew nothing about making an Italian movie.
Eli Wallach
Image
I'd come out of the army after five years as a medic. I was a medical administrator and we ran hospitals, and I was a Captain in the Army at the end, in 1945.
Eli Wallach
Image
I met my wife and, for the next ten years, we did no films at all. She did the first movie and then I did several after. My first movie was written by Tennessee Williams and directed by [Elia] Kazan and was called Baby Doll.
Eli Wallach
Image
And that movie was underrated - Nuts - because it deals with a terrible subject, but It's very well done.
Eli Wallach
Image
All of these stories bounced around in my mind for a long time.
Eli Wallach
Image
Recipe? Recipe? We don' need no stinkin' recipe.
Eli Wallach
Image
John Huston was a superb master. He knew how to make good films. I did three things with him. One is called Independence. It plays in Philadelphia, for free. It's been playing there for 25 years.
Eli Wallach
Image
In the book, I tell the story of seeing old movies when I was young and acting out scenes at home. Now I get scripts, and I act them out.
Eli Wallach
Image
I've never lost my appetite for acting it's innovative and challenging.
Eli Wallach
Image
I never dreamed I would do Westerns.
Eli Wallach
Image
My first Western was called The Magnificent Seven.
Eli Wallach
Image
I've worked with wonderful actors like Marlon Brando and Henry Fonda.
Eli Wallach