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I don't act to live. I live to act.

Eli Wallach

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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
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More quotes by Eli Wallach

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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
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Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck.
Eli Wallach
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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
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What is it in my makeup that makes me grab any offer and fly around the world? Will I ever be satisfied? Can't I ever just rest?
Eli Wallach
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My first Western was called The Magnificent Seven.
Eli Wallach
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I never dreamed I would do Westerns.
Eli Wallach
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I've never lost my appetite for acting it's innovative and challenging.
Eli Wallach
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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
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The richest man is the one with the most powerful friends.
Eli Wallach
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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
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All of these stories bounced around in my mind for a long time.
Eli Wallach
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But Clint I love, because Clint was my mentor. I knew nothing about making an Italian movie.
Eli Wallach
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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
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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
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And that movie was underrated - Nuts - because it deals with a terrible subject, but It's very well done.
Eli Wallach
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One thing changes every evening: It's the audience, and I'm working my magic. I'm always learning from it.
Eli Wallach
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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
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I love to tell stories and this is my way of getting them down on paper.
Eli Wallach
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But I went to the University of Texas in the 30s, and while there I learned to ride. Mostly polo ponies.
Eli Wallach
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Fifty million dollars is not to be sneezed at. Of course, I never catch cold.
Eli Wallach