Quotes from Van Heflin

I've been doing a lot of pictures in Europe. So many that producers here don't call me when they have a part for me - they think I'm never here any more.

I think it's a disgrace to make actors become pitchmen. You see it on 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' you see it on 'Bonanza.'

I read scripts movie, TV and theater. I read every novel that is published. I read every book that comes out on the theater or the movies, including the technical ones.

Once the Europeans become interested in you they make it a point to learn everything they can about your personal and professional life.

I don't think it's fair to a family to uproot them simply because it's profitable for you to do so.

Nothing creative functions well when fenced in or leaning on a prop. A contract is a fence and a prop.

It is a terrible thing to become a legend in your own time.

I worked with Glen Ford.

Most fellows learned something about dressing in college. But my fraternity made me stay in the basement whenever we gave a dance.

Acting is a full-time job for me.

I spent six years before the mast on all types of merchant ships, and naturally I feel well qualified for seafaring roles.

People will always want to get together in groups at plays and have the contagious thing of someone laughing with them.

I just don't have the looks and if I don't do a good acting job, I look terrible.

When I was a very young actor, I made a wise move. I invested in the stock market.

A doctor or lawyer who has reached the top can stay there or move on to higher prestige positions. But an actor of comparable competence and success and age has little or no control over his career.

I'm not good-looking enough, and I don't have the personality it takes to play myself like the big box-office stars.

When I was in 'Philadelphia Story' I got Joe Cotten to pick out my clothes. He loves clothes and he knows them; never gets the wrong tie and shirt combination.

My predecessors in this business of acting were fully convinced their work would never be recorded, except in the form of reviews or paintings.

Housework has been reduced to a minimum. Even without servants, there is scarcely enough to do to keep women occupied eight hours a day. Moreover, girls are now trained to handle jobs in high school. They graduate from school and college prepared to take over places in the business world.

How much better company is offered by the working wife who out of sheer necessity must keep on her toes mentally and physically.

If producers want to lure the few TV holdouts left, all they have to do is give them a good script and a guarantee of enough time to rehearse. They'd be surprised how fast those hard-to-gets would grab at the bait!

Let's face it. I'm not a personality or the handsome actor type. When you have those God-given assets, you don't have to worry if your acting leaves something to be desired. You can just play yourself on the screen and the public comes flocking to your pictures.

Entertainment is a good enough product to sell on its own merits. Why should it be given away free to help somebody sell tires or toothpaste?

Sometimes I wish I had remained in little theater.