probably good i didn't discover roddy mcdowall and shari lewis naked in a waterfall when i was twelve, i wasn't far enough removed from lamb chop to deal with that
probably good i didn't discover roddy mcdowall and shari lewis naked in a waterfall when i was twelve, i wasn't far enough removed from lamb chop to deal with that
As an archaeologist, I had access to history scrolls which were kept secret from the masses. And I suspect that the weapon which destroyed Earth was man's own invention. I do know this. One of the reasons for man's original downfall was your peculiar habit of murdering one another. Man destroys man. Apes do not destroy apes.
1975 - Roddy McDowall reflects on The Planet of the Apes
In 1975, Roddy McDowall reflected on his work in the PLANET OF THE APE series, as well as other aspects of his work and private life.
HOLLYWOOD MADE A MONKEY OUT OF ME
Roddy McDowall talks with Alan Kent about life on The Planet of the Apes
SLIM, slight, with delicate features, Roddy McDowall, at 47, his brown hair only barely showing any sign of grey. With his alertness, his eagerness and his still-youthful vitality, he reminded me of an intellectual though precocious youngster.
He has a personality conveying the impression of youth, and when I mentioned it he nodded—"I know what you mean. Why, they had me playing 14-year-olds when I was almost 25!"
"I've been bedevilled through looking younger than I really am. I think it has a lot to do with why I've worked so much."
"I'm always busy, you know. If it is not a film, or a TV show, it's a stage play. I never seem to be out of work for long."
"I'm often kidded that I must have 'monkey-glands'. My, my. Maybe that's why Hollywood tried to make a monkey out of me!"
"You know something? People don't recognise me. No, no, really. Maybe it's because I don't have my ape suit on."
We talked about his Planet of the Apes roles, and he admitted, for all the 80 or more films he has made, that it is the series of ape films, and the subsequent ape TV series, that have brought him fame.
I asked McDowall if he was happy or unhappy that the Apes series had ended.
He said: "Hmm, let me see. It seemed as though I was destined to be remembered as Roddy of the Apes."
"I guess in one way I was sorry, but glad in another when it all ended."
"Sorry, because for one thing working behind that ape mask was a real challenge. The parts were good, and the challenge was communicating through the masks... having to keep your face moving under all that make-up."
"It meant having to make exaggerated facial movements to produce even the merest twitch on the surface."
"Beyond that, you only have your eyes to work with to express your feelings. It meant I had to make very different acting choices, different from those I would have made had the audience been able to see my face properly."
"Several actors have had difficulty with the face. They watch the mouth. They must learn to use the eyes. It really was an ordeal... absolute physical agony. Real hardship."
"I had to get up each morning at four o'clock, and spend three hours in make-up having the face moulded onto me."
"It was unbearably hot. I had to insist on having a day off every now and again, just so my flesh could get a chance to breathe. The application and then the removal of the masks caused me facial cysts."
"The heat while filming caused the gum behind the mask in place to melt, and gave me skin irritation. I used to get so depressed in that ape-suit that I needed the breaks to get me back to normal."
"Those suits got to me because I am a bit claustrophobic anyway, and it really was no fun being so encased in fur."
"And what hell I went through marking Battle of the Planet of the Apes, because I came down with a nasty cold. Oh, my! I don't think I'll ever tend to forget that experience!"
"It was agony, too, not being able to even scratch my nose, or to eat properly, or drink—except through a straw—and the whole thing of the mask and the suit really worked on my nerves. I was ready to climb the walls long before the day's shooting was over!"
How did he manage to eat?
"Are you ready for this? By having small bits of food on skewers pushed through into my mouth. Like, a peck at a time. Man, was it frustrating, awkward, and nerve-wracking! Can you wonder I nearly became a nut case?"
HAD been told that at the end of each Apes story, McDowall had said a very definite "no" to doing any more. What changed his mind?
"Well, it wasn't as though I was making them continuously. I guess I kind of forgot the pain and the drawbacks after a while."
"I did four of the five Ape films. I missed the second film—Beneath the Planet of the Apes—because I was in England directing Tam-Lin, with Ava Gardner."
"Incidentally, it has never had a proper theatrical release and now has been sold to TV. Very frustrating, especially since I was so keen at the time on becoming known for my directing. Having a film aborted like that is a tough break."
"I'm quite proud of the film, but the problem was the bankruptcy of the company that produced it."
"I will be a director again some day. I know I will. I want to direct and to produce. I was always interested in behind-the-camera techniques, and I have dabbled as an associate producer on several films."
"But getting so many acting jobs I don't have time to do much else. Being in The Poseidon Adventure and Legend of Hell House seemed to spark my career anew. I don't think I've stopped since."
"Just before I did Funny Lady, I did a TV movie. Then, right after the film, it was another TV movie, and I've been guesting all over the screen in top series."
"I did the pilot film for the new Topper Returns series, but it hasn't made it to air yet."
"And then, of course, I have my photography."
His camera-work is impressive. He did the Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy pictures, and those of Mia Farrow for Look magazine, and the Laurence Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor, and Mae West pictures for Life magazine.
In his latest film, Funny Lady, McDowall plays the best pal of a big star, Barbra Streisand. He is used to such a role—on screen and off.
He is known in Hollywood as the great good friend of the greats.
Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, Irene Dunne, Jennifer Jones, Katharine Hepburn, Genevieve Bujold, Sophia Loren, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Greer Garson, Rock Hudson, Robert Wagner, John Derek, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, James Coburn, Charlton Heston... you name them, they all recognise McDowall as a good friend.
When he invited me to join him over cocktails, he first pulled a face, scrunched up his shoulders, and said with a half-smile: "Dear boy. Now why on earth would you want to interview me? I really am a very dull interview."
"I'm so bloody private. As I grew up in Hollywood, I was with so many people who became big names—and I knew I was not interesting, because so many interviewers never asked much about me, always about the stars I know."
Does it bother him then to be interviewed? "Well, yes and no. I don't mind the actual being interviewed part. It is what I see later in print that bothers me."
"I kind of get a cold sweat. I'm not concerned if I read something that is good or that is bad. It is simply the fact that it is there."
"Of course it is frightening, too, when I see my words taken out of context. I find I am wary of certain questions, careful I give the right answers."
One of the things that bothers him is being asked about his romantic life ("There isn't any").
He says he took a chance playing a homosexual in Funny Lady, because some people like to think he might be so in his private life.
That is one reason he is careful about being photographed with another male, and why he seldom appears at Hollywood events without a woman companion.
McDowall said: "I enjoy parties. I enjoy a drink, but I always enjoy those parties where there are no photographers around. Then I can feel at ease, mingle among my male friends and not have to keep watching out of a corner of my eye to see if someone is not pointing a camera in my direction. It's scary."
"Of course I am not hounded like the 'beautiful people.' Photographers hardly ever take a picture of me alone, only with someone else. I guess I'm just a character, never the handsome real movie star type. I just don't have it. I don't have star quality."
I said: "What exactly do you mean by star quality?"
HE heaved a big sigh. "Ooooh. Oh, you know what it means... dear boy! It is not something you can really define, not something you can really put into words. But there is undeniably something very special about a real movie star."
"They walk differently, they talk differently, they look different from the rest of us. Oh, I suppose part of it is really in our own world of fantasies."
"Perhaps it is we who project the difference onto them, seeing them as we do from the darkness of the movie theatre."
"But whatever, a real movie star does have a special magic, something to set them apart from the rest of us actors."
"There are those who have, and those, like me, who have not. Define it in any way you like. Call it glamour, call it incandescence, call it whatever... there is simply no denying that the real movie stars have it and it is really an unexplainable phenomenon."
"And even though I am so much among them, I'm still left in awe of them. As you can tell, dear boy, I'm the world's greatest movie fan!"
"I love the stars! I particularly adore Astaire. And Cary Grant. And Laurence Olivier. And oh so many more... Paul Newman, Katharine Hepburn, Sophia..."
CAMELOT - 1960 ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST- CAMELOT OPENED ON BROADWAY DECEMBER 3, 1960. MUSIC BY FREDERICK LOEWE, LYRICS BY ALAN JAY LERNER. STARRING RICHARD BURTON, JULIE ANDREWS, ROBERT GOULET, ROBERT COOTE. RODDY MCDOWELL., DIRECTED BY MOSS HART AND ALAN JAY LERNER. RECORDED BY COLUMBIA RECORDS, GODDARD LIEBERSON- RECORD PRODUCER. BASED ON THE NOVEL ''THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING'' BY T H WHITE.
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
discoholicmusic
2087
snowghoul
vaporwave
