Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.
Quotes
[edit]- She looked as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth—or anywhere else.
- On Maureen O'Hara. Attributed in Sheilah Graham, The Garden of Allah (New York: Crown, 1970) ch. 3, p. 66
- There is no such thing as a person that nothing has happened to, and each person's story is as different as his fingerprints.
- Introduction to Charles Higham, Charles Laughton: An Intimate Biography (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976) p. 5
- The most memorable thing I did in that film, I believe, was my screaming. In almost all my movies since, I've been called upon to scream. I don't know if it's by chance, but I would like to think that I'm not hired for that talent alone.
- On playing the title role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Attributed in Calvin Thomas Beck, Scream Queens: Heroines of the Horrors (New York: Collier, 1978) p. 116
- I remember another solo trip, on the Berengaria, sailing from New York to Southampton. It was during Prohibition, and two acquaintances were aboard, fellows who were connected with a museum. I had brought a bottle of Scotch with me, and I used it to tempt them to talk. Like a sort of truth serum. Well, one of these fellows confided in me that he liked to wear a tiger-skin belt next to his skin — inside out, with the fur next to him. Facts like that make one feel blue-eyed and normal.
- Elsa Lanchester, Herself (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983) p. 132
- She's better on stage, from a distance. On a screen, close up, she makes you want to dive for cover.
- On Maggie Smith. Attributed in Boze Hadleigh (ed.) Hollywood Babble On: Stars Gossip About Other Stars (USA: Carol, 1994) p. 57
- Stardom is all hard work, aspirins and purgatives.
- Attributed in Rosemarie Jarski (ed.) Hollywood Wit: Classic Off-screen Quips and Quotes (London: Prion, 2001) p. 180
