Greg Joseph

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Birthday:

August 25, 1946 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Height:

188 cm

Gregory "Greg" Nelson Joseph has excelled in two highly competitive fields: as a writer and former journalist who counts a Pulitzer Prize among his achievements, and as an actor honored with a prestigious Hollywood acting award whose work also has been recognized in Cannes and New York.He stars as a military veteran in a romantic drama named an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner ("The Last Dance"), won Best of Festival character acting honors at the Hollywood Shockfest Film Festival for re-creating an iconic horror favorite ("Ritual"), has the lead as a polygamist cult leader in a film à clef that won Best Ensemble Acting at the New York First Run Film Festival and a National Board of Review Commendation ("When the Dogs Cried Out"), stars as a fanatical collector, the film's sole onscreen character, in a thriller chosen as an Official Selection of the Phoenix Film Festival ("Detector"), and stars as a washed up ventriloquist in a two-character drama that won Best of Fest honors at the Southern Arizona Independent Film Festival ("The Amazing Mortimer") .Other recent performances include as The Soulless Gunfighter opposite Danny Trejo and Bill Engvall in the Western satire "Cowboy Dreams," his co-starring role as a veteran astronaut in the sci-fi TV series "H.O.P.E." and the pivotal part of the lead attorney in the environmental feature film "Poison Sky" with Kevin Sorbo ("Hercules").Greg made his big screen debut in an auspicious way _ co-starring opposite Michael Douglas in the major feature "Adam at Six A.M.," which was produced by screen legend Steve McQueen ("Bullitt") and has since gone on to achieve cult status.He was nominated for the 2015 Governor's Arts Award, an honor described as "the most prestigious, recognizing excellence in artistic expression and outstanding contributions to the arts community," as well as for the 2016 Filmstock Film Festival Barry E. Wallace Citizenship Award, for "those that promote encouragement and positive influences in their film community."He continues to hone his craft, most recently studying improvisation with Oscar-winner Alan Arkin ("Little Miss Sunshine"), a founding member of Second City.In 2019, he appeared on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) with host Ben Mankiewicz as a guest programmer and in various promotional spots for the cable channel in conjunction with its 25th anniversary.Greg was born and reared in Kansas City, Missouri, the only child of Theodore Joseph, a jeweler who as a young man dreamed of leaving his native Cleveland to go to Hollywood and become an actor himself, and Marcella (Nelson) Joseph, an artist and graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute who studied with the famous muralist Thomas Hart Benton, whose work adorns the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.He began acting at age 13 and went on to earn an honors degree in Drama from the University of Missouri, where he studied with Robin Humphrey, a former Broadway actress who had been a member of Lee Strasberg's first class of students at the New York Actors Studio with Marlon Brando.He taught drama on an assistantship through the university, where he was nominated for a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship, and was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, which recognizes both scholastic achievement and quality of character.His first professional acting job came in his senior year, when he performed with The Missouri (now Kansas City) Repertory, appearing in productions of "The Miser" and "Oedipus Rex," the latter directed by Alexis Minotis, a film veteran (Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious") and co-founder of The Greek National Theater.That same year, Greg was invited to audition for John Houseman as the Oscar-winning actor-producer, perhaps best known for his collaboration with Orson Welles, was assembling his first Drama Division class at The Juilliard School.Months after graduation, he landed a principal role in the McQueen-Douglas production "Adam at Six A.M.," which was shooting both in Missouri and in Hollywood.Greg's unusually assured performance in the film as Ed, the straight arrow young pharmacist vying for the hand of leading lady Lee Purcell _ a role that was to have been cast in Hollywood _ drew praise from the film's producers and writers, who invited him to the West Coast. He accepted, and moved into a small apartment across from the iconic Grauman's Chinese Theatre in the heart of Hollywood.Greg, who had worked as a reporter for The Kansas City Star while in college, continued to write upon moving to Hollywood as a means of supplementing his income and complementing his acting.He supplied jokes for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show," then returned to newspapers, working for several of the largest dailies in the United States, moving freely among hard news, entertainment and arts criticism, with many of his articles appearing in syndication worldwide.He went on to win a number of writing and reporting awards, including sharing the 1979 Pulitzer Prize as a member of The San Diego Tribune staff for its coverage of one of the worst commercial airliner crashes in U.S. history. His other notable assignments included traveling to the Middle East during the infamous hostage crisis in Iran.At one point, he was that paper's main celebrity profile writer, focusing on seminal public figures across the cultural spectrum, ranging from the likes of influential pediatrician Benjamin Spock, children's author Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel and social activist Angela Davis, to legendary show business figures, including film directors from Frank Capra, Billy Wilder and Robert Wise to Wes Craven and Spike Lee, and actors from James Stewart, Cary Grant and Gregory Peck to Jim Carrey and John Goodman.He wound up his long journalism career as a TV critic, first of The San Diego Tribune, then of The Arizona Republic.Greg thus far has written two books, a collection of his profiles and a political thriller, both of which are now seeking publishers. He also has written a number of scripts.His industry activities include service on the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy) Regional Board of Governors; the Screen Actors Guild Prime-Time TV Nominating Committee, its National Committee for Performers with Disabilities and its State Board of Directors, and as a member of the Television Critics Association.He is listed as actor, critic and advocate in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World, and is a recipient of the 2017-2018 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.He and his wife of more than 40 years, Mary, have three grown children. Show less «

Just about every good acting teacher - the great Stella Adler is one that comes foremost to mind - will tell you that actors worth their sal...Show more »

Just about every good acting teacher - the great Stella Adler is one that comes foremost to mind - will tell you that actors worth their salt can't be isolated from the real world. They need to be aware and use that in their performances. I've come to realize that firsthand. As a writer and former journalist, I've always thought that I was "going to acting school," as it were, when I was covering a story or talking to people from every walk of life. Show less «

Take the business and your job seriously, but not yourself. Have fun, and make life as enjoyable as possible for everyone around you on the ...Show more »

Take the business and your job seriously, but not yourself. Have fun, and make life as enjoyable as possible for everyone around you on the set, from cast to crew to producer to caterer. We need each other. Show less «

I've found when you love what you do that even adversity is a form of success. You're still in the game! I love acting, so even when I face ...Show more »

I've found when you love what you do that even adversity is a form of success. You're still in the game! I love acting, so even when I face so-called rejection, I'm on the team and know I'll get my swings the next time up. Conversely, when you're not doing what you like, every little problem is an irritant, and so-called "success" really doesn't mean all that much because you're on the wrong team in the wrong game. Show less «

I had a huge break early in my acting career, when I was 23 or 24, acting opposite Michael Douglas in a movie produced by Steve McQueen, sto...Show more »

I had a huge break early in my acting career, when I was 23 or 24, acting opposite Michael Douglas in a movie produced by Steve McQueen, stopped to raise a family, and in between, turned to writing to make a living and interviewed every big star and covered every Hollywood event I could think of. It made me realize that maybe I hadn't been as ready as I thought I was for fame and and things happen for a reason. Now that I'm back, my focus is on being the best person I can be, having fun and working hard at my craft. If it's meant to be, it'll happen. If not, I've had a great life, better than most people in this world can ever dream of. I've won, I've been blessed, no matter what. Show less «

When I stopped acting for a while to raise a family, I worked as a writer, interviewing and being around some of the biggest stars in the bu...Show more »

When I stopped acting for a while to raise a family, I worked as a writer, interviewing and being around some of the biggest stars in the business. I learned that fame is like a distant, unknown island that lures us. When some reach it, they're prepared and survive. Others - too many - aren't and shouldn't have gone near the water in the first place. Show less «

Acting is not a competition to see who can get the most attention. It's a team sport.

Like everybody else, I've had moments in my life like the guy on the operating table who hears his doctor go, "Oops." But then there's the p...Show more »

Like everybody else, I've had moments in my life like the guy on the operating table who hears his doctor go, "Oops." But then there's the payback: I get to play the doctor. Show less «

Acting is like running away with the circus but getting to go home on weekends.

Actors are nobodies trying to be somebodies by borrowing somebody's personality without anybody noticing.

Doing an audition scene with some actresses is like trying to share a potato chip with a shark.

Forgetting things doesn't make me feel old. It's forgetting that I'm forgetting.

These days, I'm offered many "small but important" roles. I think people should know I'm ready for "large but unimportant" parts.

You can learn a lot about acting from cats and dogs. Cats are method, dogs are in the moment.

A friend asked who the older lady playing my prospective mother-in-law in "Adam at 6 A.M.," saying he 'd seen her in a lot of stuff. I repli...Show more »

A friend asked who the older lady playing my prospective mother-in-law in "Adam at 6 A.M.," saying he 'd seen her in a lot of stuff. I replied that not long before this lady, Louise Latham, was in Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie," with Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery, as Ms. Hedren's disturbed mother. I told my friend that I met Ms. Hedren and her daughter, Melanie Griffith, in Hollywood less than a year later -- tearing their tickets at the Hollywood Pacific on Hollywood Boulevard, where I worked as an usher "between engagements." Around the same time, I was asked to fill in for Michael Douglas on a Hollywood talk show because he was away in Europe. I went and the host introduced me as Michael's co-star. Hollywood is that kind of place. The line between being nobody and a "somebody" is razor thin. Show less «

James Stewart was my favorite actor before I talked to him and my favorite actor after I talked to him. The same on-screen as off: polite, h...Show more »

James Stewart was my favorite actor before I talked to him and my favorite actor after I talked to him. The same on-screen as off: polite, humble, tough, clear, as morally upright as a steel rod. Show less «

They say in Hollywood it's not what you know, but who you know. I learned it's also who you know with a lot of luck mixed in. When I acted a...Show more »

They say in Hollywood it's not what you know, but who you know. I learned it's also who you know with a lot of luck mixed in. When I acted as host of an "An Evening with Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond" on the 25th anniversary of "Some Like It Hot," Jack Lemmon told me he did not know Wilder well at that point, but happened to be dining at Chasen's restaurant one Sunday at the same time as the great director when Wilder spotted him, dropped by his table on the way out and asked: "Going to do this story where you'd dress up in drag after seeing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre _ want to do it?" Recalled Lemmon: "In that one sentence, I had the whole story. I never took a role without seeing the script first, but I did then." It's amazing how serendipitous decision-making in Hollywood can be, as fascinating as anything on the screen. Show less «

Sometimes an actor's life seems like some absurdist work written by Beckett titled, "Waiting for Weinstein," the fame god.

It bugs me when people get up after a film and don't stay for the credits, especially the names of the people behind the scenes. I just thin...Show more »

It bugs me when people get up after a film and don't stay for the credits, especially the names of the people behind the scenes. I just think it's rude and reflects a great deal of ignorance, really, especially about films in general. How do they think the thing got up there on the screen, anyway? Couldn't happen without everybody from the set decorator to the caterer pitching in. It couldn't! And what if those people were their kids who'd pour their hearts and souls out, and somebody got up and walked away. Just bothers me. Show less «

My writing really affected my growth as an actor and understanding and accepting the creative process. One of the most important ways was le...Show more »

My writing really affected my growth as an actor and understanding and accepting the creative process. One of the most important ways was learning it was all right and actually quite normal for performers to have "artistic differences." I always, naively, thought that stars were one big happy family, that they all got along. I began to fully grasp this concept when I profiled the great American dancer-choreographer Agnes de Mille, whose work had included the original "Oklahoma!," "Carousel" and "Brigadoon." I was absolutely floored when she criticized Gene Kelly as just being what she called an "acrobat." She hated his dancing. I thought, well, if the great ones have their detractors on that level, other people who are equally renowned who just don't like them, and keep on plowing ahead anyway, so can I. It's part of the deal. Show less «

There's no such thing as bad luck, only inadequate planning. Multiply that times one hundred in acting.

My attitude about acting echoes Confucius: If you choose a job you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life.

Acting is the most private and personal kind of catharsis, turned inside out.

Because of my parallel career as a writer and Hollywood biographer, I've had a chance to talk to dozens of successful actors, lots and lots ...Show more »

Because of my parallel career as a writer and Hollywood biographer, I've had a chance to talk to dozens of successful actors, lots and lots of stars, from Cary Grant, James Stewart and Gregory Peck right on to Jim Carrey and John Goodman, and scores in between. Plus screenwriters, playwrights, producers, directors, cinematographers, set designers. Network presidents. Cartoonists, dancers, singers. Oscar, Tony, Grammy, Pulitzer winners. Once, on a press assignment, I found myself seated on a plane next to the president of the Golden Globes for three hours. Each and every time it was a private one-on-one acting class for me. I picked each of their minds about every aspect of show business and how acting and actors fit into the scheme of things, what made for success and caused failure, what they loved, hated, everything I could think of. And I didn't have to pay a dime of tuition. Show less «

I learned a lot about staying true to yourself and the quality of your work from the great Oscar-winning Warner Brothers and MGM cartoonist ...Show more »

I learned a lot about staying true to yourself and the quality of your work from the great Oscar-winning Warner Brothers and MGM cartoonist Chuck Jones, who created the likes of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, had a hand in the development of Bugs Bunny, and went on to produce some great quality stuff for kids. I spent time with him for a profile I was writing, and he told me he could have gotten rich if he had accepted an offer to do cheap, mass-produced cartoons on Saturday-morning network TV. He had a terrific offer. But he said, "I couldn't afford to be rich _ it would have undone everything I worked for in my lifetime." His inspiration was Robert Louis Stevenson, who turned down an offer to write a weekly column while he was traveling to Samoa and said the same thing. Stevenson thought it would cheapen him. Made me think that an artist is held accountable for everything he does, and that it only takes one slip, one expeditious thing, for money or for whatever reason, to undo everything you've worked for. You've got to stay true to your beliefs even when the cost is high. Show less «

An actor can and should prepare wherever he is, I don't care if he's on Guam, every hour of every day. Do something constructive, point forw...Show more »

An actor can and should prepare wherever he is, I don't care if he's on Guam, every hour of every day. Do something constructive, point forward, urge yourself on. Nothing's a waste. Geography has nothing to do with honing talent or preparing or fostering a dream. Show less «

I had two of the greatest early-career experiences a young actor could possibly have. I auditioned for the great John Houseman when he was a...Show more »

I had two of the greatest early-career experiences a young actor could possibly have. I auditioned for the great John Houseman when he was assembling his first drama class at The Juilliard School, and at the same time I had as my college acting teacher _ my first acting instructor of any kind, in fact _ a lady by the name of Robin Humphrey, who was in the very first New York Actors Studio class. She was right there with Marlon Brando in this small, hand-picked group of enormously gifted people. Imagine that. The takeaway from both Houseman and Robin was that as an actor I needed to be completely prepared and professional. I'm still drawing on every speck of what I learned from both of them. Houseman, for instance, at one point had me sing "Happy Birthday" in three wildly diverse contexts, one to my imaginary mother as she lie dying in a hospital bed _ sadly and ironically, very close to what happened with my own mother in real life. In the latter instance, I remember being in the hospital and thinking _ and feeling pretty guilty that my mind was even touching on such things, frankly _ now I get it! But the fact is, that's what acting is all about, drawing from our lives. My educated guess is that Houseman set me on that path knowingly, realizing at some point it would register. I owe him and Robin a lot. Show less «

I'm half-Catholic and half-Jewish. When I go to Confession, I take my agent.

Great acting, on stage or on screen, is the ability to recognize when somebody else screws up and, staying well within character, unscrewing...Show more »

Great acting, on stage or on screen, is the ability to recognize when somebody else screws up and, staying well within character, unscrewing it. Show less «

Hollywood can be explained by that terrific line from the end of John Ford's 1962 Western, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" _ "when the le...Show more »

Hollywood can be explained by that terrific line from the end of John Ford's 1962 Western, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" _ "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." It's nigh-on impossible in Hollywood to know where reality stops and showmanship and exaggeration begin, but if people buy into the illusion, that becomes the reality. Some of those famous souls in Hollywood Forever Cemetery must be spinning in their graves like air coolers. Show less «

After meeting, spending time with and profiling stars like Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon and Rod Steiger, right on th...Show more »

After meeting, spending time with and profiling stars like Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon and Rod Steiger, right on through present-day people like Jim Carrey and John Goodman, plus directors ranging from Frank Capra, Billy Wilder and Robert Wise right up to Spike Lee, it really hits home that so much that's written about them is exaggerated and outright fabricated. I talked to Cary Grant coincidentally not long after an unflattering book came out about him, and he was just furious, saying, How they hell can they say Cary Grant thought this and that as he did this and that? How the hell do they know what's going on in my head? And he was right. The book was founded on supposition, what they assumed he was thinking. When I first profiled Jim Carrey his film career was just getting started, and he made it a point to tell me how the press release about him covered up his real family background, that they were poor and had to live in really tough conditions, unlike what the release stated. He was embarrassed. When I talked to him the next time, when he was doing the TV series In Living Color, when he was really coming into his own and had more power, he just said what was on his mind, no baloney, no screwing around. He really eliminated the middle man. Rod Steiger wanted to set the record straight about filming that famous backseat scene with Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, more or less saying, this is what's been written and said and talked about and analyzed, but this is what really happened, man, I was there, that was me, I did it and I know. The list is endless when you talk to these people. Then you drop into a bookstore and pick up a so-called Hollywood biography or history, and this stuff is unbelievably derivative, just regurgitating rumor after rumor and myth after myth, generations removed from the fact. It's sad because then film students and movie aficionados as well as the general public buy into it and unwittingly promulgate the lies with their wallets. The real shame is that the truth is not only more educational, but a whale of a lot more interesting. Show less «

I know it's fashionable to say you live and die for acting. You hear young actors try to impress by saying they can't live without acting _ ...Show more »

I know it's fashionable to say you live and die for acting. You hear young actors try to impress by saying they can't live without acting _ they've read that in fan magazines, hear it on TV and in the social media, and regurgitate it. I have news. Acting is a business, a job, a profession. You know what's a matter of life and death? Living and dying. Show less «

You want culture shock? You want the ultimate abrupt, roll-the-ball-off-the-table experience of going from the quiet and solitude of the qui...Show more »

You want culture shock? You want the ultimate abrupt, roll-the-ball-off-the-table experience of going from the quiet and solitude of the quintessentially bucolic come-as-you-are, so-called second America to the pulsating, undulating, horn-honking gut of the real Hollywood, the world epicenter of painted-over pimples, heavy mascara and yeah-baby machine gun self-promotion? Over the first three days of June 1970, I drove from my family's home in Kansas City, Missouri, a gorgeous, quiet, stately upper-middle class place and slice of Cleaver family state of mind where I lived with my parents and maternal grandparents _ three days of nothing but solid driving, 500 miles a day whizzing oblivious through Kansas and Oklahoma and Texas and New Mexico and Arizona and the bleakest of the bleak parts of California, in the old Chevy convertible my Dad gave me _ laser like right smack to the glamor and glitz and horn-honking, flesh-pushing decadence of the very heart of downtown Hollywood, and dead bang within 15 minutes of that, to a musty, air conditioned and completely cut-off-from-reality soundstage at Warner Brothers inhabited by almost other worldly creatures I had grown up watching and dreaming of and emulating. Another planet. The previous Saturday, I had been mowing the lawn and down on all fours pulling weeds until my knuckles bled, and by lunchtime the following Wednesday, I was trading quips with TV's Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'Brian, Anne Francis, every young guy's fantasy in Forbidden Planet and Honey West, Marilyn Maxwell, who introduced the Christmas song Silver Bells with Bob Hope in Lemon Drop Kid, Sherry Jackson, who had played the daughter of Danny Thomas and John Wayne, and actor-director Don Taylor, who had played Spencer Tracy's son-in-law and Elizabeth Taylor's bridegroom in Father of the Bride and was Barry Fitzgerald's young sidekick in the original Naked City. I mean, my God. My knuckles had not yet healed from picking weeds back home and here I was trying not to wince as I shook hands with these famous people. I still haven't gotten over the contrast, a contrast by the way that I later learned over the course of 50 years in the business after meeting the likes of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart and on though the Jim Carreys of the world, absolutely and perfectly encapsulates the difference between real life and what we regard as Hollywood. That distinction keeps me grounded. Show less «

As an actor, if you're going to steal, steal from the best. "Borrow" from Orson Welles, Brando, even Olivier. Work from the top down, not th...Show more »

As an actor, if you're going to steal, steal from the best. "Borrow" from Orson Welles, Brando, even Olivier. Work from the top down, not the bottom up. Show less «

They say actors love to cry. I don't, and don't find it as effective to do so. Oh, sure I can do it. When you reach a certain age and have l...Show more »

They say actors love to cry. I don't, and don't find it as effective to do so. Oh, sure I can do it. When you reach a certain age and have lived a full life, I think you find it harder not to cry than to burst into tears sometimes. In real life, small things can bring a tear to the eye without much effort. But as an actor, it's more moving when an audience expects you to cry and you don't. Then the audience takes over and does it for you. Now you've drawn them in, you've become one, inseparable. Then you've got something. Show less «

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but isn't that what casting directors do, really? And audiences _ and people in general too? I...Show more »

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but isn't that what casting directors do, really? And audiences _ and people in general too? In civilian life it's called a first impression. And it's surprising how often first impressions get it right. Show less «

The best acting advice I ever got was from Alan Arkin: Don't reach for funny. Totally believe what you're saying and doing, no matter how ri...Show more »

The best acting advice I ever got was from Alan Arkin: Don't reach for funny. Totally believe what you're saying and doing, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. The humor will come through. The audience will get it. Show less «

In the early 1990s as a TV critic I was covering a press conference in Los Angeles being held by Disney, and Charlton Heston was rather unce...Show more »

In the early 1990s as a TV critic I was covering a press conference in Los Angeles being held by Disney, and Charlton Heston was rather unceremoniously hustled off the stage to make room for Mickey Mouse. That told me all I needed to know about Hollywood and the shelf life of Oscar winners. Show less «

As a critic, I made fun of award show acceptance speeches. Then as an actor I made the worst acceptance speech ever. It's a lot different ou...Show more »

As a critic, I made fun of award show acceptance speeches. Then as an actor I made the worst acceptance speech ever. It's a lot different out there in the arena. Show less «

They say actors need to be aware of the world, and I was blessed in this regard to have a parallel career as a journalist during a portion o...Show more »

They say actors need to be aware of the world, and I was blessed in this regard to have a parallel career as a journalist during a portion of my life. This was most apparent when I was dispatched by the newspaper I worked for and its syndication arm to the Middle East, Egypt, at the peak of the Iranian hostage crisis in 1980. It exposed me to the full gamut of human emotion while educating me about the bedrock of our history. It spliced current events with a sense of timelessness. I felt both a sense of urgency to make something of myself in the time I would have on earth, and a feeling of humility in knowing that I was but a small cog in the ongoing stream of humanity. Show less «

Shakespearean, classical training is to actors what what classical music training is to musicians. Both establish a rock solid foundation. I...Show more »

Shakespearean, classical training is to actors what what classical music training is to musicians. Both establish a rock solid foundation. I started playing piano when I was seven, taking classical from a very old but wonderful lady. I wanted to play popular tunes. She didn't want to hear any of that. No! She had me do arpeggios, chords, exercise after exercise. Hold your hand up like grasping an invisible ball, not down flat, so you wouldn't slur notes. Then she would take my hand and push down, have me beat down with the tips of my fingers on a marble-top table next to the piano. It was teaching me, disciplining me into hitting the notes cleanly, understanding touch and rolling off notes with the balls of my fingers, instead of just lifting up and stopping the sound abruptly. The tone would be entirely different. All of this before I even approached Chopin, Grieg or whatever it was. Finally, years later, when I got to pop, I understood. I understood nuances and phrasing completely. With acting, doing Shakespeare and the other classic does that same thing. You understand the importance of each word, the phrasing, the meter. I think that's where British actors have it over the Americans. They're trained in the classics, to understand even what seems the most banal dialogue. Watching some American actors, the young ones who are there because they're actually models, sometimes makes me embarrassed for them. They have no idea what to do with the words. They drop or slide over the significant ones, have an up feminine ending where a masculine down ending belongs. Even in commercials, where each word is precious and time is contained, it doesn't register. When you hear the Brits, it's poetry. You get it. They get it. Show less «

Twice a year, every year, 100 or so major TV critics from across the North American continent, of whom I was once one, spend two weeks strai...Show more »

Twice a year, every year, 100 or so major TV critics from across the North American continent, of whom I was once one, spend two weeks straight, no time off, at some posh hotel in the Los Angeles area with television's high and mighty, from stars to producers to network top dogs, to be wined and dined practically 24 hours a day seven days a week (materials are stuffed under your door as you sleep and TV monitors in your room pump out tapes round the clock). The idea is to convince the critics, who then are supposed to convince their readers, that the programming, whatever and wherever it is, is something they cannot live without (remember that even a small decimal improvement in the ratings can mean the difference between cancellation and renewal _ and higher ad rates). The whole experience tests your sanity, tests your endurance, tests your professionalism, and above all, tests your dignity and honesty. In short, being a critic is absolutely terrific training for becoming an actor. Show less «

We are what we aspire to be.

I gained a firsthand insight into how a genuine movie auteur thinks and works when I profiled Robert Wise, who was one of the most eclectic ...Show more »

I gained a firsthand insight into how a genuine movie auteur thinks and works when I profiled Robert Wise, who was one of the most eclectic and successful directors in the history of Hollywood. The film editor of Orson Welles' landmark Citizen Kane, he went on to direct films ranging from the original The Day the Earth Stood Still to West Side Story to The Sand Pebbles, the latter starring Steve McQueen at his zenith in his only Oscar-nominated performance. For starters, Wise shrugged off having incurred the wrath of Christopher Plummer in the Sound of Music for dubbing Plummer's voice for the song Edelweiss. Wise just smiled and said Chris, as he called him, would get over it. Well, this was 15 years later, and Plummer hadn't yet. Wise didn't mind. When it came to The Sand Pebbles, Wise recalled how McQueen, then a superstar of superstars, had argued vehemently against his character dying at film's end. Wise disagreed. His solution was to film two versions of the final scene. Not because he was considering doing what McQueen wanted, but merely to placate the star. Wise said he never for a moment had any intention of use the ending in which McQueen's character would survive. At the time of our meeting, Wise had just finished directing the first film version of Star Trek, and Trekkies were going wild demanding that nothing be changed in the transition. Wise was totally unmoved. Without apology, he casually explained he had never watched the series and when it came to the movie he had made his own decisions about what would go up there on the screen, one of which was to drastically alter the Trek characters' uniforms because, in his words, there was nothing to the ones they wear on TV. For me, this was a real education about a director, for better or for worse, sticking with his vision. And it was an eye-opener about how even the greatest stars are trumped by great directors. Show less «

Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, whom I profiled when I wrote a big package of stories about the TV series, the resulting movie s...Show more »

Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, whom I profiled when I wrote a big package of stories about the TV series, the resulting movie spin offs and the whole phenomenon, is a prime example of somebody who knew what he wanted in show business and just went after it from the get-go. He became a Los Angeles cop just to understand the world better and find material for his writing. He had also been a pilot in world War II and and a commercial pilot. Said he didn't know anything about science, but he knew a lot about what makes people tick. His whole life was built around the premise that he was going to make it, and he was going to do what he wanted to do. So once he got into the business, he worked his way through Have Gun, Will Travel and a TV series called The Lieutenant, then on to Star Trek, which he really fought for even when his own network, NBC, kicked it around. On that series, they put in 12 hour days six days a week and he said everybody at some point was treated for exhaustion. That's determination. That's what it takes. That inspires me and tells me nobody hands you anything, you've got to earn it and fight every inch of the way. Show less «

I watch Turner Classic Movies not because I once asked Cary Grant about his personal life and working for Hitch or Jimmy Stewart about his s...Show more »

I watch Turner Classic Movies not because I once asked Cary Grant about his personal life and working for Hitch or Jimmy Stewart about his stammer and whether he improvised a shtick in "It's a Wonderful Life" or a guy who wrote "Casablanca" how he got his ideas and what Bogie and Bergman were like on the set. I watch because of the purity. I know the words Hollywood and purity are strange bedfellows (excuse the pun). I know the first-ever Hollywood star committed suicide by swallowing ant paste. It's always been a tough business, in front of and behind the cameras. No. I speak of a time when the cinematic form was new, when cameras were invented on the spot, screenwriters also wrote (and read) books, and the stars weren't interchangeable. When it was okay to leave something to the audience's imagination, and the word "escapism" didn't have a bad name. When subtlety was given a chance. I don't watch TCM to run away from the real world. I seek it out sometimes to peel away the layers of what we regard as reality today because life is cyclical, and our predecessors have been there, done that, and I want to see how they handled things. They often did a lot better than you think. And they did it without green screens. Show less «

One of the best pieces of acting advice I ever got was from Jimmy Stewart. I asked him how he countered criticism that he always played hims...Show more »

One of the best pieces of acting advice I ever got was from Jimmy Stewart. I asked him how he countered criticism that he always played himself. He said, "Whenever I'm asked that, I just quote Larry Olivier: 'I always play myself with deference to the character.'" Well, if's good enough for Olivier, it's good enough for Stewart. And I figure if it's good enough for Stewart and Olivier, it's good enough for Joseph. Show less «

The late rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix once famously said, knowledge speaks but wisdom listens. Give me someone who says I don't know or I did...Show more »

The late rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix once famously said, knowledge speaks but wisdom listens. Give me someone who says I don't know or I didn't know that or tell me more and I'll show you someone who reaches out and wants to learn and grow. Give me someone who consistently purports to know everything and must always have the last word and I'll show you someone who is stagnating intellectually, artistically and spiritually. Show less «

I've just been offered two roles as psychiatrists, and one as a studio chief. Is there a difference?

I've never had any problem talking to actors, big stars, but writers are a different story. As a profile writer I've questioned, challenged,...Show more »

I've never had any problem talking to actors, big stars, but writers are a different story. As a profile writer I've questioned, challenged, traded quips, laughed and argued with the likes of Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Rod Steiger, Jack Lemmon, you name them, all the way to today's John Goodman and Jim Carrey. Asked them terribly personal things. Not a problem. But when I've met, and especially when I've had to write about, writers like the great science fiction master and futurist Ray Bradbury, cop-turned-author Joe Wambaugh (The Onion Field), Irving Stone (Lust for Life, The Agony and the Ecstasy), and many others, I almost freeze. My most embarrassing moment in that regard was when I happened to be caught in a Los Angeles bar all alone with the great novelist Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five). He was pitching Showtime's Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House anthology series and I was a TV critic, and we arrived at a press gathering for what seemed an hour or more before anyone else. I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say to him. I didn't feel conversant enough with his work. I'm sure he thought I was a complete idiot. In retrospect, maybe I should have talked about anything at all, it would have been fascinating. One of my most cherished possessions is a simple note from Bradbury on orange stationary with some intriguing otherworldly drawing that he used as his emblem and his scrawled message underneath to me: Super article, bravo! He was probably just being nice, but to me that slip of paper with just those three words and that exclamation point, which I have framed and hanging near my desk, is worth ten acting awards. Show less «

The cop-turned-author Joe Wambaugh, who wrote books like The Onion Field and The New Centurions, told me that before he starts writing he re...Show more »

The cop-turned-author Joe Wambaugh, who wrote books like The Onion Field and The New Centurions, told me that before he starts writing he reads ten good books to get the juices flowing. I try to do the same thing with acting. Watch a lot of films of all kinds with solid performances. Inspires me, and I might even borrow a little. Show less «

The problem in dancing with the devil is that the devil always wants to lead.

Hollywood is one of those places where the actors are so good, so believable, that it's nigh-on impossible to tell where the reality stops a...Show more »

Hollywood is one of those places where the actors are so good, so believable, that it's nigh-on impossible to tell where the reality stops and the pretending begins. That can be very entertaining _ unless you happen to be a spouse or a child caught in between. Show less «

I got a good look at how Hollywood treats fame - and fame treats people - at a press party NBC was throwing for its stars in the early 1990s...Show more »

I got a good look at how Hollywood treats fame - and fame treats people - at a press party NBC was throwing for its stars in the early 1990s. One of those affairs at a swank hotel around the pool. I went as a writer, a TV critic, not as an actor, so I became an interested fly on the wall. Two people nobody was paying any attention to were Dick Van Dyke and Will Smith. Sort of Hollywood yesterday and Hollywood tomorrow. Van Dyke, who had been one of television's greatest stars in the 1960s and 1970s, and a movie and Broadway standout, stood there in an immaculate white suit, smiling, drink in hand, and nobody talked to him. Smith, whose Fresh Prince fame had not yet happened, played basketball all by himself in a corner. Mario Lopez, whose mother had told me when I wrote about him how he would never go Hollywood, was sitting there with a friend, his jaw dropped and his eyes as big as cantaloupes. I finally just got depressed and went up to my room, put on my pajamas and went to bed. My window directly overlooked the party, and I figured if anybody fell over, got into a fight or anything untoward happened, I had the best seat in the house, otherwise I just wasn't interested. Show less «

They say when somebody reaches my age they're confronting their own mortality. Not much of a confrontation. The other guy always wins. The o...Show more »

They say when somebody reaches my age they're confronting their own mortality. Not much of a confrontation. The other guy always wins. The only possible exception is when the son of the man upstairs made a heck of a comeback. Show less «

I'm not a great squeaky-wheel guy. I think you come in, know your lines, take direction, smile, get along and get out.