Mara Corday

I do not believe in frontal nudity, that's just the way I am. If you show that, what's left, what do you do for an encore?

Once I got married, I just sort of put blinders on and concentrated on my children; that was the most important thing in my life, my family.

[on Audie Murphy, with whom she worked on Drums Across the River (1954)] We were shooting on the back lot--it got to be supper time and Audie asked me out for a little dinner. We got in his car, anxious to get that prime rib! It was turning dark and we were at a stoplight. There were kids in back of us and when the light changed, they honked because Audie didn't start right away. The teenagers gave him the finger--and took off up the street. And right behind were Audie and me. He reached in his glove compartment--while rolling down his window. He got a gun and said, "I'm gonna get them!" We followed along Ventura Boulevard--I said, "My God, I just signed a contract. I can't die now!" Audie said to me, "Oh, I scared you, didn't I?" I told Tony Curtis, "I'm terrified of him". Tony told me a story about Audie shooting up one of his sets one day! Audie was very quiet, soft-spoken and boyish--yet a flirt with the girls. But he had a short fuse, so you walked around on eggs whenever he was near. Show less «

[on Kirk Douglas, with whom she worked in Man Without a Star (1955)] My option had just been picked up. Kirk Douglas has mellowed extremely since then. Early on in the film I played a whore--there were two scenes at a dance hall. All the guys were leaning on the bar. All of us girls took a poll as to which butt was best. We picked Richard Boone's. We told him, "We pick you" and Kirk heard. It made him so angry at me! Publicity wanted a photo of Kirk grabbing me by the necklace--he grabbed it and almost choked me! When I said something he stated, "I'm not acting! You should take this business more seriously. I don't like your attitude and your kidding around". I said, "Go screw yourself, I just got renewed!" How dare he tell me I can't kid around! Kirk also treated little King Vidor, the director, badly. Whatever King said, he had to defer to Kirk. In the '70s--13 or 14 years later--I met Kirk and now he's the sweetest man in the world! Show less «

[on Susan Cabot] Susan was very weird, a strange little girl. She had this enormous head and then this little tiny body, and she was paranoid. Show less «

[on director Fred F. Sears] Fred was a very nervous man, I felt. A man without any sense of humor whatsoever. Just very frightened--not loose at all. Uptight. Show less «