Joseph Cotten (1905-1994)

Talented beyond a shadow of doubt.

�Orson Welles lists Citizen Kane as his best film, Alfred Hitchcock opts for Shadow of a Doubt, and Sir Carol Reed chose The Third Man � and I�m in all of them.�

With Anne Baxter in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).

[On Orson Welles] �I don�t know why people regard him as a difficult man. He was the easiest man I ever worked with. And the most inspiring. Contrary to what�s been said, Orson as a director was very realistically aware of the limitations of his players. He would never lead them into a position of trying to achieve what they couldn�t.� (1973 interview with Derek Malcolm)

Smooth as silk.

�My wife told me one of the sweetest things one could hear: �I am not jealous. But I am truly sad for all the actresses who embrace you and kiss you while acting, for with them, you are only pretending.� �

With Orson Welles in The Third Man (1949).

�I was a so-called star because of my limitations, and that was always the case. I couldn�t do any accents. So I had to pretend. Luckily I was tall, had curly hair and a good voice. I only had to stamp my foot and I�d play the lead � because I couldn�t play character parts.�

Acting appropriately in Journey into Fear (1943).

[On copying Robert Brackman, who painted the portrait used in Portrait of Jennie] �On my first try at a faithful imitation of Mr. Brackman, the technical director was on his feet, crying, �No, no, no, please, please � no artist was ever guilty of such overacting.� I said, �The man who painted this picture did exactly that.� I looked to [William] Dieterle, who said, �Joseph, I must admit, it looks a little broad. Although I�m sure it�s authentic, it is, I�m afraid, another example to prove how difficult it is for art to copy nature.� I demonstrated more of Mr. Brackman�s idiosyncrasies, which drew tolerant smiles from Dieterle, sneers from the technical director, and a stony silence from the crew, most of them old friends.�

Romancing Jennifer Jones in Portrait of Jennie (1948)

[On Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte] �I think we all wanted it to be a different picture than it was, especially Joan [Crawford]. She felt Bette [Davis] wasn�t trying enough to lift the script up to their level instead of simply playing down to it. She never came right out and said it to me, but I could see it on her face. Joan wanted it to be a �quality� picture. I think the movie works well enough for what it is, but it�s no Gone With the Wind or anything resembling a true �quality� picture.�

Sorely missed.

�In Hollywood, those stars who have been around a long while and seem to grow better with time are the ones who regard �stardom� merely as an opportunity to grow.�