(dramatic music) - [Anthony] I've done 260 pictures by now. And I'm proud of anything I do, because I try to do it my best. It's never as good as a lot of other
people can do, perhaps, but it's my best, and that's all I look for in a man. (dramatic music) - You are never bored working with Tony. He's not only a very talented actor, he's a very interesting human being. - Tony never looked like a classic leading man. But that was an advantage. - He had within him the quality to be able to
play everything from a heavy to a flap-down, slap-down comedian. That's his range. - When you look at one of
his great performances, it's always mind boggling,
it is mind boggling, to think that here was a man
who came from a poor family, couldn't speak English, and the courage of that man to reject and push away from all the
disadvantages of his life. It's a wonderful story. It's a miracle story. It's a great story for all of us. (dramatic music) - I was born in the middle
of a Mexican Revolution. My father fought in it with Poncho Villa. Over twine and the sound
of cannons going on, and my mother hiding me in a coal wagon, taking me out of Mexico into El Paso. When you're young, everything
is wonderful, even the shacks that I lived in. (laughing) I mean, I didn't
know that I was poor. At the age of three years,
I was playing with a little train that I had, a little yellow train, in the puddle, that was in the middle of the street, and I saw a pair of big
feet (chuckling) suddenly come and stand by me,
and I looked at the feet, and I looked up, up and up and up and up, and I saw this man looking down at me. I said, "Hello, Pop." He said, "How are you, elephant?" And my Pop and I were
reunited after three years. - He really admired his father, and he still admires his father very much. His father was very important to him. - My father was born in Mexico from a Mexican mother and an Irish father. When we came here to Los
Angeles, and he became an assistant cameraman at one of the most exciting
places in the world, a movie studio called Selig's,
and he didn't earn very much. At this studio, I met all the
famous actors of that time, and all the famous actresses of that time. It was the life around motion pictures that I loved. The people were busy. That Rudolph Valentino
would be doing a scene and I'd stop to watch him. Then he'd mess it up, then they'd say, "All right, let's try it again," and Valentino then would
play his part and so forth, and Wilma Bank be looking so glamorous. So, then unfortunately my father died, and I had to become the man of the family. - At 11, Father was at
a great disadvantage. Apart from having a speech impediment, he just didn't speak the language. He could not speak English. - A friend of mine named
Nadini, who's father made all the small figurines for the local cemetery, and he taught me how to sculpt and make the names and so forth. From there on... (laughing) I had about a thousand jobs. It's useless to try to name. - He had to provide a
living for his grandmother, for his mother, and for his sister. So, he became a man very early. He never played. That's one thing that
he doesn't understand his children, they liked to play. He can't understand that because he never experienced playing. - He did drop out of
school early on, he had to to help support his family. He read, and read, and learned about
art, and learned about... He had so many jobs from
a boxer to a preacher, to starting out on the stage with Mae West. - How marvelously strange it was to meet a woman like Mae West. She was dressed in white
in this dingy office, but somehow she gave it a glamor, and as I entered the
door, she reached over, and she touched my muscle. My arm. She said, "I'm not feeling you up, boy, "I just want to see what you're made of." Touched the other arm. Says, "Now, I'm gonna
get a little personal, "'cause I wanna know "with your legs can stand up," and felt my legs. Said, "Very good." And she gave me the part. I became an actor. But after the play, it was
a terrible period, because the Depression was really on. I started out on the road, ran into some pretty rough people, and that was a very embarrassing thing. They stormed me out many times. Anyway, my brother saw
something in the papers, he says, "Tony, look, look." I said, "What?" "Just look. "DeMille is looking for Indians." And I went directly to the
studio, and there was a big dude, a big huge man, and he said, "You're Indian?" and I say, "I am Cheyenne." So, they were offering me
$75 a day for doing a part, and I got on the stage,
and I rode a horse, and I see a fire. And I look around, I get off my horse, I go to the fire with my gun ready, and quickly I hide behind the tree. "Cut! "Cut!" I hear DeMille say. "Tell the boy not to
walk out of the scene." Get off the horse, go stand by the fire, he says, "Enough. "This boy is not gonna do the part." I suddenly got very mad. I said, "Mr. DeMille, you're an idiot. "You don't know what you're doing." He said, "What? "You speak English?" "Yeah," I say, "I speak English very well. "Listen, and by the way, that
fire is a white man's fire. "I know there's a white man around here. "What am I gonna stand
here and let him kill me? "In the light? "I have to get behind a tree or somewhere "where I can kill him." And he says, "I didn't see the scene that way. "I saw you standing there." And suddenly off stage, a wonderful quiet voice says, "Mr. DeMille, "the boy's right." It was Gary Cooper. And DeMille turned around, he said, "All right,
we'll change the scene." (laughing) We changed the scene. (speaking foreign language) - As my mother tells the story, he was making a film with C.B. DeMille, The Plainsman. She went to watch them filming, and was in awe of this man. - Wiped out with his whole battalion. - And I don't think he knew
who she was at that time, just this lovely woman visiting the set. - There was a very pretty
girl there, and I sat there, and I had no great lines. I didn't know how to approach a woman. So, I said, "Do you like Thomas Wolfe?" one of my favorite writers, and she said, "I've never read him." I thought, well, what
kind of woman is this? Has never read the greatest
writer in the world. - And he said, "If you
want to get to know me, "read Thomas Wolfe. "And when you read Thomas
Wolfe, you'll know me." - Next day, she came back,
said, "I didn't like it. "I don't like it." I said, "I'm gonna teach you to like it. "You're gonna marry me." And she says, "Am I?" I said, "Yeah." So I married her. Her father was rather
disappointed, 'cause he... And when we announced to him that we were gonna get married 'cause he imagined that I was
gonna bring all my tribe from the Cheyenne nation,
and sleep in his front yard. But, the wedding took place, and there were a lot of
terrible things happened. My mother wasn't invited. My wife and I lived 26 years together, and she gave me five wonderful kids, whom I love insanely. - It was probably
strained in the beginning between my father and DeMille, but as DeMille saw the talent that this man really had, and the genuine idealism and the genuine feeling for my mother, and that he
was gonna take care of her, and he didn't ask anything of DeMille, he never asked a thing of him, that DeMille finally respected him. - People behind his back was saying that he got jobs because of the connection
of the famous DeMille name. I think I'm right in saying
that he once said to me that far from it being an asset, overall, it was something
that he had to overcome. - Most of the suffering that Tony did in the early part of
his career was two-fold. One, he was the son-in-law
of Cecil B. DeMille, and two, he grew up in a town in which Mexicans were not very popular. - She's got a hat on.
- Where is my hat, I've got my hat on. - Hat?
- Yeah hat. (speaking foreign language) - Oh, sombrero. Sombrero. - Come on, let's get outta here. (crowd shouting) - In his early days, he was given these parts that I, I mean, he was very, very happy to get these early parts. But he was always given
either a small villain, or a, an Injun, or a Mexican. - I can only remember Quinn as one of the wonderful heavies of the time. He was a killer, a knife man, whatever. - You'll make arrangements
for the local police for the raid as I told you? - No, Major. - Well, why haven't you? - Because there will be no raid. Will you gentlemen
please raise your hands? - [Major] What! - I wouldn't try that if I were you. There's a car in the rear, Major. - Oh, uh, have all the
arrangements been made for Captain Drummond's departure? - Yes sir, all arrangements. Drummond's plane will explode in midair. - That means that Captain
Drummond and his party will vanish at about 100 miles at sea. - Dirty parts, small dirty parts. The fact that he had to play these, and did play them with gusto, I know he felt that he was being denigrated, and kicked around, and not respected. - I didn't see why Mexicans had to be bad people. And since, all that... Those were the only parts
I was allowed to play, except after when I went to Warner Bros., (laughing) and, Mr. Jack
Warner cast me as an Italian. A little different. He had a script called Sweet Music, Sweet Night Music, and I must say, I read the
script, and it was horrible. It was a horrible script. And I said, "Jack, "I would," he said, "Just
a second, just a second. "Now, Dick Wolff turned me down, "Julia Garfield turned me down, "Boggart turned me down, "George Raft turned me down, "everybody's turning me down. "You, I'm turning down." So, I said, "What does that mean?" He says, "It means, you
can quit the studio." Now, quitting at the salary I was getting was rather embarrassing 'cause I was getting $750 a week. And that was keeping the family in very good stead in those days. So, I went across the street
and I called up my agent, Charlie Feldman, and I said, "Charlie,
well I haven't got a job." He said, "Yeah? "Well, listen, I just
got you another contract "with 20th Century Fox for $900 a week, "and you're playing in Blood
and Sand with Rita Hayworth "and Jerome Powell." Hey, Juan, remember that horse we stole? Remember what happened to it? - What happened?
- We ate the horse. - You did? How did it taste?
- Excellent. (sighs) Those were our good days. We spent all our time fighting
the bulls and each other. We were great rivals, even then. (upbeat music) (crowd cheering) - I was in my early 30s, and I'd had a fairly
good run in Hollywood. I'd done rather well. Bought a house. Send my kids to school. But, I wasn't happy with
my life, because I was still playing ethnic parts. I played Indians, gangsters, outlaws, Chinese warlords, all sorts of character parts the first 10 years of my career, which led me to believe that (laughs) certainly, could
have been made more obvious from Hollywood's side that
I would never be considered a leading man. - People used to look at Quinn,
and tell him to his face, "You'll always be a supporting "actor, a character actor. "You'll never be "a Hollywood leading man." And he was determined to prove them wrong. - They offered me a picture
called Black Gold, which was about an Indian who had a little Chinese adopted
son that he loved very much, and my wife Katherine played
my wife in the picture. I finished the picture, and I heard the picture was very good. I went home, and I said to
my wife, "Pack up the kids, "we're moving." She said, "Why?" I said, "I wanna go to
school and learn to act." When I came to New York in 1947,
went to the Actor's Studio, started working with Sam
Wanamaker in the theater, and I learned how to act all over again. And I worked for $350 a week for Yule Brenner and Marty Ritt. Did a lot of television
shows in those days. Did a lot of television. (dramatic music) - Marco, Marco! Let me go, let me go! - Why, because your husband's here? There's no need to play
the faithful wife now. - Marco, it's not true, it's not true. - No? You shoulda seen her a moment ago. "Don't leave me," she says "Wait for me!" Your wife has such warm lips, Cousin. - Lucas, stop it! - I'm gonna kill you, Lucas.
- Listen to him boast. When we were kids, I used
to whip him once a day and twice on Sunday. - Well, you had help. There's no help now.
- My men will be back. - They won't be back. - In 1947, Marlon Brando
had gotten great acclaim in Streetcar Named Desire. I had just done a play
called Gentleman from Athens. Gotten critical acclaim
for it here on Broadway. Then, Mrs. Selznick chose me to do Kowalski, with Uta Hagen in one of the
biggest hits in New York at the City Center theater. - Tony was doing Kowalski
with this incredible, animal vitality, and he
was doing it beautifully, but he was adding an element which I had not seen with Brando, and it worked so
beautifully, it was humor. He was so funny. The audience was cracking up, but at the same time that he was funny, he kept the reality of the character and, and he wasn't using humor to
distort the character at all. It actually enhanced the character. - [Anthony] Then I was offered
a picture called Viva Zepata which won me an academy award. - He was Zapata, it was one
of the great performances on film today. I mean, if you studied
Viva Zapata, which I have, you'll see that Quinn never put a foot wrong in that part. - Better be careful what you say to me. - Did you take the land
away from these people? - I took what I wanted. I took their wives, too. - What kind of a man are you? - I'm a man, not a freak, like my brother. - Get out! - Look, I can't even buy a bottle of tequila. We beat Diaz. He's living in a palace in Paris. We be why there's a rich
man in the United States. I have to beg pennies in my own village from people who never fired a gun. I'm a gentleman, I act like a
gentleman, I take what I want. And don't you or anybody
else try to stop me. - Quinn wanted desperately to become a Hollywood leading man. Why? Because it was a challenge. Again, it all goes to
back to his early life, to his early roles,
when he felt that people were treating him with disrespect. - Going through that
terrifying world of Hollywood, working opposite such
actors as Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor, and all those really fantastic looking men, it was terrifying, you didn't
see a career for yourself. And I went searching all over the world for a career for myself. I went to Italy, because after
winning the Academy Award, Dino De Laurentiis offered
me wonderful pictures there. He offered me, Cavalleria Rusticana, he offered me Attila, and I did some other pictures
for some other directors. Each one had his own
talent, own peculiar talent. Fellini had this dream world that he moved in and moved the camera through this (speaking softly). (dramatic music) Zampano's here. - Zampano's here. (whimsical music) - He probably has the good intention of giving other actors space, and his massiveness. I mean, of course, not
only of physical size, but also of his massive
presence as an actor, it's such that it's difficult
for him to give space to someone who doesn't know
how to defend himself well, and find space by himself. - He has one of those great faces, one of those shapes,
one of those physiques, which on the screen
really suggest the idea that you are in the presence of someone who seems to be able with just a flick of his eyelid, or with just a breath, to communicated something
secret, something intimate. (dramatic music) (audience applauds) - Italian cinema of that
era came from Neo-Realism. That is, the scenes were
shot on real locations. Instead of hiring extras, we performed the clown numbers
in front of real audiences composed of real people. The extraordinary thing was that even though
Anthony Quinn was accustomed to a way of working that was
entirely different from ours, he immediately adapted to this commedia dell'arte
manner of filming. - Fellini had very, very definite ideas as to what the character was doing, and it was entirely against my concept, 'cause I was an actor. I wasn't just a puppet. And I said, "Federico, you and I have to
come to an agreement because "I don't agree with you. "And sometimes I love what you're doing, "I adore what you're doing, "but I don't agree with you how to do it. "'Cause you can tell me to move my head. "I mean, I feel stupid. "What am I thinking, what am I doing? "I have to have a motivation." "What, a what?" "A motivation." (laughing) So, we had a wonderful time making the picture, but I don't think it
was the easiest for him. I don't think I made it easiest for him. - I was never really able to
communicate with him directly, because I always saw him as Zampano. And it is difficult to have
any kind of communication with a person like Zampano. This is especially true
for a person like myself. Maybe he represents a dark side, a deep identification with this obscurity, with this darkness, with this brutality. - Better get in. - I don't wanna work anymore for you. I never wanna see you again. Never! (crying) - Come here. Come here! (Gelsomina crying) (speaking foreign language) Hey! Where you going? Hey, come here. Come here. What's the matter with you? (dramatic music) Hey. Want me to take you back
to your mother, huh? (dramatic music) (crying) My life really started all over
again when I did La Strada. I think that La Strada convinced
people that I was an actor, and it opened up all doors for me. (dramatic music) - My father loved this little place on the other side of the world, and he felt artistic again. He felt like an actor because it was suffering over there. And here was like it was easy, you know, and he didn't like that. (dramatic music) He doesn't like it easy,
'cause he never had it easy. He went that way about parts. You know, when he did Hunchback
of Notre Dame, for example, he developed this terrible sickness. - [Anthony] When they offered me the part, I wasn't prepared, and I got sick. My face was actually bloated, and sores all over me. - This was in France, of course, and he went to all the specialists, and they couldn't figure out what it was. They didn't know if it
was an allergy, whatever. - [Anthony] Gina said, "I
will not make the picture. "I'll wait till Tony gets well." And it was costing the
producers a lot of money. - Finally, they said, "Tony, stop being Quasimodo." And he opened his eyes, and he said, "You're right." And so, they realized that he
was that much into the part. He had become the Hunchback. (crowd shouting)
- Water. Water! I'm thirsty! I'm thirsty!
(crowd shouting) (crowd cheering) - [Woman] We're with you, Esmeralda. - [Gina] He was so tall, so big, and I wondered, how he could become the monster. - More. More. - I remember when he was
made up as a hunchback. The look on his eyes, the smile, innocent, and in spite of his ugliness, he succeed to give trust to Esmeralda, the gypsy, the character I was playing in the film. (dramatic music) - Was he, he, he made me steal. - I know. I understand. I am less afraid of you, now. You are my friend. - Don't go away. Stay here. - I don't--
- You sleep there. - Esmeralda!
(crowd shouting) - Stop, my friends. They are my friends. - Don't worry, nobody can take you away. Nobody!
- Don't you kill my friends! They've come to save me.
- You want this! - Oh no! (Quasimodo laughing)
(crowd shouting) - [Quasimodo] You go to sleep. (dramatic music) (screaming) (dramatic music) - He is always ready to take a gamble, always ready to get the best effect. - If Tony played an ugly character, he didn't hesitate to
play that ugly character, whether it was La Strada,
or whatever it might be, and he always found another
dimension within that character, which I think is so exciting. For example, you play a weak character, he found
where the character was strong. Played a strong character, he found where the character was weak. He had an honesty and a truthfulness about all the characters that he's played. - [Anthony] Working opposite a wonderful actor like Kirk Douglas, he was really amazing as Van Gogh. It was really almost frightening because he was so convincing
in the part that I knew that I had to be convincing as Gauguin. - When I paint a pheasant in the field, I want a field of sun pouring into him like a dozen-- - Is that what you think you're doing when you overload your brush, when you slap paint on like putty, when you make your trees
writhe like snakes, and your sun explode all over the canvas? With all your talk of emotion, what I see when I look at your work is just that you paint too fast. - You look too fast. - Whatever you say, brigadier. Maybe you're right. - I'll never forget that scene when suddenly that look came on Tony's face as he played Gauguin, and he realized that
what Van Gogh was doing was really much more important than what he was excited about. And it developed into
a very exciting scene of anger and jealousy.
- What do you know about toil? When have you done a stroke
of manual labor in your life? Well, I have. I've dug ditches in the
stinking heat of the tropics. I've worked at the
docks in weather so cold my hands froze to the ropes. And I can tell you there's
nothing beautiful about it. I did it so I could go on painting. I didn't have a brother to support me. (dramatic music) - [Anthony] I was nominated
for the Academy Award for Lust for Life. - When he received his award, of course he was pleased, but that only gave him
much more of an incentive to do better, and he never stopped trying to do better just
because he got an award. - Probably the unique
thing about all these parts is the way that Tony connected with the other actors. They were not just
wonderful solo performances. He always felt for the
actors surrounding him, for the part surrounding him. So it became a whole.
(speaking foreign language) - She, she doesn't want
to drink the water. All right, she's superstitious. - I don't drink water, it makes me sick. - Here. (speaking foreign language) (speaking foreign language)
Sorry. (speaking foreign language)
Sorry. Sorry. (speaking foreign language) Sorry. - Sorry.
(laughing) - Hey, she speaks pretty good, huh? - Tony's a very, very open actor. He's... He'll set things in the rehearsal, and at set, I would say, on a
scale of one to 10, it's set to about 7 1/2, eight,
but within those two other numbers, he can improvise a great deal. - Look, I'll kill you, I love you, Bene. I made you my son, I'll kill you. What do you think you can
walk up to me like that, huh? Say you're going away? I made you my son. I wanna give you
everything, my whole place, my own flesh and blood. You can't talk to me like that, Bene. - Here I was a fledgling actor in Wild is the Wind, and I
didn't, I was really scared. I was so scared. But I knew that he was
making me feel comfortable by not ever saying to me,
"Hey, Tony, be comfortable," because I think that's the best way for me to make an actor uncomfortable. But just by accepting me in the most normal way. - He is very generous to
his fellow actors, and excited by what they're giving as well, and always incorporating
what's happening around him. - I have seen many, many
actresses come on the set to watch Tony, and you
know that they were, not necessarily falling in love with him, though I'm sure some did, but they were definitely attracted to him. - Tony, himself, was a very sexual animal. He came onto the stage
every morning to work, and he was full of it. You could see it. You could glory in it. You could envy it. (upbeat music) When Tony played a love
scene, you knew it. When he said to a girl that
he loved her, you believed it. That's not true of a lot of actors. That's why Tony was so
singular to work with. (upbeat music) - Quinn brings to the ladies, to whom he plays opposite, a quality of believability
as a lover and as a star. - Sophia felt that when
she was working with him she had a chance to reach back and give certain things on to the screen, which would exhibit her
in a very, very truthful and unusual way. Tony demanded that from you. He demanded that you be honest with him. - Can you get married,
and go to Somerville, and leave your daughter
locked in that room? - Oh, Rose.
- Can you do that for anybody? Tell me. Can you? - I had some fights
with Tony in those days, and finally, I began to
back off when I realized that he was as right as
I was most of the time, and that I preferred his
personality to mine on the screen. (dramatic music) - What happened? - She made me cook the sausage. - Oh thank God. Thank God.
- Quinn has often been accused of being a first-take man. I don't believe that's so. He's a very thorough actor, well grounded. He knows the value of rehearsal. He knows the value of trying,
and trying, and trying, and reaching, and reaching, and reaching, for even a little piece of business. He's aware of that,
lives it, is part of it. - I remember on Navarone there was a moment when he was
playing a scene, and I said to Tony, "Tony, let's do it again." And he said, "What's wrong with it?" Tony gets very voluble sometime. It's wonderful. And I said, "I think it
was a little too full," which was my way of saying,
I thought you overacted it. And he burst forth in
great anger, and said, "What do you mean, too
full, what do you mean? "Do you mean that I overacted?" I said, "Well, okay, Tony, "if you wish to put it that way, yes." - He said, "Don't you understand? "Don't you understand
I'm a bargain basement? "Treat me as that, treat
me as a bargain basement. "I have my wares, I show you my wares. "Your job is to choose them." So, I said, "That's fine, Tony." And from then on, that's
the way we worked. - Now you. You are not of this company, you say? - No sir, no sir, I'm not. - You are liar. - But Your Excellency--
- A liar. Now, come, that didn't hurt. Where are the explosives? - I don't know, Your Excellency. Your Excellency, I swear
to you, I do not know. - Where are the explosives? - I can't! - Chains off.
- I can't. - Chains off! (speaking foreign language) - I'm sick. Please, I'm sick. I'm sick. I'm sick. - Sometimes, he did burst out, and would take no nonsense from anyone, and so you saw this explosion. Not often. I mean, it wasn't something that he kept hanging there ready to make people fearful of, but it could happen,
and I've seen it happen. It's a burst of fury. The next moment, it's
gone and all is forgiven, and you adore the man. That is what women find
attractive about Tony and his fellow artist, this
inner, explosive strength. - Tony is always seems
to be is a sort of a seething volcano of emotion and feeling that just pours out of him. I find him very moving, and
in the film we did together, Requiem for a Heavyweight,
as Mountain Rivera, he was just beautiful. - The doc said if you
take a couple more bangs on that left eye, you gonna
end up selling pencils. Got sclerotic damage. - The brute in the ring, the good-natured brute in the ring, and the wonderful human
being, the humble human being outside the ring, and that's
all my father is, really. - [Stanley] See, I think
of fighters as poets that are inarticulate, that only can express
themselves with their fists. So, I tried to bring out the
poetry of Mountain Rivera, even in his voice. I tried to find him singing
a melody as he talked, and he had that funny kind of voice. He was looking always for
the beautiful side of life. - The Requiem for a Heavyweight
was that sort of poetry of the fighter, the boy who
had nothing, and who was, had a kind of honor toward what he was doing. - To you, I'm a big ugly
slob, and I look like a freak. But I was almost a Heavyweight
Champion of the world. Why don't you put that
down at papers and place. Mountain Rivera was almost the Heavyweight Champion of the world. - We were supposed to do a love scene, and as they were going to bed, the girl turns and turns out the light, and he says, "What's the matter? "You can't stand to look at me?" And I said, wait a minute, I said, I'ma keep the light on, 'cause I can't bear not to look at him. And Tony thought that was
interesting, and said, "Look, why couldn't we do it
this way, that it's sort of "the purity of the girl that
makes him stop and say no?" - Better go. - A good actor always draws upon their inner sense of humanity, their sensitivity to humanity around them, and without that sensitivity, you can't give the kind
of performances he gives without observing other
people and acknowledging where people come from
and where he came from. - It's only to the depth that
you dare go into a character that you learn from him,
and I had a wonderful experience learning from all
these characters that I played. It is my pleasure that you dine with me in Wadi Rum! The tone of that film was
to play against space, against the desert, and
the desert is awfully, awfully, awfully big. I had to play Auda a little
bit larger than life, but I loved playing that part. I loved playing in the desert. (dramatic music) I carry 23 great wounds all got in battle, 75 men have I killed with
my own hands in battle. I scatter and burn my enemy's tents, I take away the flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden
treasure, yet I am poor because I am a rebel to my people. (crowd cheering) - Tony could play heroes,
could play villains, he could play anything, really. He was limited only by the way he looked, and the way he sounded. - I don't sense any barrier to Tony Quinn. He gravitated from one kind of role, which he seemed to fit physically, to another which he fit
much better physically and mentally and emotionally. He was the incarnate leading man, incarnate star. He had no illusions or
delusions that went with it, but he was the star in no uncertain terms. He even became, to a certain
extent, temperamentally. - When he wanted something, he wanted it, and he did everything he could to get it. That's how he is in life. And that's how he was with my mother. He fell in love with her, he
wanted her, and he got her. They were working on a big
movie together called Barabbas, and he saw this woman, and he said, "Who's that, who's that?" And they said, "Oh, that's Jolanda. "That's the girl, she
helps with the costumes." He says, "Oh, I want her to fit me. "I want her to be the one
that takes care of me." He says, "But she can't. "She takes care of the
extras, and today we have "2,000 extras, and "she's in that department." He says, "Then I don't shoot." And you know for three hours, they had to stop everything, and you know how expensive that can be. He married my mother a few
years later, and out popped Francesco, Danny, and me. (dramatic music) - [Valentina] He wants both families to be one big happy family. He loves children, and I think the more
children he could have, the merrier he'd be. - Once you've earned his friendship, and you do have to earn it, you can count on that
friendship, just as his family. They can count on him. He's not just a star
besotted by his own stardom. - The first time I met
him was a long time ago, many years ago on an American film called The Secret of Santa Vittoria. Back then I had a film
camera that I bought myself, and I filmed him a lot. When I first met him, I had
just graduated from the Academy, so it was a tremendous surprise for me to meet a great actor like him. And I watch him all the time. - Quinn's character can best be delineated by a scene out of Secret of
Santa Vittoria as a star. He was chased around the kitchen by Anna Magnani with a rolling pin, and she hit him several
times, and it had to hurt, even though it was a phony rolling pin. But he disappeared up a flight of stairs, and then she chased him. She tripped and fell and broke her ankle. And she lay there writhing on the floor. He returned to the scene and
peered down at her and said, "You never fool around with Quinn." Star statement if ever there was one. - They were more than two stars, really. I touch with my hands the
essence of what a star is, while working, living, eating with them during the lunch break. And then you see the great
stars, great actors that is, are people of great simplicity, but very communicative in real life as well as on the screen. In real life, Anthony Quinn is very warm, very communicative. He's a very outgoing guy, so I found it easy to get to know him. His spirit is so close
to ours, so Italian. - I just asked him recently, "Pop, do you feel Mexican or Latin?" He looked at me and said, "I feel Irish. "I feel Russian. "I feel Arabic." (laughing) And I go, I'm sorry Pop. He says, "I feel like
I'm a man of the world. "I'm from this Earth. "If someone from Mars
comes here and asks me, "I say I'm from the Earth. "I don't say I'm from
Mexico, or I'm from America, "or I'm from Ireland," and
that's how he really is. - He made a lot of choices, some of them good, some of them bad, but he made them. He made them, and they represented him. He was unafraid to make them, and he was unafraid to be right, or unafraid to be wrong. He was just unafraid. - I produced a picture which
(laughing) I wish I hadn't because a producer should never allow the leading lady to tell him how the picture should be made. I loved Miss Ingrid Bergman, and she wanted to make
certain changes in the script which changed the script, and made a picture that should have been an Academy Award picture
into just another love story. It's called The Visit. My mistake was that I was
gaga about her, and I just acted gaga and it didn't play the strength of the man. But later on we made another picture called Walk in the Spring
Rain, which was wonderful, and we changed our attitudes (laughing) in that picture, and it was much better. - You got a fine shape, Miss Roger. A fine shape. - Oh listen, I'm a grandmother. - Oh listen, there's a lot of woman
left in you, Miss Roger, a lot of woman. Miss Roger, if you belonged
to me, would you let me wash your back? - That's just something one doesn't talk about. - I like to bathe a woman, pat her dry with a big clean towel, feel her getting all warm and sleepy. - You are a wonder, you are, Will Cade. - Well, you might say I'm special. - Oh, and vain. - No, there you're wrong, Miss Roger. It's just that you're never
gonna meet nobody like me, at least ways, I never did. Though I'd like to. - One of the big things
about Tony was that he wasn't your average or
conventional screen hero, or villain. He wasn't anything
average and conventional. He was himself, which was original, and he was unafraid to exhibit that. - [Anthony] That's all anyone
needs to know about me. - [Martin] You were never around Tony when you didn't feel you
were in the presence of a man with an extraordinary appetite for life. - I learned this from my wife. It's the caviar, it's not the manners. - [Cochran] I brought you something. - For me? - For you. - Oh. (chuckles) Oh, it's beautiful. I love it. I want my wife to see it. (speaking foreign language) - She have been told already, Senor. - Does she know we're eating?
- Si, Senor. - Tell her we're waiting. She's a wonderful girl. Sometimes I think I should
have married the mother. Much more sensible. - He thinks he can do anything,
and he can most of the way. He's played of his roles. He's done them, they're on
the record, on the film. There's no way to develop what he is, or what he dreams about,
or what he thinks. Even as an older man, he
still develops the nuances which are fresh and new, and make a tremendous
contribution for that reason. (dramatic music) - Where is she? (dramatic music) - Perhaps we both deserve to die. I've never had a picture that
gave me complete satisfaction. I really don't know what the hell it is that I'm looking for, 'cause I write, I paint, I sculpt, I act, I do all these things,
but I don't really know. I think one of these
days I've got to find out what the heck it is I'm looking for, but, I just try to do my best
at everything I'm doing. - He probably paints because through that, he's able to express himself
as a man and an artist. That's not always so in film. You're at the mercy of an
editor or the director, or whomever, so that I see that merely as an expression, a piece of self-expression,
to the nth degree. - And I'm still learning,
I'm still sculpting now, which is a great undertaking at a man my age. An artist keeps looking for some new thing to say, and we all get caught up in that. I'm stuck with it, and I'm
looking for something new to say. - He never stands back and pulls himself apart. He's involved, he pays attention, and he
remembers where he came from, and he has tremendous respect for that, for his roots, and it shows. - You look at Tony and
Tony's life objectively as a statistic in the United States, a lot of people would
write him off and say well, it's gonna be too tough. I don't think you can make it. No education, he can't
speak English, crude, rough, just surrounded with poverty. Fade in 40 years later, he's playing great roles
in American cinema. The greatest directors in the world want Tony Quinn to be in his films. This very raw material becomes, through sheer energy and work on his part, becomes one of the finest actors that the American cinema's ever had. - Me? If I was you, I would look
at mistake, and I would say, "Zorba come, or Zorba, don't come." - Zorba? - That's me. Alexis Zorba. - Tony was the perfect actor for Zorba. He is Zorba, he was Zorba. He should always be Zorba. Only a man with that kind of zest for life could really play that part. - Dammit, boss, I like you
too much not to say it. You've got everything except one thing: madness. A man needs a little madness or else... - Or else? - He never dares cut the rope and be free. - Teach me to dance. Will you? - Dance? Did you say dance? Come on, my boy. I have no attachment to Zorba more than I have to Viva Zapata more than I have to
Requiem for a Heavyweight more than I have to Lust for Life more than I have to the Lion of the Desert. I've poured my soul into about 75 pictures, and I stand by all of them. It so happen that Zorbo struck a happy meaning and a happy
philosophy in all peoples. The Mexicans claim that I played Zorbo so well because I did a Mexican dance in it. I don't know. (laughing)
(mellow music) Again.
(mellow music) (Zorbo laughing) Down.
(upbeat music) (slows to mellow music)
