Maureen Stapleton: A Tribute by Rick McKay

Oh Maureen Stapleton ah he said the magic name Oh oh my god Maureen says hello and I cry I don't she's just she has the most extraordinary what something she does that it's just so utterly natural so utterly present so utterly spontaneous nothing ever seems planned with her Maurice Devlin was a member of the Actors Studio so we used to Chum out together pals and finally she she was asked to audition for for a play which was the Tennessee Williams playing it was my first big job and I was asked to understand for the same play was called the Rose Tattoo I forget we read and listen other times anyway she said I was very impatient I said the hell with it if they don't want me that's it now I'm not gonna read any more she said yes she wasn't you'll read again and I read again and again and again we read for it so many times we felt like it'd already been playing it by the time we got the job and both of us by some stroke of luck got the pause we did it for a year and a half and both of us won Tony's well she's a work of art Maureen is a work of art I remember in Rose Tattoo when when they brought her news that her husband was killed and she let out like what was like an animal cry and said don't speak don't speak and I I mean it rings in my ear it was it was so true it was as though it happened and she was only 24 23 or 24 years old when we did the Rose Tattoo yeah I used to say that Maureen was the only person I would be willing to risk exchanging talent with that's a very self-serving remark well Maureen Stapleton is probably one of the greatest actors this country has ever produced I mean I put her up there with Jason Robards Colleen Dewhurst rosemary Harris I mean this is really great acting when you see Maureen on a stage even a bad thing like Norman is that you Maureen's wonderful this she never does bad work and there's something about her even when Maureen's doing nothing on a stage there's something that she radiates some magnetism and that's great acting I mean it's something that's very only god-given I think it comes you know you never really learned that it's given to you as a gift and it's a very painful gift you know because she like she wears her heart on her sleeve literally every night the her nerves are at the edges of her skin you know that she lives every moment Margaret Lightman would never be spoken to before she went on and not it not it did Barbara Bel Geddes and you respected that Maureen was was holding her dressers hand sit and hold her dressers hand and she was sick almost every night before she went on yes well in Stapleton an airport I'll never forget that performance as long I was 14 and I thought that is great acting two years later and got to see Jim game and it was right after Maureen Stapleton and eg Marshall had replaced Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn and and I think it was literally her second night that I had seen and and practically the a week later in in walks Maureen Stapleton and she's sort of looking over the salads and the ice cream counter and I said Oh miss Stapleton I saw your second preview and Jim gave the other night and you were magnificent I remember I sort of roll into the back of her head and she said it was a nightmare she ran out of the store and and years later I you know I certainly understood exactly how she felt those nights for you just as just a nightmare but for me sitting there it was heaven she was amazing well she has these huge crushes on movie stars you know she loves movies and I think her favorite thing in the world has gone with the wind I don't know if she told you that at the top of the stairs when you go up to Maureen's apartment there's this larger than life-size full-length photograph of Joel McCrea she was nuts about Joel McCrea probably still is and then on the other wall there's some one of Gable when did you know you wanted to be an actress well very early on I went to the movies all the time and in those days you know under 12 it was 10 cents to movies I think I went virtually every day yeah they lived in Lewiston I really wanted to know Robert Allen that was the main reason I thought that was the way to get to rubble do or Clark Gable until McCray they were my favorites there are four things in every cross one George Gershwin's brother the dog in the fender well do you know that name I don't know that Esther asta that's a good crossword works in every tae middle initial stands for tae I give up thomas alva and of course you're good what's the fourth one Oh entrance to remind I don't know don't tell me don't tell me let me say point it and add it yes oh how the hell did you know that I don't even know oh my god hey I just dug somewhere for it Wow it's get Eggman I must have done one cost for dad how the hell did you know I mean I'm still in added check Maureen gathered friends she was like the queen bee you know all the bees gravitated toward Maureen she was wonderful wonderful God as a person I adore she's the funniest woman bhadiya swimmin Oh Maureen Stapleton I love and adore well when she was doing the Rose Tattoo I used to pick her up at the theater every night and we'd go out and and there was a place we were invited to and she came and it was raining and she had a raincoat on and they said take the raincoat and took the raincoat off and she had a kind of silk old bathrobe on and nothing else and nothing else and her slippers she had slippers are all wet from being in the rain and there she wasn't she got drunk and had a great time she was a riot god she was funny we did a musical evening late afternoon at the hall in in Tanglewood and Maureen said send in the clowns to a musical accompaniment and when when she came she she looked like a bag lady there's no makeup and her hair kind of just chopped off and and she had like a forties old cocktail dress with a sequined collar here sequins around the sleeves and her mukluks and no stockings stage still no makeup no you know but she went out and she stood behind a podium so they couldn't see the no stocking within the mukluks and she began the pump you just you just felt everybody I was Gloria she's the best of the best and she's so beautiful and so she's a magnificent actress you

Channel: Rick McKay's Second Act Productions

Views: 16,264

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: broadway, stapleton, mckay, Entertainment, News, film, tv, performing, arts, drama, stage, broadway:, the, golden, age, theater, theatre, show, business, memorial, hoillywood, star, stars

Id: fk1_hzym1xA

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 25 2008