85 Quotes by Van Heflin

I don't believe in letting the advertising business get a stranglehold on the entertainment industry.

A contract player has to do what he's told, and play the parts others pick out for him. As far as the studio is concerned he's just part of the stable.

The stage is where I started, and there is a tremendous satisfaction in doing a good play.

The stock company, as I knew it is dead. Road companies are few and far between. Still the theater must survive.

Nothing creative functions well when fenced in or leaning on a prop. A contract is a fence and a prop.

Someday, I expect to see a television version of 'Hamlet' and see Hamlet come on during the intermission and hold up his sword and say 'This is made of the same fine steel as such-and-such razor blades.'

A doctor or lawyer who has reached the top can stay there or move on to higher prestige positions. But an actor of comparable competence and success and age has little or no control over his career.

If producers want to lure the few TV holdouts left, all they have to do is give them a good script and a guarantee of enough time to rehearse. They'd be surprised how fast those hard-to-gets would grab at the bait!

I believe all conscientious actors feel the same way - that there is too much hurry-scurry in TV to permit a sufficient amount of rehearsal time.