Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Stacy Keach

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

Emmy and Tony-nominated actor Stacy Keach looks back on his seven-decade career and talks about playing Shakespeare's greatest characters, dining with Orson Welles, shooting pool with John Huston and sharing the screen with Paul Newman, George C. Scott, Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck. Also, Rod Steiger passes on "Patton," Stacy turns down Hawkeye Pierce, John Wayne parties with Zsa Zsa Gabor and the Keaches, Quaids and Carradines team up for "The Long Riders." PLUS: "The Ninth Configuration"! Idolizing Olivier! Reinventing Frankenstein! Fonzie goes to college! And Stacy's dad joins forces with Maxwell Smart! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ontario only. Gambling problem? Call Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Imagine you're in Ottawa paddling along the Rideau Canal. Oh. Then ziplining across the Ottawa River between two provinces. Ah.

Before cycling along a picturesque pathway. Oh. And seeing your favorite artist at a giant outdoor music festival. Ah! Adventure awaits in Ottawa. From O to Ah. Plan your Ottawa adventure at ottawatourism.ca Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. Our guest this week is a producer, director,

author, musician, composer, voiceover artist, a Tony-nominated and Emmy-nominated performer who is one of the most prolific and admired stage and screen actors of the last 60 years. You've seen him in dozens of popular TV shows like The Simpsons, Will & Grace, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Two and a Half Men, Prison Break, Grey Donovan, 30 Rock, Titus, and of course as Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled detective Mike Hammer in the series The New Mike Hammer and Mike Hammer Private Eye. He also starred in numerous TV movies and miniseries, including Jesus of Nazareth, The Blue and the Gray, and Hemingway. He's also appeared in hundreds of stage productions all over the world, in regional theater, touring companies, and repertory theater, and in all-Broadway and Broadway productions such as Hamlet, Death Trap, Indian, Solitary Confinement, The Kentucky Cycle,

King Lear, and other desert cities. But it's on the big screen that he's made his most lasting impression on the host of this show with his memorable work in films like Fat City, The New Centurions, Bruce the McCloud, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Up in Smoke, The Long Riders, Escape from L.A., American History X, The Bourne Legacy in Nebraska. This man has won dozens of acting awards, played Hamlet, Willie Loman, and the Frankenstein monster. Portrayed everyone from Doc Holliday to Richard Nixon, and is versatile enough to have co-starred with both Dame Judi Dench and Cheech and Chong. Frank and I are thrilled to welcome to the show an actor's actor and a man who says he once sang Christmas carols to John Wayne and Zsa Zsa Gabor, the multi-talented

Stacey Keach. I'm exhausted already. I'm exhausted. Stacey, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being here. It's great to be here.

Tell us the Christmas carol story first. Well, yes. I was just going to ask here. Tell us the Christmas carol story first. Well, yes. I was just going to ask that. We lived, we grew up, I grew up in the San Fernando Valley. And my brother is six years younger than I am. But on Christmas Eve, we would always go out in the neighborhood and sing Christmas carols, ring doorbells and sing Christmas carols with a bunch of us. My brother wore this, he was only at the time, I think he was three years old, four years old. I was 10. We're six years apart. And we went to John Wayne's house.

He lived not too far, two and a half blocks away from us. And he opened the door, his butler opened the door. They invited us in. And John Wayne was there with Zsa Zsa Gabor. And we sang, we sang, we sang, we wish you a Merry Christmas or something of that nature. And he gave us 10 bucks. It was a great, great film. And it was all because of my brother. My brother was very cute.

He was a cute little guy. The actor James Keats, we should point out to our listeners. The famous actor James Keats and your occasional co-star. Well, yes. And now I'm doing a lot of producing and directing. Right. Documentaries. That's right.

I just did a Linda Ronstadt. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. And that was the John Wayne. And interestingly enough, years later, we moved another,

we moved actually closer to his house on Long Ridge Avenue, about three houses away. So that's, that, that memory lingered for many years. I love it. And I'm going to put you on the spot, Casey, I called you. That's all right.

That's all right. Lauren Delivier called me Stanley Creech, so you're all right. Stanley Creech. Yeah, that's in the book. Yeah. Stanley Creech. Yeah, that's in the book. Yeah.

Now, I'm going to put you on the spot, and I'm going to ask if you could sing at least part of A Christmas Carol to us. We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Just like when you were 10. Just like when you were 10. Just like when I was 10. That's excellent. Thank you.

Stacey, we talked about your brother. Let's talk about your dad, too, who was an actor, an accomplished actor, Stacey Keach, Sr. Gilbert and I were talking, and we remember him best as Carlson on Get Smart. He was the gadgets expert. That's correct. Yes. Yes. But he did a lot of wonderful stuff.

He was on the Dick Van Dyke show. He was on Maverick. He was in films. He was a talent scout for RKO. And wasn't he a commercial spokesman, like a character? Yes. Yes. And I'm just trying to think it was well he did a he used to

love to do commercials play nasty old men and uh and he was very good at that you know but just to take us back a little bit my dad created a show called tales of the Texas Rangers. It was on radio in the 50s. And I would go down to the studio and watch these actors perform live these radio dramas. And I loved it. In fact, it's what I think really got me started in wanting to be an actor. Joel McRae was one of those actors, huh? Joel McRae. Willard Waterman. what I think really got me started in wanting to be an actor. Joel, Joel McRae was one of those actors, huh?

Joel McRae, Willard Waterman. Yeah. William Conrad, William Conrad. How about that? And your, your father wasn't that crazy about you becoming an actor.

No, he didn't want either my brother or myself to be, to be actors. I mean, we were to be doctors and lawyers. Something secure that didn't have the disappointments and the rejections and also the competition. But neither of us listened. We decided at an early age, I decided when I was in college,

that I really wanted to be an actor. It had started with me in junior high school. And I found myself acting in plays. And my dad became very excited about the fact that I was doing Our Town, playing the stage manager. And he loved that play and loved that character. And he took the opportunity to teach me how to do the character, or at least a couple of moments that the character had,

describing a big butternut tree. And he got so excited, you know, scooping ice cream out of a ice cream container and putting it into a soda. I mean, he loved doing pantomimes. He loved magic as well. So it was very hard for him to hide his enthusiasm for the art of acting.

I see. And especially, and Halloween was his favorite holiday. He loved dressing both me and my brother up as various, you know, characters. And one year, he wanted me to be Emmett Kelly, the sad clown in Ringling Brothers. Sure, sure. And I loved it because I could, he made me up, put the false nose and the sad sack because I didn't have to say a word.

He said, you don't have to talk. You don't say anything. You just gesture. So for, I was in heaven. I didn't have to say a word. And I could, you know, I could, and I, and I, it was, I could pantomime. And one year he dressed my brother up as a space, a spaceship. And it was unbelievable. And he, and what was it? A lady wrestler. Love it.

Yeah. You know, I read your book, Stacy, all in all, and you have pictures in there of rather elaborate makeup that your dad would put on you guys. Well, I mean... Facial makeup. I mean, they weren't prosthetics, but they were pretty elaborate for the time.

It was very elaborate, and I still remember we did this horror film in high school called Strange Reflection. My partner, Joel Tater and I and a bunch of kids got together and we made this film using, it was a 16 millimeter camera and using short ends from each one of our fathers was in the business. And so Dick Dayton, his father was a sound man and Jay Hathaway, his father was a sound man and jay hathaway his father was a cameraman so we got together and we actually we made movies little tiny movies and one movie was called strange reflection and it was a movie where i played a scientist who got acid thrown on him in his laboratory i see and and he had to make me up to look like this monster.

Well, we were going down to Newport Beach to shoot some films on the water, and it was so hot that my makeup began to melt and started to roll off my face in the car. And it was... So if you look very carefully in that film, the prosthetics are very irregular. Was your dad also a dialogue director for Abbott and Costello?

Yes, and for Maria Montez. Wow. How about that, Gil? Oh, man. How about that? Did you meet Lou and Bud at any point as a child? I never did. No, I never. But I did meet Olsen and Johnson. How about that?

Hell's a-poppin'. Hell's a-poppin'. Geez. Yeah. It was wonderful of my dad. He was a wonderful man, and I miss him every day. He gave both my brother and I a wonderful sense of this business in terms of the friendships that you make, the relationships over time. the relationships over time.

And, but he instilled fear, which is, I think, is a great motivator as a young actor. You know, I mean, for me it was, because he said, if you don't make it by the time you're 26, forget it, you're not going to make it, you know. Wow. And so I became, I was really kind of an overachiever, you know, as a young guy. What was that Walter Pigeon story that they told you?

That they lied to you, your parents? No, no. Or they told you a fib? Well, they wanted me to be a lawyer. They said, look, you know, Walter Pigeon was a lawyer. You can be a lawyer and an actor. You can do both. I didn't want to be Walter Pigeon was a lawyer. You can be a lawyer and an actor. You can do both. I didn't want to be Walter Pigeon.

I mean, he was a wonderful actor, but I wanted to be James Dean or Marlon Brando. I mean, it was the 50s, you know. Yeah, but they told you that he had a fallback career, and then years later you said, if I'd had Google in those days, I would have realized that none of those things my parents said about Walter Pigeon were true. He didn't have a fallback career.

That's true. That's exactly true. They were trying to protect you. Well, that's right. It was all done out of love. I mean, there was no rancor. No, it was done, as you say, protective. And the same thing with my brother. I mean, It was done, as you say, protective. Same thing with my brother. I mean, we were going to be doctors or lawyers, and that was it. So I had to go to the University of California as a freshman and study economics and political science my freshman year.

And they said, no acting in plays. No, no, not until you get through your first semester. Well, I got through my first semester barely. It was a tough year, my freshman year at Berkeley. But I started acting in my sophomore. Well, the beginning of the end of my freshman year and the beginning of my sophomore year, I really started seriously devoting myself to acting. And I had a great, great couple of professors at the University of California, Travis Bogart and William Oliver and Robert Goldsby, who's still alive, almost 100 years old.

Wow. Amazing. Yeah. We speak for millions. I think Gilbert will be say we're glad you didn't become a doctor or a lawyer. And you were once saying that, you know, you've done so many parts and people go up to you and they say, didn't you used to be? Stacey Keach. Yes. Didn't you used to be Stacey Keach? I think I still am. I'm not sure.

But yeah. No, that's true. Yeah. You used the name Stacey Keach Jr. when you first started to distinguish yourself from your dad? Who acted under that name? My first film, you know, I grew up, I didn't like being junior. Because in the household, whenever we'd go to Texas for the summer to visit our grandparents, people would say, Stacy! which one, junior or senior?

And I mean, it was just, I didn't like it. I didn't like being a junior, you know. And so I asked my dad, I said, do you mind if I just say, if I just cut the junior off and just say Stacey Keyes? She said, no, no problem. I'll be a senior. God love him. I mean, it was a very generous, gracious thing to do. Lon Chaney Jr. hated being junior.

You know, it makes, it's a diminutive suffix to one's name. I mean, it makes, you know... Now, listen, Robert Downey Jr. He's done okay. Sammy Davis Jr. did okay. Sammy Davis, yeah, a lot of good. But if they're comfortable with it, I think it makes all the difference. Sure, sure.

You know, I was just never comfortable with it. Your dad's also in features. I mean, he's in the FBI story with Jimmy Stewart. He's in the Parallax View with Warren Beatty. I mean, he's in the FBI story with Jimmy Stewart. He's in the Parallax View with Warren Beatty. I mean, he's a recognizable actor. He worked a long time. Yeah, he did indeed. Yeah.

And I... He had an opportunity in Rubble Without a Cause to play the Jim Backus character. He told me that he had turned it down, and I can't remember why, but I remember he said he didn't want to do it.

And I thought, oh my goodness. That was a wonderful opportunity that he, I think. I don't know why he turned it down. I remember this day. Interesting. Interesting. I've got to ask you, Stacy, and we jump around here, so we'll talk about...

That's okay. We'll talk about stage work. We'll talk about meeting Olivier. We'll talk about Orson Welles. But Gilbert and I have to ask, I watch Fat City, and I watch Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, which we mentioned in the intro. God, I love you as Bad Bob, the albino gunslinger. I know it's only about seven minutes of screen time, but it's a memorable seven minutes of screen time.

Oh, it's fun. It was a fun day. One day you shot? One day. Yeah. One day, starting at four o'clock in the morning, we'd get that makeup on, yeah. And I had been working on the new Centurions,

and it was still in production. But I came out there for a day, and John Huston, he wanted me to play this character as an albino, which was, I was in heaven. I had an Edith Head costume. Edith Head, right? That's right. They give you red contact lenses, too? That's right. They give you red contact lenses, too?

And there was so much sand blowing up, and I had to ride into town on this horse, gallop into town, that I didn't need red contact lenses. My eyes were pouring with the sand, so I didn't have to use the contact lenses. My eyes were red. I remember you show up. There's like a, if I'm getting this right, if I remember it, there's like a fire there. Uh-huh.

And there's like a pot of boiling hot coffee. That's right. And you pick it up and gulp it down. First, he shoots the horse and tells the guy to make the horse into a meal. Yeah, and he says, how do you like your horse? I said, blue. Right. And he drinks piping hot coffee off of a fire.

Okay. Now you're going to have to be patient with me, Stacy, because the Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean with Paul Newman had a theme song that was sung by Andy Williams. Oh, Gilbert, you amaze me. Marmalade, molasses, and honey. Cinnamon and sassafras tea. I know my life would be so happy and sunny

if you'd come away with me i know i'd really like to do head for the hills the hills with you and hear you say hey let's make a day of it Marvel Fantastic Marvel Have you heard that in 45 years, Stacey? No, I haven't heard that I never heard that I don't think I've heard of that Memorable

Well done, well done Thank you Don't you ever question what I say I think you shut off my toll Don't you ever question what I say. I think you shot off my toe. Anyway, you'll be the second one open from the big one. Now listen, you go tell that snake scum judge that I intend to burn his eyes out and feed him to the buzzards. But before I do, I want to eat breakfast. I've ridden a long way and amassed a powerful hunger.

Now listen. You tell him to prepare to go to hell. I will send him there directly. Now get! What about my toe? Now they're mine. Tell us. You did Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean,

a movie, by the way, that our listeners should check out. It's a lot of fun with a great cast. I mean, yourself and Roddy McDowell. Yeah, Jacqueline Bissett. Everybody turns up. Young Victoria Principal. Everybody turns up in there. But you did Fat City for Houston before, which is a wonderful performance.

Thank you. Tully and a couple of things about that movie. And I want to ask you if you took a real punch in the ring, because I think you did. I did indeed. Yeah. After we had done the choreographed fight, John Houston came forward and said, very good, boys. That was excellent.

Now I want you to just get out there and box. Just get out there. Just throw the the punches don't worry about it just get out there good john houston well we went out there and six to rodriguez wonderful wonderful guy wonderful actor and he had a professional fight he had 87 professional fights never had a shot at the title, but he was built, I mean, it was steel. His arms were like steel. He said, don't worry, Stacey, just come out there, man, you can hit me as hard as you want. Don't worry about a thing. So I got out there, we started banging the bells, and I hit him in the stomach, hard. And he couldn't help himself.

It was just an automatic response. He came out with the right hook or boom, like that. Knocked me, absolutely knocked me cold. And that's the shot that they used in the movie. I said the shots in the movie, yeah. That's the one, yeah. You fall face down at the canvas, and I knew you couldn't fake that. No, that was not fake.

That was it. And Johnson's very good. That was a wonderful shot. It was not fake. That was it. And John said, very good. That was a wonderful shot. Have you met John's son, Danny Houston, Stacy?

Yes, of course. Yeah, we had him on this show, and you two do the best John Houstons in the business. Yeah, well, he was a memorable character. I think a lot of people would, yeah, he could do that. It's so funny, because I was just about to ask you if you did an imitation of john euston well i just did didn't i yeah it's very good he would he would take your money and pull and backgammon wouldn't he he absolutely oh yeah he was a gay and what surprised me was that he would we would at the of a day's shooting, we'd have dinner,

and then he'd go, all right, let's go and have, let's shoot a game of pool stays. What do you say? And I had a pool table in this house that they had rented for me. He'd get over there, he was in there until 2 o'clock in the morning. Yeah, I'll bet. I mean, I couldn't believe it. And I think we got to get, because we had to get up at 7, you know, or even earlier. And he was tireless. He was unbelievable. Because we had to get up at 7, you know, or even earlier.

He was tireless. He was unbelievable. You said in an interview that when you first started getting into films, you had theater experience, but working in front of a camera scared you in the beginning. Yes, it did. I was very self-conscious. I really was. And it was Gordonordon willis the cameraman gordon willis god love him he's don't love this who gave me confidence to work in front of a camera he changed on a movie called end of the road which is one of

the second or third films that i had done and he he said, Stacy, I want to introduce you to Mitchell. I said, okay. Mitchell? And he's talking to the camera. He said, this is Stacy Keach, this is Mitchell. Say hello to Mitchell, Stacy. So I began talking to this camera. Hello, Mitchell.

And over here is Airy Aeroflex the handheld aeroflex camera he he said every day you come in the first thing you do you go in and you have you tell them you tell mitchell or airy whichever camera we're using what you had for breakfast how you're feeling you talk to the camera and make it your friend. It became more like a personal relationship with this machine. Wow. And it alleviated my fear, my anxiety. I got over it, and it's how I broke through and became comfortable in front of a camera.

It no longer terrified me. You said in the book that you wouldn't go to dailies early on. You avoided dailies. Famously avoided Robert Altman, who liked to bring everybody to dailies. Everybody. It was a party, and he would get upset if you didn't want to go. Well, it started with The Hardest and Lonely Hunter, which was my first film. And I mean, I was so self-conscious.

I went to the dailies because Robert Ellis Miller, who was a wonderful director, invited everybody to this local theater in town where they ran the dailies. And I just felt very uneasy because everything, I saw myself overacting. Everything was too big. I didn't believe a word I was saying.

I just didn't believe it. I thought, oh, that's not good at all. It was my first or second experience in front of a camera. And so I was very, very self-conscious about it. And I just decided, you know what? I don't want to go to dailies anymore. Because the adjustment that I made as a result of seeing myself overacting was to do nothing at all in a couple of movies where I was just very cool and absolutely nondescript,

very unemotional, and nothing was happening. I mean, there was nothing going on. It was bad acting. So I just said, you know what? I'm just going to get involved in the process and just do my work. The only way I would feel comfortable or felt the need to go to dailies was if there was a technical situation like a makeup, a wig or a nose or a scar or something that I had to check to see if it was, you know. But as far as going to the dailies to see a performance i was very self-conscious about it i didn't like it because the other thing is this in in film when you're acting the director makes the final decision about what tape to use and i remember when i was doing Doc. With Frank Perry. With Frank Perry. Yeah.

And I would go to the dailies. I was going to dailies in those days. And I would say, you know, I would see three takes. And I would say, oh, God, I hope they use take two. Well, they didn't use take two. They used take one or take three. And I got very upset. So I realized early on, you know, there's no advantage to going to dailies if you're going to get upset and anxious

and alter your performance. Just go and do the best you can and let the director decide what's good and what's not good. Well, we want you to lean into that phone just like Gordon Willis told you to lean into that camera. Okay, good. Very good. Oh, and is it true that you discovered

the Fonz? Well, I didn't discover the Fonz, but I taught the Fonz. There you go. Henry Winkler went to Yale, and I was, I had been asked to go back to Yale from Robert Blustein to be a member of the Yale Repertory Company.

And during that time, I taught. And Henry Winkler, James Naughton, and my brother were all students. But I knew early on that Henry Winkler was going to be a big star. He had such, he had great talent. He's been here as well. He's a great guy. Yeah, good man. And one of the most beloved people in show business.

Oh, absolutely. Well, good reason. He's a wonderful man. Got to recommend Fat City. Gilbert, have you seen it in years? Not for years. It's so good, Stacey, and you're so good in it, and you and Susan Tyrell, the late, great Susan Tyrell.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. I mean, it's a movie about the dark side of boxing. I mean, Rocky, it ain't. No, it ain't. And it is a heartbreaking film and a beautiful film. Watching the scene where you bang your head into the jukebox because you're trying to woo her in your strange way in the bar.

Yeah. It's some really beautiful, and Bridges, a very young Jeff Bridges. Beautiful acting. Oh, he was great. Beautiful acting in that film. Yes. Well, thank you. It was one of my favorites, too.

I really liked it. A lot to recommend. And Houston, go ahead. Go ahead, Gil. And you said you've really learned, you've stretched yourself in dying in movies. You've died in so many movies. In some movies I wish I had died in before the movie died. Stacey, in the book you listed your best death scenes. I did? In all in all, yeah. Yeah, in another movie. Before the movie died. Stacey, in the book, you listed your best death scenes. I did?

In all in all, yeah. Yeah, in your memoir. Right. One of them being in The New Centurions. Yes. Yes, indeed. Which reminds me a lot of this wonderful, crazy little movie called Survival Skills.

Yes, it just came out yeah and because in those days we uh we joseph wambaugh who wrote the the novel the book the new centurions that the movie was based on was was a consultant on the movie and he said he insisted that eric estrada scott wilson and myself all go to the police academy and do two weeks of police training it was he required it and it was a great thing to do because he really we got a taste of what it's like to be a cop you saw some scary stuff according to the book what what did you learn from uh going to police academy the of the difference of a real life cop and a movie cop not much difference no no no i didn't i mean i i it was very hard for me to distinguish, well, obviously, I mean, a real-life cop. He deals with real situations, real bullets, real guns.

A movie cop, he doesn't. But aside from that, the thing that impressed me the most was what policemen undergo, what they have to go through on a daily basis, particularly if they have to investigate a homicide, which we had to do. One night, and we had to ride in the black and white through Watts, and I remember the looks of absolute hatred and fear coming from the people who were standing around. And we had to go into this apartment in Watts and unhinge a man whose neck was caught up in the headboard of a bed. And it was a gruesome experience.

And I thought to myself, wow, my respect for policemen and what they have to go through and what they have to deal with and what they have to do is really admirable and worthy of respect. It was a different era than today where the police are the enemies to a lot of people. It's a good film. Good film. And how did you find George C. Scott? I mean, we've heard 300 of these shows, done 300 of these shows,

and we've heard conflicting things about the man, but mostly good things. Well, I'm one of the good guys. He was a great, great actor. And he taught me a lot. Because he came from the stage. He started acting very late in his life. He was a teacher. He taught. He didn't in a very late, very late in his life. He was a teacher. He taught,

he didn't start acting really until he was in his late 20s or early 30s. And I learned so much from him just watching the way he would, the nuances and the innuendos, the suggestion. And one thing he taught me about behavior was that before you say the line, you say the line inside your head so that the eyes, you're in your eyes, you're conveying the emotion of whatever that moment's about. He taught me as an actor, you know,

to anticipate rather than just saying lines, that before you say the line, what's the feeling that the line comes out of? And he was a master at that. He was an absolute master. Oh, good. Great.

What a great body of work. Oh, yes. That he left behind. Yes, indeed. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Baseball is finally back.

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for a better tomorrow. Visit mila.ca to learn more. There's a part of the book that's fun, that you found yourself soon after The New Centurion's appearing with his ex-wife, they had just gone through a divorce, Colleen Dewhurst. Yes. And she was called upon to slap you

in the scene, in the stage production, and you didn't know why she slapped you so violently. Yes. It was Hamlet. It was Hamlet. It was Hamlet. It was Hamlet. It was Hamlet. It was Hamlet. It was in Central Park, yes. And I had just been

telling stories about George, and she didn't... She didn't care for that. No. They had, I think, not a very pleasant course. As long as we're talking about these wonderful characters like George C. Scott and John Huston,

and again, we jump all over the place, as you can see. You had dinner, just the two of you, with the great Orson Welles. Right. Yes. We're doing a movie called Butterfly. Yeah. James Cain. Yeah.

And Orson was playing this judge. It's a movie about incest between a father and daughter. That was what Pia Zadora. Yeah, that was the legendary Pia Zadora movie. Yes. Financed by her husband. That's correct. Yes.

Yes. And you took the role because you were a James Caine fan. Absolutely. I love James Caine. Good instincts. Yeah. Well, and I had done a movie called The Killer Inside Me. Right.

Yeah, which was... Anyway. Orson. Orson, yes. He invited me to go to dinner. I was... What a great honor and great thrill this was. And we were at the...

I believe it was the Sands Hotel. I think it was the Sands. Anyway, it was the dining room. I'll never forget it. There was just the two of us. This little old lady came up and said, oh, Mr. Wells, Mr. Wells, I love you so much. Would you please sign this autograph? He said, not while I'm eating, dear. Not while I'm eating. Not while I'm eating, dear. Not while I'm eating. But after dinner, he very graciously got up and he signed her autograph. But he was enormous during Butterfly.

He was way, way overweight. And at dinner, I'll never forget, he ordered two sides of roast beef and a baked potato because he was on a diet. Wow. You said in the book you were pleasantly surprised that he wanted to talk about you. He didn't want to talk about himself. That's fascinating. I wanted to ask him questions about so many things, particularly all his films. But he said, no, no, no. He wanted to talk about Pirandello. How interesting. It was very interesting.

How interesting. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Tell us about working with Cheech and Chong. I always, I always love Sergeant Stadenko. Oh, thank you. So do I. And I wish you'd done more comedies. I mean, I loved you on Titus, but I always thought you had a feel and an act for comedies and wanted to see you in more. Well, thank you. Television has been very good to me in that respect. I've had a chance to do some television in that respect, yeah. Simpsons, Two and a Half Men.

Two and a Half Men. Yeah, yeah. More recently, Crowded and Man with a Plan with... With Matt LeBlanc. With Mattanc with matt yeah so but yeah but thank you i love doing comedy i think you know and we just did a 2020th reunion of titus um we just did this last summer as a matter of fact and it was great fun with getting everybody back together. Even though I was in quarantine, so they shot me sort of separately. But no, I loved comedy.

I think if it was a choice between having people laugh or cry, I'd much rather have them laugh. We were talking about your versatility. I was talking to your daughter, Carolina, before, and I was telling her about it. And as Gilbert said, how many people have worked? Didn't you work with Sir Ralph Richardson, too? Yes. Well, I didn't work with him. No, I didn't work with him. No. I met him. I met him on a couple of occasions. He came to see me. I was doing a play at the National Theater in London, He came to see me.

I was doing a play at the National Theater in London, Huey and Eugene O'Neill's play, and he came to see it and was very complimentary. Then I went back to see him when he was doing a play at the Kennedy Center some years later. But we recently Zoomed David Story's home that Ralph Richardson is co-starring with John Gielgud. And I did it with the great actor Alfred Molina. So you're doing Zoom? You're doing plays?

Your daughter told me you're doing plays and productions via Zoom. Yes, that's what we're doing right now. It started last April with King Lear because they were, this church in Bucks County was doing a charity performance for, to raise food for the homeless.

And they did an adaptation of Lear that Orson Welles and Peter Brook had put together some years ago. It was never really produced. It was like a 90-minute version of a four-hour play, which was like the radio almost. And it worked.

And we did that. And I thought, wow, Zoom is kind of an interesting format. And because we can't get back into a theater, then what I would really like to do is do more plays. So we did Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Daddy. We did Huey with the late and great Clark Middleton, who recently passed away. Terrible story.

He was a wonderful actor. He was bit by a mosquito in Los Angeles. Oh, my God. And got West Nile virus and passed away in like three days. Sorry to hear that. In fact, it was a memorial for him. It was a wonderful, wonderful act. A great guy.

It was tragic. You're fine. It is tragic. I'm sorry to hear that. You're finding a way, though. I actually saw Huey on Broadway with Ben Gazzara. Uh-huh yeah i love ben it was a great act he was a great act it's a wonderful play many actors have done it uh jason robards started it and uh

al pacino did it um um brian let's see who forestrest Whitaker. All good actors. Yeah. How did you, I want to just go back to Stadenko for a moment. How did you find that character and the clothes, Stacy? The white vinyl belt, the terribly loud sport jacket, the stumpy tie. Oh, it was a great, I can't take responsibility for that. It was the costume designer who did it. It was great, though.

It was wonderful stuff, yeah. Yeah, at one point, I'll never forget the dialogue. Dope drugs, grass, weed, toot, smack, quackers, uppers, downers, all-arounders. Good for you. I memorized it. Very good. You have fun with those guys? And I never saw Nice Dreams.

I never saw the sequel, but I understand you turned into a lizard. Yes. You have to into a lizard. Yes. You have to check it out. Yes. Yeah. He turns into, yeah. And I had to be on the wall trying to catch flies. Like a lizard. And that was an experience

in and of itself, just to get me to get, they had to put me, I had these braces, put my arms in on a set, flat set, and they had to pick it up, hoisted it up, and it was painful. It was not pleasant, but it was very funny. Very funny.

Gilbert, how many actors played Hamlet, Richard III, and also worked with Cheech and Chong? Yes. I think only the man sitting in front of us. Stacey, a couple of questions from listeners, if I may. This is from Stephen Miller, not that Stephen Miller. Who had the idea of casting actual brothers as each family and the brothers in The Long Riders? That was my brother and myself. You and James?

Yes. We both, it was an idea that was generated by, interestingly enough, I was living in Malibu, and right at the bottom of a hill was Walter Hill. He lived down there, and we were very interested in getting him as a director. And we had just come up with this idea that let's get brothers to play brothers. Good idea. We thought so, too. He didn't like the idea.

He said, no, you don't need to do that. Well, I'm glad that he prevailed. And then Walter Hill. Another Hill became a director. I met your brother years ago on a plane. Is he still married to to Jane C. Martin? Yes. No.

No. But he just recently, I'm very proud of him, he just did a great job with a film, a second film with Linda Ronstadt. Was that The Sound of My Voice? It's a sequel. Oh. He did that. He did The Sound of My Voice? It's a sequel. He did that. He did The Sound of My Voice.

He's doing good work. He did Mockingbird. He just came out recently. It's like a sequel. It's about her experience in Mexico. Oh, yes. The second part of her career. That's right.

Yeah. It's fantastic. I love The Long Riders. I got to say, and by the way, of her career. That's right. Yeah, yeah. It's fantastic. I love The Long Riders. I got to say, you know, and by the way, it's a film that's just turned 40. Two of your most famous films, that and The Ninth Configuration, are 40 this year. Gilbert, you know The Long Riders. It's got Dennis Quaid and Randy Quaid playing brothers, and Christopher Guest and his brother, and James and Stacey as the James brothers.

The Carradines. The Carradines. David Carradine's wonderful in that movie. Oh, yeah. We had Keith here on the show, by the way. Oh, he's great. Good guy and a Gilbert fan. Who can explain it?

Yeah. Yeah. I love the knife fight scene between the actor James Remar and David Carradine in that movie. It's so memorable. Yeah. Yes, it is. I remember the day we shot that.

And you're underplaying in that movie. I mean, Frank James, it's an interesting choice you made with Frank James because he's very quiet. Yes. He's very quiet. Well, Jesse was out there jesse was uh he was the leader of the of the gang he was the leader nine years trying to get that project off the ground nine years we got and we got very close a couple of times and and i'll never forget uh a producer

named paul monash uh i don't know if you remember. I know that name, yeah. Yeah. We came very close. We were going to do it with him, and then it fell apart. But then it wasn't until we made a photograph with all the brothers together, which is in my book, that the studio said, oh, okay. Because up until that point,

they were very hesitant to back the film, saying you'll never get everybody together. I said, well, what. Because up until that point, they were very hesitant to back the film saying, you'll never get everybody together. I said, well, what happens if we get a photograph and say that, you know, and then that, at that time, Jeff and Bo Bridges were going to play the four brothers. And so they're in the photograph. Yeah, they're in that picture in the book. But they, yes. Yeah. But they had, I think they were going to do the Baker Boys. So that was not, so we got Dennis and Randy. It was Dennis's, I think one were going to do The Baker Boys, so we got Dennis and Randy. It was Dennis' – I think one of his first movies. Yeah, yeah.

Everybody's good in it. It's a wonderful movie. Well, Walter Hill is a great director. Yeah, we're fans. Here's a question from David Milstein. Mr. Keech, I have a question for you about The Ninth Configuration, a complex movie that I think to this day does not get the love it deserves. Oh, that's very nice.

William Vlade described it in a way as the real sequel to The Exorcist. It was the flip side of The Exorcist. The Exorcist being about the devil, Satan. Yeah. And the Ninth Configuration is really a film about faith, I think. It's a film about belief in God. Yes, but it's also a black comedy. Oh, absolutely.

Gilbert, you guys... Go ahead. No, I was going to say, Blatty, he had a real knack for comedy. He really did. Gilbert, you've got to see this movie because, in addition to Stacey, a lot of your favorite actors, Ed Flanders, Joe Spinell, Robert Loggia. Yeah. Moses Gunn. Moses Gunn.

Neville Brands. Most of them gone now, sadly. They're all gone. Except for Tom Atkins and you. Tom Atkins and... Jason Miller turns up from The Exorcist. Jason Miller. Did you, and I want to ask about

Ninth Configuration too, but you were up for the part of Father Karras in The Exorcist. I was. I was. In fact, for about 24 hours, I had the part. I'll never forget it. We had an audition at the Sherry Netherlands Hotel in New York. Bill Blatty, William Friedkin, Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn. And I read this couple of scenes, went home, thought, well, I did pretty well. Got a call from my agent, said, you got the part. You got it. This is a Friday night. And they said, but they didn't, but they're offering, the money's no good. I said, well, so let me try to get some more money, my agent said, you know. And I said, well, I don't want to lose this character.

I don't want to lose it. Don't worry about it. That night, Bill Blatty and William Friedkin went to see that championship season, and they met with Jason Miller afterwards. They went out for a drink, and they decided Jason Miller, you know, he really is right for this part. So on Monday morning, my agent called me and said, I got some bad news for you, Stacy. What?

They turned you down. I said, what? He said, yeah, they passed. They're going with Jason Miller. Oh, my God. Well, years later, I got the Ninth Configuration, which was sort of retribution, I guess. Right. In a way.

I mean, what a strange movie. Gilbert, you would love this movie. It's very bizarre. It's a wild ride. And Blatty himself directed it. And as a Monster fan, I'm very excited that you're joining the ranks of Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Bill Lugosi, Glenn Strange. Robert De Niro.

Robert De Niro. And Peter Boyle. And Peter Boyle. Peter Boyle. And Jack Elam. And Michael Sarazin. Yes. Oh, really?

That's amazing. Yes, I remember. That was in the TV movie. Yes, yes, yes. How did Yes. Oh, really? That's a new one. Yes, I remember. That was in the TV movie. Yes, yes, yes. How did you do this, Stacy? This was a radio production? A radio production for L.A. Theatre Works. Yeah.

They do radio productions in front of a live audience. And this was about eight, nine months ago, almost a year ago. But even then, the virus was just beginning to move around. And I thought to myself, I said, how do you want to play this monster? Because the monster, as written by Mary Shelley, is a very articulate, very intelligent person. Very intelligent person. You know, unlike many of the personifications that have since been, you know, like most Frankensteins. And this guy was, that's not the way she wrote it. So I said, well, how can I convey the monsterness of this guy. So I decided to use a kind of a little bit of a wheeze. His lungs were not quite formed properly. So that's the way I played him. Oh, interesting choice. What's your key to playing

heavies and bad guys, Stacy? We asked Andy Houston the same question question i'm the humanity even though it may be despicable there's got to be a human you know i mean one of the one of the reasons why i love alec baldwin's version of trump is that there's a human being there aside from just being you know yeah i mean there's going to be a lot of trumps in the future i have a feeling, too. And to make him just a pure evil person that he is, I think that, in my opinion, I think that you should find the humanity, you know? And humor. And I think humor reveals humanity as well. Even in a character like Bad Bob? Yeah.

Yeah. Tell us something. This is one of Gilbert's favorite actors and somebody you work with. Tell us your memories of Rod Steiger. Oh, my God. Well, you know,

we grew up in Malibu together. We lived in Malibu at the same time. He and Marty Sheen and I would go to the Malibu coffee shop and share stories about the business and whatever, you know,

complaining about not getting enough work or whatever. But I had the great opportunity to work with him, but not with him on Jesus of Nazareth. He was playing Pontius Pilate and I was playing Barabbas and I had a scene with him, but he wasn't there. I was playing to the back of some actor who was wearing his costume. And I thought, oh my my god because in the movie it looks like we have a scene together and uh oh he was a great so wait he did to you what brando did to him in streetcar not streetcar in um in uh in on the waterfront on the water he made you act without him being there that's right wasn't that famous, Gilbert? Yeah. He wasn't in the backseat of the car?

Yeah, of course, in the famous taxi cab. You know, I could have been a contender. Yeah. He's in the two-shot. He's not in the close-up. Yeah, so Brando just went home, and I remember I met Rod Steiger, and I said, I brought that Steiger and I said, I brought that up and he said,

I didn't speak to him for 20 years. That's very good. Very good. Very good. Stacy approves of your Rod Steiger. Thank you. Stacy, I thought this was interesting. It's true, by the way.

He told that story many times. He did. Yeah, you said in the book he may have been a little embittered by what happened with On the Waterfront, with Brando achieving so much fame and stardom. He was. He was. Yeah.

But he had enough of his own success, and he got over it. He had a wonderful career. Oh, yeah. assassin he got over it he had a wonderful career oh he said he said too that he turned down Patton and uh Steiger said had he taken Patton he would have gotten a godfather huh interesting that is interesting Stacey did you turn down MASH I did but I didn't do it I didn't do it knowingly. I had a rough experience with Robert Altman because Altman wanted to make a movie of McBurr, but he didn't want to cast me. He wanted to cast Phil Bruns because he saw it out here in California.

He didn't see it in New York. And I was upset about it. I had been cast in Catch-22 to play Colonel Cathcart. And I was on the movie for three days before I was fired. And the reason being that I was too young for the part. Didn't have the ear for the part. It absolutely decimated me. I was destroyed by it.

I was really upset. Came back to New York and got an offer to do a play that had just come out of London. It was going to be at the arena stage called Indians to play Buffalo Bill. And I said, and at the same time, Robert Alton called me and said, look, I'm getting ready to do a war movie,

but I went, it's going to be very well. It's going to be improvised. And I had just come off again. I said, I don't want any more war movies. And I was, and I,

I had just come off again. I said, I don't want any more war movies. And I was holding a grudge for the McBird situation that he cast another actor. So I said, no thanks. And I did Indians. I could have been Donald Sutherland because that was the part that I was doing. It's interesting, the twists and turns of a career.

Oh, my goodness. You write about that a lot in the book. Well, I've had a few of those in my career. Sure, everybody has. Sure. Yeah, everybody has. This is from, let's see, Jonathan Sloman. What can Stacey tell us about a wonderful picture called The Squeeze,

a gritty British gangster film? He's so great in it with David Hemmings, Edward Fox, and Stephen Boyd's last film. And whose idea was it for Stacey to have a nude scene? Ah, Michael Apted. Michael Apted. Yes. It was Michael Apted. He was a wonderful director.

He still is. Yeah, yeah. Coal Miner's daughter and lots of other directors. Oh, yeah. What about Gregory Peck, another person in the book that you talk about, that you admired and got to work with? Oh, yeah. What about Gregory Peck, another person in the book that you talk about, that you admired and got to work with? Oh, yeah. It was such a wonderful experience.

He played Abraham Lincoln in a miniseries called Blue and the Gray. And his version of the Gettysburg Address is, to this day, I think the best rendering of it that I've ever heard. He, when he got to that famous last line about government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish. He said, because

most actors would say government of the people, by the people, for the people, instead of of the people, for the people, by the people. He emphasized the people, for the people, instead of of the people, for the people, by the people. He emphasized the people, which was something that I never heard any actor ever do when they were reciting that speech. And it always stuck with me.

He was a gracious man, tremendously. He also, I'm very proud of the fact that we both went to the University of California, Berkeley. You work with so many icons. Peck and Henry Fonda and Orson Welles and Rod Steiger and John Huston. Those seem like the kind of actors where you got to go, oh, wait a minute, is this person real? No, I know. I'm blessed. I really am.

What's your in, Stacey, or for lack of a better term? When you're playing a real person, you've played Richard Nixon, you've played P.T. Barnum, you've played Doc Holliday, Hemingway, famously. You're nominated for an Emmy for that. I'm still working on Hemingway as a live stage performer. Oh, you're going to do it again? Yes.

Once we get back into a theater, I mean, good Lord, who knows how long that's going to be. One of these days soon. But anyway, I love doing research. To me, research is one of the great joys of being an actor, to learn not only about the man or the person that you're portraying, but also the period, the culture, what was going on in the world at the time that that person was, you know, alive.

And I love research. It stimulates me. I've always been a history buff to a certain extent. So, yeah, to to me that's the key and members of Hemingway's family thought you captured him well that was very gracious of them to say that yes I was and I'm still working on him I mean it's still he's an he's an extraordinary extraordinary character and and when you first uh started getting a name for yourself, I heard it's like you didn't want to do parts that would be big. You know, this is going to make you a big star.

You wanted to show versatility. Well, I think that, yes, that's true. I think it was one of the reasons why I was, I think, I think it was one of the reasons why I was, I think, a little gun-shy of success, of fame. It was not something that I didn't feel was equivalent to my desire to be a great actor. I mean, because a lot of my upbringing was in terms of classical theater, Shakespeare. For me, the measurement of greatness was being able to play the great Shakespearean roles. And I think that it came as a result of my idolizing Laurence Olivier, who for me was the greatest actor of his time.

And I thought, because he was also a great movie actor, but a great classical actor. And to me, measuring success was not in terms of how famous you were, but it was more in how well you played the role. That's still my crush, still to this day. You talk in the book about credits of actors like Murray Hamilton and Charles Durning, people who were durable actors who did so many things. You're talking about how a star like Dustin Hoffman or Paul Newman can afford to be choosy and choose parts,

and as a result, they seem to work less and do fewer things. But a guy like Durning and a guy like Murray Hamilton, hundreds of credits. Yes. And you kind of put yourself in that company in the book. I do. In the book. Yeah, yes. Well, and I'm hoping that it will continue down that road.

Well, who's better than Charles Durning? I mean, you know. Oh, he's great. And more versatile. He was wonderful. I did two plays with Charlie. He was in Indians. He played Ned Buntline in a stage production of Indians on Broadway.

And then later, he was the gravedigger in my Hamlet that Colleen Dewhurst gave me a whack on. Yeah, people should read about it in your book. And Murray Hamilton was in one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes with Ed Wynn, where Murray Hamilton plays Death. Murray Hamilton worked forever. Oh, and George, He was the mayor.

These are our favorite actors. A guy like John Carradine, Stacey. He's probably got 400 credits on IMDb. These guys worked constantly. Well, they were good. To be admired. Tell us about finally meeting Olivier.

I went to see him in Long Day's Journey Tonight. I was doing Luther. I went to see him in Long Day's Journey into Night. I was doing Luther. I was playing the lead in a film. Eli Landau put together a series of plays that were made into movies. And I went to see Olivier. And then I went, I made arrangements to go backstage to meet him. And he was was very gracious he invited me into his dressing room and he's we were talking about luther and then he said and his dresser came in he said oh john john i'd like you to meet stanley creech stanley i didn't i didn't know what to say i said well that's who i am i'm stanley cree. But as I was walking out the door, he came up and he sort of grabbed my arm

and he gave me a shake and said, good luck, Stacy. So I knew that he knew that he was pulling a fast one on me. I think he did that intentionally. I think he knew what my real name was. Olivier was messing with you. I think so, but I didn't know it at the time. Only afterwards did I realize it. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast, but first a word from our sponsor. See yourself buying a home one day? Do future you a favor? Open a Questrade first home savings account

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Find Secret at your nearest Walmart or Shoppers Drug Mart today. Speaking of Brits and actors, you say in the book, too, that you don't think Americans should attempt British accents. Oh, I don't agree with that no i didn't say did i say that it's in the book well i have to take it and take it out take it out take it up no i think you know what i think i meant to say was that many american actors who try to do british accents don't do them very well but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try to do them i just did a couple of Zooms.

I did a couple of English accents. It's a tricky accent. You can fall in and out of it. And there are a few actors. Kevin Kline does a wonderful British accent. John Lithgow does a great British accent. Did playing those Shakespearean characters,

did playing Richard III and Falstaff and Hamlet, did that bring you the most joy in your career? It brought me a lot of joy. I don't know about the most joy, but it certainly gave me great satisfaction and gratification. It's a wonderful feeling. It's a little bit like climbing Mount Everest, which I've never done. But I mean, I feel that when you play those great Shakespearean parts and succeed, it's a milestone. I never felt that I succeeded three times I played Hamlet.

Really? Well, Hamlet is one of those elusive roles. You don't really play Hamlet. Really? Well, Hamlet is one of those elusive roles. You don't really play Hamlet. Hamlet plays you. I love that. You never thought you captured it. I captured one scene I would get one night, and then I never felt like I got it done all the way through.

That's why I did it three times. I kept trying to get it all done perfect, just the way I wanted. It never happened. There's always something that slides away. That's interesting. I'm going to ask you a question, Stacy, that I've asked a lot of actors who've been on the show.

Do you think a comedian like Gilbert could pull off a dramatic role? Absolutely. A role like Willie Loman, say. Yeah, why not? A role you've played. Yeah. He's never attempted it.

Well, maybe it's time for him to try to do a dramatic. Can you do Lee J. Cobb? You work with Lee J Cobb. I know. And he did, he did a great Willie Loman. Yeah. Wow. He did. Yeah. And, and Brian Dennehy did a great Willie Loman. Great. Great. I remember the usage. He was also a great Huey. That's who I was trying to say.

Huey, yeah. Out of this world. Just, we just lost him. I know. He was a good friend of mine. Gilbert, you got to attempt one of these things. Yeah, I know. I'll be one of those pathetic comics that tries to do that pretentious, dramatic part, and people are really embarrassed by it. We're going to give a shout-out to our mutual friend, Stacy Rupert Holmes, who you worked with.

Sent me a great picture of the two of you guys doing solitary confinement. Oh, one of my favorite plays. I just love doing that show. And I love Rupert. He's a wonderful man. What a wonderful guy with all kinds of talent. Another old friend. We'll give him love. Gilbert, you'd love this actor. A longtime friend of Stacey's is the celebrated Harris Ulan. Yes. Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah. He's one of my dear friends. In fact, I just wrote him a long email today. We are huge fans of the man. He's been in like thousands of pictures. Yeah, he's a great actor and a great guy. He's one of my dearest friends. We go back.

Wow. We've done, well wow we've done well we did doc we did end of the road we did a movie called watched yeah and we did a what it was and we did a play we did we did arthur miller's last play called finishing the picture in the goodman theater in chicago he's always good he's one of those solid actors that you plug him in and bam, and you don't have to worry about him. And this is something having nothing to do with anything. But when you said Lee J. Cobb, all I could think is that part in 12 Angry Men. I was like, damn, kids.

They wreck your life. Very good. There you go, Gil. You got a big rise out of Stacey there. There you go. How about all those actors in that movie? You look at that now with Jack Warden and Fonda and Klugman. Jack Klugman.

Yeah, yeah. Ed Begley. George Voskovic. George Voskovic. Yeah, yeah. Ed Begley. George Voskovic. George Voskovic. Stacey, you've worked with everybody. Tell us something about Roger Moore. Oh, God, I love Roger. My favorite memory of Roger is playing backgammon between takes on this crazy movie we did,

which started off as the Sicilian Cross. And then it went on to, it was called Street People, I think. Street People, yeah. It finally became Street People. He was such a wonderful guy. So charming. And I thought, you know, he took a lot of heat, I think. I thought he was a terrific James Bond. I really did. Oh, he was great. I thought he you know, he took a lot of heat, I think. I thought he was a terrific James Bond.

I really did. Oh, he was great. I thought he was great. Yeah. And I loved him. Well, he started off, you know, that character that he played on television. Simon Templer. Simon Templer.

Yes, the saint. And he did that TV show with Tony Curtis. The Persuaders. Yes. That British show. Right. Yeah,uaders. Yes. That British show. He's underrated. Tell us the cast you worked with in that championship season.

Robert Mitchum was the coach. Bruce Dern, Marty Sheen, and Paul Servino. Yeah. How'd you like Mitchum? Oh, he was great. What a giant, towering man. He had, at that point in his life, he was having a little trouble with lines. And he had these long speeches as the coach. And he brought it off. But he was he was anxious about not being able to memorize big chunks of dialogue. And I remember that he was concerned about that.

But he got through it. He didn't. I'm thinking, looking at my card, Stacey, and I'm going, who didn't you work with? I mean, you really covered it. I mean, also, I think about that all-star cast of Hamlet in the 70s with Durning and Colleen Dewhurst and James Earl Jones,

the one where Joe Papp said he'd put an all-star cast together for you. Right, he did indeed. Yeah, and the late Raul Julia. And Bruce Stern we've had on this show. Bruce Stern we love, and I just watched Nebraska. Yeah. Where you get to play another heavy. Yeah.

Yeah, and it was great fun working with Bruce again. When he was living in Malibu and I was living in Malibu, we used to hang out together. In fact, there was a big fire. I remember we got in a car together and we drove. We were saying how lucky we were that we weren't in the midst of when we saw all these houses that were burned. We spent a lot of time together when he was living in Malibu. Good actor. another one of those guys incapable of giving a bad performance i agree are you still teaching stacy from time to time uh right now no yeah but right now what i'm learning that i'm zoom zoom acting is a whole enterprise unto itself and there's a technique involved

that I'm thinking maybe if we continue to have to do things via Zoom, I may start a Zoom acting class. There you go. You know? Because there is a technique involved in terms of looking in the camera

and scrolling at the same time, scrolling a script while you're acting and not getting what I call wandering eyes. You know, when your eyes start to, you can see that a person's reading rather than performing. And there's a trick. First, but it's like the theater.

You've got to memorize as much as you possibly can. You've got to be so familiar with the text that it becomes organic. it's part of you and what if if i had to ask you for a really short acting lesson what would you say is the most important thing for an actor to to keep in his mind? Variety. I think the most important thing, if you have a line, say, I love you. That's your line. Just say that as many different ways as you possibly can before you actually have to perform it in front of a camera or on the stage. Repetition is the key to success and the ability to repeat something over and over and over again and not get bored with it is, I think, a measure of talent.

People say, what is talent? I think it's the ability to withstand repetition. Wow. Could you teach Gilbert Stacy to play a character, a Shakespearean character, like maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe puck,

you know, or, or, you know, a whimsical character, something he could pull off. Gilbert, you didn't,

you did play a Yago. Oh, that's right. See, I was a bird. He played a parrot named Yago in, in, in the Aladdin movie,

Stacy, but could, could he, could he play a Shakespearean part or am I just having a fever dream? No, absolutely. No, you definitely could, Gilbert. And I think Midsummer Night's Dream, or actually, well, Midsummer Night's Dream, perhaps.

I don't know, though. Puck, I'm not sure. Mickey Roney played Puck, right? That's right. In the movie. That's right. Yeah. No, I'm not sure. Mickey Roney played Puck, right? That's right. In the movie. That's right. Yeah. I think Bottom. Oh, Bottom, Gilbert.

Oh, okay. Good partial. There you go. I saw Bert Lardew, Bottom. He was great. I've actually played Bottom. I played Bottom myself. I did an audio version. But Bottom is a great part. And all those guys, Bottom's an audio version, but bottom is a great part. And all, and all those guys, his bottoms gang,

he could definitely, you know, Gilbert, I want to see you on one of these zoom productions. I know it's, it's, it's going to be sad when I do it. They're going to go,

Oh God, he's doing his, his, you know, important work here. How do you like playing Howard K. Duff on The Simpsons, Stacy? How do you like working with those crazy guys? Oh, those are great. It's so much fun.

Fun, fun, fun. And they're still going. Can you believe it? 20, what is it now, 30, 31 years or some crazy thing? It's just unbelievable. Yeah. Unbelievable. We got to get some of those Simpsons guys on here, Gilbert,

so you can give them shit about not having cashed you. Yes. Never once. Stacey, I want to plug the book, All in All, which is still available on Amazon. Thank you. And there's some wonderful, I learned things about you. I did not know,

I learned a lot. I did not know you were present at the trial of the Chicago seven. I was indeed with my ex Judy Collins. When you were dating Judy Collins, which kind of blew my mind. Yeah. And you had dealings with Nancy Reagan. I did. I did indeed. After my drug bust in London, I came back to America and was invited to go to Charles Rangel, invited me to the Senate to testify because he was trying to, he was looking to get a bill passed that emphasized prevention rather than in terms of drugs. And he wanted me to be, you know, present and explain what happened to me. And right after that experience, I'm in the dining room.

I got a call on the pay phone from Nancy Reagan asking me if I would like to be involved in her Just Say No program. And she really was responsible for, in many ways, she and Frank Sinatra for saving my career at that particular moment in time. Because I got involved with Nancy Reagan, and it was a big banquet for her in Southern California at the Universal Hotel, and Frank Sinatra was the emcee. And I had written a note in a program, a full page saying, thank you for all your support to Mrs. Reagan. And Frank brought it up. I thought, he said, I want to say something about this guy, Keech. And I started to slide under the table. I thought, oh, no. And he said, he did a stupid thing, but I have a lot of respect for him,

and I'm glad that he's doing it. I mean, everybody in town was there. So I hold him responsible for the restitution of my career at that point in life. You got a shout-out from Frank Sinatra. I did. You write very candidly in the book, to your credit, about your battles with drugs and your, and your arrest and how eyeopening that experience was. And, uh, it's also, it's also, uh, I think a great book for anybody who wants to act

because it's your, it's your journey. You know, it is the journey of a man who is, as I was saying to your daughter, when I was speaking on the phone to her today, a man who is truly in love with acting. Yes. And feels like he was born to do it. Yes. And here you are finding a way to do it in a pandemic. Trying to find, yes indeed I am. And hopefully that will be a limited way and we'll get back into the live theater and the live movie theaters too. I hope so. And we'll plug back into the live theater and the live movie theaters, too. I hope so. And we'll plug your work with the L.A. Theater Works. And what are you calling the Zoom Theater?

Is it an organized? Stacy Cage Zoom Theater. Stacy Cage Zoom Theater. ZKZ, yeah. Not Stanley Creech? Not Stanley Creech, not yet. Gil, let's let this, it's late out there. We should tell our listeners that we're talking to Stacy,

and Stacy, where are you? I'm in Warsaw, Poland, or right outside Warsaw, Poland. He's in Warsaw, Poland. A little town called Magdalena. And what time is it there right now? Right now it's 11.35 at night. The man kindly has stayed up till 11.30 at night to do this podcast because he's in Warsaw. So we want to thank you. We want to thank your daughter,

Carolina, who was very helpful. We want to thank our pal, AJ, of course, who set this up, who said to me, hey, how about Stacey Keech? And I said, call him now. And here you are. And I want to plug Survival Skills. Yes, Survival Skills, the new movie. Where can people find it? Survival Skills, I think it has its own website. It has its own website. Yes.

I think so. An original black comedy. By a wonderful young director, yes. And I started this interview calling you Casey. That's all right. And the funny thing about that is before we got on the air, Frank said to me, okay, remember, it's Titus. Because he knew I was going to say Titus.

Christopher would be very upset with us. Oh, very. Yeah. It's also nice that you gave the eulogy at Kent Titus' service. That's also a – boy, what a part. You got to say anything you wanted to say in that part. Isn't that a great part? I love that part.

How cathartic that must have been. Oh, it was great. To play that part. How cathartic that must have been. Oh, it was great. To play that character. And again, I think the 20th anniversary is available online. Okay, 20th anniversary of Titus. A very good show. We want to thank you, Stacy, for this. Thank you, guys. We want to thank you for staying up until 1130 at night.

My pleasure. I've enjoyed this. I've enjoyed it. You've had a wonderful career. Thank you for entertaining us for decades. Thank you so much. And this has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopadre. And we've been talking to the great actor, Stacy Keach.

What a treat for us, Stacy. Thank you for giving us this time and our listeners. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much us this time and our listeners. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo © transcript Emily Beynon