Quotes About Jack Lemmon

#1. My four friends were John Kerr, who became a star, Paul Newman, Jimmy Dean, and Jack Lemmon.

Dick Van Patten

#2. Lauren Bacall, James Garner, and Jack Lemmon - they're all gone now, but I was so impressed by them.

John Heard

#3. I've always admired Gene Hackman, Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck. I'm showing my age here.

Tim DeKay

#4. But the people I admire have always been people like Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and Jack Lemmon.

Evan Jones

#5. Jack Lemmon is my best friend and he's a very wonderful actor. A very talented, very funny man. A lovely man. We're like brothers! We are gifts to each other. He's such a fun personality. There will only ever be one Jack Lemmon.

Tony Curtis

#6. I'm a huge fan of Jack Lemmon, he was someone who managed to tread that line between comedy and tragedy and sometimes give very big performances, but they were never over-demonstrative and they were never not based on a kind of real truthful human being.

Steve Coogan

#7. Happiness is working with Jack Lemmon.

Billy Wilder

#8. I remember that Jack Lemmon, who is one of my favorite actors of all time, says that the day he stops being nervous is the day he should leave the business.

Kim Basinger

#9. Unless you're Jack Lemmon or Cary Grant, there are few guys who can do comedy and drama.

Steve Guttenberg

#10. Just watching Jack Lemmon made me want to get into this business.

Hank Azaria

#11. I'm a huge fan of 'The Odd Couple,' yes, and any comparisons to Tony Randall and or Jack Lemmon are completely welcome. I kind of try to channel those guys, and then add my own neuroses, too.

David Alan Basche

#12. I was doing a play out in L.A. 20-some-odd years ago called 'Goose and Tomtom' by David Rabe, and somebody saw it and the next thing I know I'm doing the table read of the film version of 'Glengarry Glen Ross' with Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon - one of the great films of our generation.

Richard Schiff

#13. I was born in an elevator, and - as my mother said - naturally it was going down. She said, "All I remember is telling your father, 'That's it! Never again!'" That's why I'm an only child.

Jack Lemmon

#14. If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. You must reach the emotional and intellectual level of ability where you can go out stark naked, emotionally, in front of an audience.

Jack Lemmon

#15. Nobody deserves this much money - certainly not an actor.

Jack Lemmon

#16. If you think it's hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.

Jack Lemmon

#17. How do you know that God didn't speak to Charles Darwin?

Jack Lemmon

#18. When I'm reading material, if I'm a little bit afraid of a part and I'm willing to admit that to myself, then I'll do it, definitely. If I'm worried about being able to do it, to get it - I absolutely just love it.

Jack Lemmon

#19. It can be a simple sentence that makes one single point and you build for that. You zero in on one moment that gets that character, you go for it, that's it, man, and if you fail the whole thing is down the drain, but if you make it you hit the moon.

Jack Lemmon

#20. People are probably correct when they see me as the so-called Everyman. I'm attracted primarily to contemporary characters. I understand them and their frustrations.

Jack Lemmon

#21. Stay humble. Always answer your phone - no matter who else is in the car.

Jack Lemmon

#22. How she moves. That's just like Jell-O on springs. She must have some sort of built-in motors. I tell you, it's a whole different sex! Joe: What are you afraid of? Nobody's asking you to have a baby.

Jack Lemmon

#23. Jerry: Oh, you don't understand, Osgood! Ehhhh ... I'm a man.
Osgood: Well, nobody's perfect.

Billy Wilder

#24. It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is.

Jack Lemmon

#25. I had no desire to be in the movies. All my training had been in the theater, thank God.

Jack Lemmon

#26. I was lying ten and had a thirty-five foot putt. I whispered over my shoulder: "How does this one break?" And my caddie said, "Who cares?"

Jack Lemmon

#27. I'd rather make the cut in the Crosby than win another Oscar.

Jack Lemmon

#28. I have never lost a total passion for my work.

Jack Lemmon

#29. Dying is not a sin. Not living is.

Jack Lemmon

#30. I think whatever you do, if you are going to do well or even if you don't do it well, you have to have a passion for it, and I am passionate about it. I love it. I respect it and it gets me. I get off on acting.

Jack Lemmon

#31. I would rather play Hamlet with no rehearsal than TV golf.

Jack Lemmon

#32. I won't quit until I get run over by a truck, a producer or a critic.

Jack Lemmon

#33. Success is always somebody else's opinion of you; but it doesn't amount to a damn compared to your own opinion of yourself.

Jack Lemmon

#34. Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.

Jack Lemmon

#35. My career has been full of remarkable coincidences that have nothing to do with me.

Jack Lemmon

#36. Everything that is truly worthwhile - I think passion is involved in your approach to it. No matter what it is.

Jack Lemmon

#37. If you've been fortunate enough to live out your dream in the profession of your choice, then you have an obligation to send the elevator back down.

Jack Lemmon

#38. I have lost someone I loved as a brother, as a closest friend, and a remarkable human being. We have also lost one of the best damn actors we'll ever see.

Jack Lemmon

#39. Anything truly worthwhile does not come easy. If it did, it would not be all that worthwhile.

Jack Lemmon

#40. No matter how successful you get, always send the elevator back down.

Jack Lemmon