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CNN Larry King Live
Remembering Anthony Quinn
Aired June 04, 2001 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAT SAJAK, GUEST HOST: Tonight, we pay tribute to man who had a lust for life on screen and off: two-time Oscar winner Anthony Quinn, who died yesterday at age 86. We will talk with six of his children, and find out what it was like to call this legendary star "father."
We'll also hear from three actors who worked with Anthony Quinn. Jacqueline Bisset, his co-star in "The Greek Tycoon"; also the one and only Mickey Rooney, who shared screen with Quinn in "Requiem for a Heavyweight"; and Anthony Franciosa, Quinn's co-star in "across 110th Street" and "Wild Is the Wind." It's all next on LARRY KING LIVE.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Pat Sajak for Larry King. Larry wanted very much to be here for this tribute to Anthony Quinn, but he is hosting a gala for a cause that is very important to him, the Larry King Cardiac Foundation. To put it simply, his absence is a matter of heart.
Anthony Quinn, actor and artist, died yesterday morning of respiratory failure in a Boston hospital. He was 86. Quinn was a guest on this program a number of times, and we'll share highlights of conversations with Larry throughout this next hour.
To begin, Anthony Quinn's personal legacy. We're joined by six of his children. In Providence, Lorenzo Quinn, he was with his father when he died.
In New York, Valentina Quinn, she at her father's bedside in the final moments as well.
In Los Angeles, Francesco Quinn, Lorenzo's brother.
In Seattle, Catalina Quinn Colwell, who is Valentina's sister.
And in Washington with me, Sean Quinn. Unlike most of his siblings, he is in the technology business, rather than acting.
And back in Los Angeles, Alex Quinn, Sean's brother. Thank you all for being here.
First of all, condolences to all of you. There is much to be sad about, and much to mourn, but there is much to celebrate in this remarkable life. And I wonder, Valentina, you were there, if you can talk a little bit about the last hours of your father's life. VALENTINA QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S DAUGHTER: I count myself very lucky to have been there, Pat. I was there approximately two weeks ago before he went into what I call a sleep, slumber, and was able to talk with him and hug him and kiss him and joke with him. And I was very lucky. And when I left Boston to come back to New York, he soon thereafter went into his sleep.
And two weeks -- well, Saturday, this past Saturday, my husband and I, Robert, went up there to spend time with him, and we knew that he was -- getting worse and worse slowly. But we wanted to be there. And Saturday night came, and we left his bedside, and went back to the hotel and got a call from Kathy saying it is getting worse....
SAJAK: Kathy is his wife.
V. QUINN: His wife. Mrs. Quinn. He is getting worse, but it is OK, hang in there and come tomorrow morning, so we got up in the morning, and we shot over there. And I will always carry the fact with me that as we were running through the hospital lobby -- so close to me.
Kathy called and said, come quick. And, we ran up, and he was just passed, just passed. And I held him and I talked to him, and it was wonderful, and I can't say much more, except to say, that I felt I saw him go to another life, and I was there to be with him. And, needless to say, I spent time with him.
SAJAK: And Lorenzo was there as well.
V. QUINN: Lorenzo was there. Yes. As was my husband.
SAJAK: Lorenzo, talk about those final hours a little bit if you would.
LORENZO QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S SON: Well, it is very difficult. I guess God just wanted me to be there with him in the last moment. And, very, very difficult losing such an important father, and a great legend. The last moments with him were very important for me, very special. I was holding his hand as he left us. His big, big, big heart beating, pounding, and then he gave in. Gave in.
SAJAK: Sean, you saw your father a week or so ago, and you were saying that at that time there was still some hope that he might recover from this. At what point did you know, there probably wasn't that hope?
SEAN QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S SON: I would say on Friday. On Friday, I called Kathy, and Kathy said that the doctors were deliberating as to what to do. They didn't know what to do next. And I just -- I had that feeling, that feeling that you get.
SAJAK: I want to talk about the children of such a larger than life figure, and that is a phrase that I see in every biography that I have read is larger than life, and he was that.
Catalina, what is it like growing up with that over you? That can be a very positive thing. It can be a difficult thing sometimes.
CATALINA QUINN COLWELL, ANTHONY QUINN'S DAUGHTER: You know, maybe I lucked out. Because my memories of him are when he was a very young father, nobody knew who he was. And we had just a pop, and he was hustling for movies, and theater, and, we had a real rooted family life with his sister and his mother in L.A. We were very much family.
The early movies pop would make where he was cowboys and Indians, he was the Indian, he was always killed off. We cried most of our childhood, you know. Pop was dying. We'd say, is he dead, Mom? And she would say, no, it's just a movie. So you know, those early years were -- he wasn't anybody particularly complicated, or that busy, or elsewhere. He was pop.
And his little (UNINTELLIGIBLE) mother, Manuela Juahaca (ph) Quinn, she was very much part of our lives. His sister Estela, we were a unit, and we did a lot of things together. And so, that overwhelming thing of these big footsteps to follow were really not there.
SAJAK: That hadn't come yet.
QUINN COLWELL: It really hadn't come yet, not early.
SAJAK: Alex, you brought some interesting video I'm told, and we are going to go to commercial with it, but tell us what we are going to see.
ALEX QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S SON: Well, this was planned for my father's birthday two years ago. Kathy has a lot of home videos and tapes, and I was studying at film school in Boston at Emerson College, and, I was always playing around with the machines.
And anyways, I got this footage, and decided to make my father a wonderful birthday present that we could have in the family for many, many years to come, and what I did was I took, you know, a lot of footage, and put it into two minutes, set to Louis Armstrong's, "Wonderful World" for my father.
SAJAK: Sounds good. Let's take a look. We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, ALEX'S DOCUMENTARY FOR FATHER)
LOUIS ARMSTRONG, MUSICIAN (singing): I see skies of blue, and clouds of white, the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAJAK: Pat Sajak, back for Larry King tonight, celebrating the life of Anthony Quinn who died yesterday in Boston. We have six of the Quinn children here, including Francesco Quinn out in Los Angeles, an actor. What -- talk about carrying the name "Quinn "with you when you walk in and read for parts and talk to people about various roles. What are both sides of the coin?
FRANCESCO QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S SON: Maybe you can tell, maybe you can't, but I think I look a little like him, and a lot of times starting out, I remember going into auditions, and they expect certain things, you know, they expect me to be taller, because my father was 6'2''.
SAJAK: You can only be as tall as you are.
F. QUINN: And I remember this one director saying to me: "You know, during this scene when you -- when you stand up, stand up and turn to me like your father did in that movie 'Lust for Life.'" I said: "He got an Academy Award for that film. This is my second audition. You might want to cut me some slack."
And he didn't get it, obviously. It was a little abrupt, I guess. But, in a way, sometimes it was easier to get in the door. Once you are in the door, they want more from you. They want to see my father.
Now I know what they mean, but -- it's funny you are showing this image. But, you know, and as time goes by, I look more and more like him, and I can identify with that, you know. And, you know, the name will hopefully carry on through my work and through what I do, and his work will live on forever, you know.
He is one of the greatest that ever was. And he is -- I just give him the Alma award last year, and -- lifetime achievement, and I said to him: "You are my favorite actor," you know. When I said that, I really meant it, you know.
SAJAK: You know, as we go from city to city, and look at all of you and talk with all of you, what's interesting -- because your father had so many children over such an extended period of time, including two very young ones now -- and we will talk about them in a little while -- you all -- you are sort of divided into groups in terms of life experiences, wouldn't you say, Sean?
I mean, you experience him at different times of his life, and different stages of his career, and that made -- aside from the fact of different mothers -- that made for a difference as well. You all -- you must have interesting reunions when you get together?
S. QUINN: Yeah, and it's hard to get everybody there at once. Well, I think everybody -- everybody had completed different experiences. He had so many phases. He also had so many different lives. I remember once, he said that he likes to shed his skin every 10 years. So, you know, he has changed from the time that I was young, until recently.
SAJAK: As we mentioned, your father was on the show many times, and we are going take another break in a moment, but first we are going to look at Anthony Quinn talking with Larry King about "Zorba."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE," OCTOBER 5, 1995)
LARRY KING, HOST: Where did you find that dance?
ANTHONY QUINN: That was a marvelous story. That was a marvelous story. I was supposed to do a conventional Greek dance. But three or four days before, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), this thing that we had built to send down the logs, broke. I mean, that came down at 1,000 miles an hour, and it hit the platform, and I went over 20 feet, and I dropped on some rocks, and I broke my foot. So I said to Mr. Cacoyannis...
KING: The director.
ANTHONY QUINN: The director. I said: "I can't do the hopping." He says: "What are we going to do?" I said: "Listen, you start music, and I will do something."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ZORBA THE GREEK")
ANTHONY QUINN: Let's go!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "VIVA ZAPATA")
ANTHONY QUINN: I know what's the matter with you.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: What?
ANTHONY QUINN: You my friend. You have heavy blood. You are unhappy because the fighting is over.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Have victories, always celebrating nothing really won.
ANTHONY QUINN: I love you. I don't like you. I never liked you, my darling friend.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It would be a lot more bloodshed.
ANTHONY QUINN: All right! There will be! But not tonight. Here, enjoy yourself, be human.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAJAK: "Zapata," first of the two Academy Awards for Anthony Quinn, back in 1952, as I recall. We are here with six of Anthony Quinn's children. We appreciate their being here at this difficult time for them. Later in the show, we are going to talk with three actors who have worked with Anthony Quinn, they are Anthony Franciosa and Jacqueline Bisset and Mickey Rooney, we will talk with them later.
Valentina, let me ask you -- and anyone else can jump on this -- but I mentioned the two young siblings you now have, I guess they are what, 4 and 6 years old? Was -- how big a surprise was this to the other brothers and sisters when this happened? V. QUINN: I can't speak -- speak for them. You know, my father, nothing really surprised me when it comes to my father. So, I can't really say. I think they will agree with me.
(CROSSTALK)
V. QUINN: What?
L. QUINN: I have a nice story about that.
V. QUINN: Oh, great. A story.
SAJAK: Go ahead.
V. QUINN: Lorenzo says he has a story.
L. QUINN: Yeah. I -- well, I called pop one morning, and said: "Pop, I have some good news, I'm expecting my second child." And he says, "You, too?" Of course, he was 81 years old.
SAJAK: Yeah, yeah.
QUINN COLWELL: Lorenzo, I have a story, too.
SAJAK: Go ahead.
QUINN COLWELL: ... that I called pop. And I said: "Pop, I'm about to be a grandmother. And he says: "Oh, my God, I'm going to be a great grandfather," and that was all in the same month, those three babies.
SAJAK: So, he became a great grandfather, a grandfather and a father in the same month?
QUINN COLWELL: Yes.
SAJAK: This must be -- this has to be some sort of record, I'm sure.
Did he discourage or encourage any of you in terms of the arts, because you are all -- most of you are involved in either as actors or as artists. Or is that just something that happens when you live in that environment?
QUINN COLWELL: I think he encouraged creativity in all of us. Absolutely. Yeah.
SAJAK: And what about on the performing level, on the acting level, Francesco? Was he...
F. QUINN: No, he doesn't encourage you to become an actor, he just encouraged you to be creative, you know. He encouraged you to be your own person, be who you want to be. You know, if you want to be -- I wanted to be a bicycle designer or whatever I wanted to be, he said just be what you want to be. And it so happens that I turned into an actor. And it -- he said: It's a tough life. Are you sure you want to go that way? And now I know what he means, but...
V. QUINN: Yeah, and I think -- yeah...
F. QUINN: But I might say he was encouraging.
Go ahead, Valentina.
V. QUINN: He was encouraging, but he also, I think -- I can only speak for myself -- but he was so creative. And everything he touched and everything he did, he wanted the best out of himself. And I think as a child of his -- again, speaking for myself -- the image he had, that we had of him was a man who never stopped, continued, continued to create, no matter what.
And we kind of -- I think he expected that out of us. So sometimes it was hard to live up to that, to his expectations, and you wanted to be the best you could be in his eyes. But it was hard sometimes.
(CROSSTALK)
SAJAK: Let me ask Sean here -- I'm sorry -- but in Washington here with us.
V. QUINN: No, that's all.
SAJAK: I'm curious as to -- now, you are -- you're not involved in acting, and I know you've got some artistic interests. But you are primarily in the technology field.
S. QUINN: That's right.
SAJAK: Was that a decision made because that's field you're interested, or because you consciously wanted to go in another direction?
S. QUINN: I think it was a little bit of both. Having a legend as a father is not easy. And I chose not to compete with that.
I have to honestly say that I didn't have much of an interest in the acting field. You know, being in high school I don't remember ever once saying, gosh, I was in that play, or, oh, I envy those guys on stage -- never really had that propensity. But I did have some for business and I decided to pursue that, although I studied arts in college.
SAJAK: Now we talked about his creativity, and all of it, whether his creative end, his artistic end, his -- the educational part of his life, it really all was self-made self and self-done. I mean, he really made himself learn all these things, did he not?
V. QUINN: Absolutely.
SAJAK: I'm told he made a vow: He would read a book a week or whatever it was as he was growing up.
V. QUINN: More like three books a week.
L. QUINN: Or maybe like 10 books a week.
SAJAK: Did that continue late into his life? Was he a voracious reader?
L. QUINN: To the last day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
V. QUINN: He never stopped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He read all the time, absolutely.
SAJAK: We have -- we're going to take another break and take a look at an another clip. This is from "Barabbas," I think. I'm looking at you, Sean, like you have all the answers. I don't need to do that to you. And then we'll be back with more with all of the Quinns. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BARABBAS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Sit down on your throne. Kneel down all you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) scum of the Earth and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Kneel down, scum of the Earth.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I'll make laws for you that will tax your constitution.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I crown you prince...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, APRIL 15, 2000)
KING: Let's look at a self-portrait of Anthony Quinn. Now, how do you paint -- that's brilliant, by the way. Brilliant. How do you paint yourself?
ANTHONY QUINN: Well, you use a lot of mirrors for one thing.
KING: Right, you have to have a model.
ANTHONY QUINN: Well, yeah, and then you -- you start painting. You get mad at yourself, you know, so you've got a big line here, you put it on, and you've got high cheekbones. And it's -- it's -- and you paint colors over colors. And the interesting thing is that because it's a -- once a painter -- there's two people that paint a painting: the guy with the brush and the guy with the hammer tells him when to stop.
KING: Do you get as much enjoyment out of painting as you do acting? ANTHONY QUINN: No, I think more. I think more, Larry, because, I hope -- I mean, I don't know how long I'm going to live as an actor. But I -- you know, I was in Libya once, and I went out in the desert, and I saw these miles and miles and miles of sculptures in bronze and stone scattered around the desert. The Phoenicians had been there, the Greeks had been there, the Romans had been there, and left them there in the sand. And those were absolutely gorgeous.
KING: Been there forever.
ANTHONY QUINN: Forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAJAK: Anthony Quinn with Larry King just a little over a year ago, around the time of his 85th birthday. Of course, Anthony Quinn died yesterday at age 86. And we're -- we're very happy to have six of the Quinn children with us and we appreciate their being here tonight at what I know is a difficult time.
Those of us who did not know your father but admired his work, and knew him only through his roles and his interviews, such as the ones we've been seeing with Larry, have a certain image of him. There's this phrase again, bigger than life, and we have this kind of "Zorba" notion of who he was.
What are some things that would surprise us about Anthony Quinn, the person, the father, the guy? Any of you?
F. QUINN: Pat, actually I wanted to say something. I wrote a little something just to tell people what -- what it was like to be around my father. You know, just -- my father was what they call a renaissance man, you know, he did everything. My father never stopped.
And when people ask me why he never stopped or why -- what was in him that -- I always say: "Look into my father's eyes and you see a battle against mediocrity. There are two kinds of people on this Earth: Those who are content and those who are not. Those who are feel they have seen enough, done enough, loved, traveled, created enough to sleep the night in peace. Those who are not content are not necessarily miserable. On the contrary, they feel there is more to do: to see, to love, to be loved, a larger indelible imprint, to leave behind, and certainly a lot more to create -- thus can never sleep willingly. This permanent indelible imprint my father leaves on this Earth and will only be to his own measure, immeasurable by the average person. He will always give you more. That is his destiny. Those are his sleepless nights. He will give you quality over quantity, abundance over emptiness. 1,000 years from now my father will be remembered in the annals of history as one of the greats of our time. It won't be enough for him, but one step closer to his measure of content, perhaps a decent night's sleep."
SAJAK: Thanks for doing that.
Catalina, in addition to -- in addition to all his artistic talents, he was socially a very active -- an active man. Did he ever consider politics seriously?
QUINN COLWELL: Oh, my gosh. I -- not as far as I know, not as far as I know. No. He had some very good friends in politics. But I -- no, his creativity -- and I'm sure politics are terribly creative -- but actually, the arts, to express himself, in painting, in acting, were his great loves. That's how people could see him.
(CROSSTALK)
SAJAK: Go ahead.
L. QUINN: Pop could never -- pop could never be a politician. He was not a diplomat. He -- he told people what he thought. Well, he was -- he was very straightforward.
QUINN COLWELL: You're right. He sure was.
L. QUINN: He told people what he thought. You know, if he didn't like you, he told you, and that's why people love him and that's why people admire him, because they always knew where they stood with pop.
QUINN COLWELL: Yeah, that's true.
ALEX QUINN: But also physically speaking...
SAJAK: What's that?
ALEX QUINN: But also physically speaking, I mean, I spent -- I spent three months with my father last year in Nevada, in Las Vegas, and we would go hiking about three times a week throughout Death Valley, and take, I mean, long-winded walks where I would -- where I would have to have a sitdown. And my father, Kathy and the two kids, would climbing up these mountains, saying, come on, son, let's keep going, keep going. And it was just amazing. And bicycle rides -- how many bicycle rides Frankie and I would take with pop through Venice Beach for miles and miles -- and he would never stop: keep going, keep going.
I mean, he would -- he would tire us all out with his...
S. QUINN: How about those -- how about those legendary chess matches?
ALEX QUINN: Oh, my gosh.
S. QUINN: Where he would set us down. He had a chess table, and he'd basically have us wait in line. And...
SAJAK: Like the guy goes from table to table...
S. QUINN: You'd take a number.
(CROSSTALK)
S. QUINN: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And one of the times, all right, Alex, come here. And he was a fantastic chess player. I mean, talk about surprising.
SAJAK: Did he wipe you all out?
S. QUINN: Absolutely, absolutely.
SAJAK: Without exception?
S. QUINN: But God forbid you beat him. God forbid. You know? You know what I mean?
You know, very competitive, but in a joyful way. Stamina. I mean, stamina all day long playing chess.
SAJAK: Well, from that clip we saw just year ago...
ALEX QUINN: Can I just comment on that?
SAJAK: Sure, go ahead.
ALEX QUINN: Well, it was funny, because after -- we played a lot -- during that Las Vegas time my father and I spent a lot of great, wonderful, quality time. And we would play chess, and overlooking his hotel window was the Nevada mountains -- wonderful Red Rock Canyon and whatnot. And we'd be playing chess and Pop would beat me in about four moves. And all of a sudden, if you could just pan down to my fingers, Pop would go like this -- and act as if it was -- act as if, I mean -- it was breeze. It was so funny. I always remember that. Pop would play the piano, right when he got me in check mate.
S. QUINN: He liked to win. He liked to win.
SAJAK: You always knew when it was coming.
ALEX QUINN: It was funny.
SAJAK: We're going to ask the six of you to stand by and we'll get back to you folks later. But we're going to take a break, and when we come back, we have three actors who have spent some screen time and some off-screen time with Anthony Quinn, and we'll be talking with them. From Los Angeles, Jacqueline Bisset, Mickey Rooney and Anthony Franciosa. And as we go to break we'll see a scene from the movie that won Mr. Quinn his second Academy Award, and that would be "Lust for Life."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "A LUST FOR LIFE")
ANTHONY QUINN: The fact is, my dear friends, that you are not painters. You are a tattoo artist. You are a chemist. With little pots of paint, you cover canvasses with colored fleas. You are so busy imitating each others' tricks, you've forgotten what painting is about. You all make me sick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, LARRY KING, APRIL 18, 2000)
KING: Jim, what was it like to work with him?
JAMES COBURN, ACTOR: With this guy?
(LAUGHTER)
COBURN: It wasn't work, it was play. .
KING: But he does marinate, doesn't he?
COBURN: Oh, listen, no. I mean, he is the man for all reasons. I mean, he's got every reason to live, and he made every one of them really, very, very powerful. Coming out of -- it's such a kick just to see that he's still here kicking. And not only kicking...
ANTHONY QUINN: We played one of the greatest moments in that picture, "A High Wind in Jamaica," there was one moment that I adore in that picture, with him. We were being taken out, we were going to be hanged, and he says, "Why the hell are they doing this to us?"
(LAUGHTER)
QUINN: And I says, "Well, you and I, we must have done something wrong."
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAJAK: Anthony Quinn with James Coburn and Larry King a little over a year ago. Welcome back. Pat Sajak, sitting in for Larry King. We're remembering the extraordinary Anthony Quinn, who died yesterday at age 86. We've been talking with six of his sons and daughters, we'll have more from them shortly.
But now three actors who shared the screen with Anthony Quinn. Jacqueline Bisset, who was in "The Greek Tycoon," Mickey Rooney, who costarred in the classic, "Requiem for a Heavyweight," and Anthony Franciosa, who joined Quinn in "Wild is the Wind" and "Across 110th Street."
Let me start with Ms. Bisset, if I may. And you look fabulous, which is a little like saying Mount Rushmore looks big, because you always do, and it's wonderful to see you.
JACQUELINE BISSET, CO-STARRED WITH ANTHONY QUINN: Thank you.
SAJAK: Thank you for coming in. Much has been written and said about Anthony Quinn and his -- how shall I say this? -- effect on women. They -- he seemed to do well with them, if I could phrase it that way. When you worked with him, you were certainly aware of this. Did you know him, by the way, well before you worked with him?
BISSET: No, I didn't know him at all. I mean, I'd seen him in films, in fact, "La Strada" was one of my favorite films, and I thought his persona was just extraordinarily masculine.
SAJAK: So were you on your guard? Were you intimidated? What did you think about that as you were heading on into the role?
BISSET: No, well, actually, what I was more worried about was who we were playing. Because everybody was saying that we were not playing who we looked like we were playing.
SAJAK: Oh, that was that strange thing, you weren't allowed to actually say who you were -- Onassis, yeah.
BISSET: We weren't allowed. And he was always in a tennis outfit during the -- in the rehearsals, and, you know, totally relaxed and everything, and no one -- and then one day we started shooting and he turned up looking exactly like Onassis. And I said, well, if he's playing Onassis, then I'm playing you know who. And we couldn't fake around it anymore.
He was just -- I found him quite extraordinary. I found him extraordinary to work with. He was so strong. So -- gave you so much. You could throw yourself against him and just totally let loose.
SAJAK: And once the camera stopped rolling, what kind of a man was he to be around on the set?
BISSET: I thought he was a mixture of shy and playful. He was -- he needed women's attention, I think. He needed that attention from every single person on the set. He needed to know that we were at his feet on some level. And, but he also commanded respect as actor. There was -- there was playfulness all over him to me. That was just the way I felt. I mean, he thought I was frightfully ladylike, and he used to tease me for being ladylike, and not, you know -- I had a lot of admiration for him.
But...
(CROSSTALK)
BISSET: Sorry, go ahead.
SAJAK: No, no, go ahead. I wanted to ask Mickey Rooney, who -- "Requiem for a Heavyweight," the wonderful -- by the way, Mickey's touring with -- is it the one man one wife show, right?
MICKEY ROONEY, CO-STARRED WITH ANTHONY QUINN: That's correct, me and my wife of 30 years.
SAJAK: Good to see you. Talk about "Requiem for a Heavyweight." That was what, 1962, does that sound about right?
ROONEY: Yes, it was. We made it in New York, Pat, and it was a joy to work with Anthony Quinn. We became friends over the years.
SAJAK: And talk about, rather -- we've talked a lot about the wonderful actor, we all know that. But talk about the man, and what it was like to hang out and talk about this and that with this gentleman.
ROONEY: Well, I found him to be very playful. He was playful. He was like a young boy. And he was always boyish and always kidding around. And we had a wonderful time making the picture. Jackie Gleason. I think he should have gotten an Academy Award for that picture. There's many things that he did that he should have gotten Academy Awards for.
SAJAK: I think if you stop...
(CROSSTALK)
SAJAK: Go ahead.
ROONEY: "Shoes of the Fisherman" was just sensational.
SAJAK: I mean, if you stopped the average person on the street and asked about Academy Awards, my guess is they would say, oh, I'm sure he won one for "Zorba." He did he not, of course, and some of the films you mentioned were extraordinary.
Anthony Franciosa, you were a kid, a young buck when you ran across Anthony Quinn the first time, right?
ANTHONY FRANCIOSA, CO-STARRED WITH ANTHONY QUINN: Yes, I was.
SAJAK: And what was that like?
FRANCIOSA: Being young?
(LAUGHTER)
SAJAK: Being young and being in the presence of Anthony Quinn.
FRANCIOSA: Well, actually it was wonderful, because I played Tony's son. And one of the things about -- through the years that I've known Tony, he also considered me his son. Whenever we would talk on the phone he would always say, "Benny, my boy, how you are? How is my son? How are you feeling?"
And I would say, "Tony, I'm good. I'm good."
So finally he got me to say, "Pops, I feel pretty good," and he was very happy about that.
SAJAK: You did two films with him, right?
FRANCIOSA: Actually, I did, yes. Two films in which...
SAJAK: Now, what is a "Kiss My Grits"? Tell us what that is.
FRANCIOSA: Ah, "Kiss My Grits." That got a big laugh out of Tony, because originally it was not "Kiss My Grits." It was a film that he was not in, he produced. And it was called "A Texas Legend." And -- you know, nice title. But years later, I saw it the video -- a videotape of it, and I saw that it was called "Kiss My Grits." (LAUGHTER)
FRANCIOSA: Now, about two years ago I was riding in the car with Tony in New York, and I said, "Tony, I have to ask you a question, something that's been on my mind for a long time. Whose idea was it to change that film's name from "A Texas Legend" to "Kiss My Grits"?
He said, "What? What's "Kiss My Grits"?
I said, "A Texas Legend, remember Texas..."
He said, "Yeah."
I said, "It's now called "Kiss My Grits." Well, you know how Tony could laugh. He let out a guffaw and he turned to his wife and he said, "Do you believe what they did? They changed the name of that film." And he had no idea that they had done that. That's the story.
(LAUGHTER)
SAJAK: Another Hollywood story. There you go.
FRANCIOSA: A great Hollywood story.
SAJAK: We're going to take a quick break, and be back with more with Jacqueline Bisset and Mickey Rooney and Anthony Franciosa, talking about Anthony Quinn. And we'll be back with the Quinn children a little later in the show as well.
Right now, a scene from the aforementioned "Requiem for a Heavyweight."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT")
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to quit. You can't fight any more.
ANTHONY QUINN: Because I got knocked out? Don't everybody get knocked out and lose? Oh, that's crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, it's crazy. Maybe I think it's crazy, but that's what the doc says. Go fight the commission.
ANTHONY QUINN: So you say!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doc said if you take couple more bangs on the left eye, you will end up selling pencils. You have sclerotic damage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GREEK TYCOON")
ANTHONY QUINN: Please, listen to me, will you, Lizzy. Oh, such emotion. BISSET: Get out! I want my leg back.
ANTHONY QUINN: Will you be nice?
BISSET: Let go!
ANTHONY QUINN: Promise to be nice. You be nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAJAK: Anthony Quinn and Jacqueline Bisset playing two people we can't identify. That was the only film you did with Anthony Quinn, is it not, Jacqueline?
BISSET: Yeah. I must say, I would have loved to work with him again. Not many actors as strong as he was. There was something about being able to really -- you could take it, just go for it completely, without worrying about hurting his feelings, or anything. That's the way I felt, anyway, and it was a joy.
SAJAK: Did you stay in touch over the years?
BISSET: We talked a couple of times. He did a commentary for me on one of those programs I did, and we did sort of talk through friends. And occasionally, I ran into one or two of his sons who said hello, but I always felt he was -- probably the most male man I've ever worked with.
I don't mean that to be derogative to the other people -- for the good and for the bad -- I mean, there was both sides of it. He had some of the vanity for a man which was in a way charming and in a way vulnerable in a strange way.
SAJAK: You...
BISSET: Mickey, did you feel vulnerable? I did.
ROONEY: Just so boyish, you could do anything with him.
SAJAK: You folks have used interesting words I haven't heard used -- and of course his passing is very recent -- still recent and the biographies tend to rehash a lot of the cliches. But I have heard the word shy, I've heard the word boyish, I've heard the word playful, not words I would normally associate with that imagination that he had.
ROONEY: That's what he was, Pat.
SAJAK: Mickey, you have been around a long time and you have seen a lot of greats come and sadly go. What is it -- have you given any thought about what elevates someone from being just a movie star, just a famous person, just an actor, to the kind of bigger than life character that Anthony Quinn was?
ROONEY: I think you have to be a good human being, Pat, and that's the most important thing. And your family life should be terrific. Mine is. I have been married to my present wife for 30 years, Jan, and I love her. And she is watching the program. It's wonderful watching because we worked together. We have our show together. We do it all over the United States.
SAJAK: That's working -- you are one of those bigger than life guys, so, see? Your formula obviously works out. Let me ask Anthony Franciosa, as a movie fan, in addition to being a wonderful actor, what films have you admired most of Anthony Quinn's and what about them struck you?
FRANCIOSA: Well, one of the films that of course Quinn excelled in was a film he did with Fellini in Italy, "Las Strada" with Masina. He was extraordinary in that. He really understood. He was -- because I did a film with him in which he acted opposite (UNINTELLIGIBLE), called "Wild Is The Wind," and to see the two of them act together was really quite extraordinary.
Because the film of course didn't -- wasn't provocatively as heavy as Las Strada, but, to watch the acting between the two and to see the interplay between them, like two great -- I don't want to be ponderous about this, but to see two great artists, as they were, interacting with each other as two great jazz musicians do, because they improvised a great deal.
SAJAK: I'm sure you must haven taken a lot away from that.
FRANCIOSA: Yes, I did.
SAJAK: I want to thank all three of you for coming in. We're all sort of trying to get used to the idea that this man is not with us and I guess in truth, he is, and always will be.
Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Franciosa, Mickey Rooney. Thank you all very much.
ROONEY: Thank you.
SAJAK: We will take a break and come back with more with six of the Quinn children and going to break, a scene from "Viva Zapata."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "VIVA ZAPATA")
ANTHONY QUINN: Who do you think he is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stranger. Look at his clothes.
ANTHONY QUINN: Should I kill him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Shoot in front of him again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Careful, don't hit him.
ANTHONY QUINN: When I want to hit him, I hit him. When I want to miss him, I miss him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A man is known to die of a close miss. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zapata! Zapata!
ANTHONY QUINN: He is more stupid than I thought. He's still coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's crazy. You know it's not nice to kill crazy people?
ANTHONY QUINN: Should I try again? A little closer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you come closer? Maybe he has a message.
ANTHONY QUINN: Maybe it's a trap. Why don't we kill him? It's so much easier than so much worry. What does it cost? One little blow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAJAK: Pat Sajak in for Larry King tonight. And we are back with six of the 13 Anthony Quinn children. Of course, Anthony Quinn passed away yesterday at age 86.
And before we resume our conversation with the Quinn children, we wanted to show another segment from a Larry King interview that Anthony Quinn did a while back. In this, they start to talking -- what are they talking about in this one? "Lawrence of Arabia," as someone just said to me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE," OCTOBER 5, 1996)
KING: "Lawrence of Arabia." How did you get that incredible part?
ANTHONY QUINN: I went to be interviewed by David Lean on a terribly hot day in the summer in Jordan. And I arrived with a sweater and looking rather silly in this desert with a sweater, and so forth, and he said he wanted to see me, and I said: "My God, if I arrived in this sweater, and all -- like I am, I mean, he is going to say, what is this guy? I mean, is he going to play Auda abu Tayi? He can't."
So, I went to the makeup cabin and a friend of mine was the makeup man, and I said: "Make me look -- put a beard on me and give me" -- and then, my then-wife dressed me up in a burnoose and so forth. And sitting in front of this makeup place, with about 1,000 Arab people, sitting there, protected from the sun under some huge rocks. They were sitting, and then, when they finished makeup, I got out, and some men got up and he says: "Auda, Auda abu Tayi, Auda!"
So, then, we had to walk around the hill to come to go to see David Lean who was doing a scene with Peter O'Toole. So, as we're walking down, "Auda, Auda abu Tayi, (SPEAKING ARABIC)" marching behind me, yelling "Auda abu Tayi." And I'm told that David Lean looked up and he saw me coming around, and he says: "Who is that?" And the assistant director says, "I don't know, but they're calling him Auda abu Tayi." Lean says: "Absolutely. I want to get that man, and please fire Anthony Quinn."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LAWRENCE OF ARABIA")
ANTHONY QUINN: I am Auda abu Tayi, (SPEAKING ARABIC).
I carry 23 great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies' tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Turks paid me a golden treasure, yet I am poor because I am a river to my people!
(APPLAUSE)
Is that service?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE," APRIL 18, 2000)
KING: Antonia, what is your daddy like?
ANTONIA QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S DAUGHTER: I love my daddy.
KING: Yeah, he is good to you, he takes you to school?
ANTONIA QUINN: I love my daddy, he is the best daddy in the world!
ANTHONY QUINN: Oh, my gosh, honey, you didn't have to say that.
KING: Kathy, was it -- everybody is thinking it was difficult to fall in love with a man much older than you.
KATHY QUINN, ANTHONY QUINN'S WIFE: No.
KING: No, no. Difficult? Not at all. We fell in love the first day we met. We fell in love with each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAJAK: Nice moment from just over a year ago with Larry King and Anthony Quinn. Lorenzo, as we have seen, your father's family extends over many generations, and just I'm curious how he -- was it important for him that all members of the family knew each other, had a relationship with each other? Was that an important part of what he tried to do?
L. QUINN: Well, when I was in Rhode Island, in Bristol, three weeks ago, he made me promise to him, as he was saying good night to me, and I gladly did, that I would keep the family together. I would keep us united, and I will. I will. He's a great father. QUINN COLWELL: If I could say, Larry, you know, pop was a family man. And he had a real heart for family, for three families. And you see all these kids he has, and he loved us all and he wanted nothing better than for us to know each other, and you know, when I was a kid, I had a wonderful loving father. I lost him for 30 years, but I just also -- just before Lorenzo was in Bristol, I spent two months with him, full circle, back to paint with him, be his daughter, laugh with him. I had a rich two months just before...
SAJAK: Catalina, I -- sadly I have to break in, and unfortunately we don't have time to get back to everyone.
I just want to thank all of you. I know what a difficult time this is, but I'm sure you recognize the fact that your father was, and is, a national and international treasure, and it's very kind of you to share your thoughts with us tonight, and we wish you well. And again, our sympathies to all of you, and thank you for being here. Our thanks too to Jacqueline Bisset and Mickey Rooney and Anthony Franciosa.
Larry King will be back tomorrow night. I'm Pat Sajak. Thanks for watching. Good night.
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