Ray Walston Quotes

The first movie I really clicked with was 'Die Hard' when I was 6 years old, which is crazy that I was watching it that young. That was the one that made me want to become an actor.

When my mother got home from work, she would take me to the movies. It was her way of getting out, and she would take me with her. I'd go home and act all the parts. It had a tremendous influence on my becoming an actor.

I'd always gone to the theater as a child every month to see whatever was on. I think that's where the passion for it came from.

Theater was definitely part of my roots. My father would take me to plays, and then my mother was always on the lookout for other talent and taking me to see plays. I saw Frank Langella in 'Dracula'... Great, great performances. I was a theater rat, hanging out backstage.

I grew up in Middle America and I don't think my family was very funny, but I watched 'The Princess Bride.' I always wanted to be an actor. I didn't know anything about it. I'd never seen any plays or anything and I watched that movie over and over and over again.

When I was nine, we'd take a bus to the seaside. Coming back, we'd take turns entertaining, singing songs and the like. I tried some stand-up comedy. I had a captive audience in that bus. Then I realized I wanted to do more than that.

Comedy was why I got into acting the first place. Peter Sellers was a huge influence on my wanting to act. I grew up with him and found him hysterical. The Pink Panther films were an inspiration, from my earliest childhood days, when I was watching them with my brother and my dad.

I feel like I prefer movies, but, at the same time, theater is so exciting when you're doing it. It's a harder job doing theater.

Reading is how I became an actor because I didn't grow up in a house where there was an awareness of film or theater. I also grew up in a house full of teachers, so reading was big in our world.

I'm an actor because of movies like 'Indiana Jones' and 'Jurassic Park.'

Growing up in an atmosphere of storytelling made me an actor.

I've always been optimistic. And I have a feeling that it happened because of going to all those movies with my grandmother in the '40s because there was no cynicism.

I have a nice little movie career, and I write plays and do my act.

But acting had entered my world through older brothers. It was a basic thing: all that just looks cool.

The person that made me want to make movies, and the reason I do films, is Bruce Lee. He was an incredible actor, and he had a lot of charisma. Handsome, action, you know, everything was there. I loved Bruce Lee.

Theater is the most enriching and thrilling thing to do as an actor.

I like to act. Every other aspect of show business I find uninteresting.

As a child, I was always interested in drama and performance.

When I was 3, I recited a poem at a festival in Passaic, New Jersey. The applause was tremendous, and it hit me that I could affect people positively by performing.

'Power Rangers' has changed a lot of lives.

I saw stars like Helen Hayes, Maurice Evans, Tallulah Bankhead and Cornelia Otis Skinner. It was enchanting. I knew that was the world I wanted to be in.

I would love to do more movies. I'd like to get into some theater, too, if I could, just to learn more. I want to do gritty performances that I'm proud of. It doesn't matter to me if four people see it or millions of people see it, as long as I perform in such a way that people go, 'Wow!'

I always loved performing and being on stage.

Dance, vaudeville, drama, movies - as a child I loved everything that went on in a theater.

I'm a consumer as well as a performer. Among my leisure-time activities is going to the theater. I'm very interested in that.