- [on Norman Lloyd turning 100 in 2014] I had the honor to have been directed by Norman in [The Jar (1964)]. Having worked with hundreds of directors in my career, I found very few that had Norman's qualities. He was most kind, gracious and patient with his actors. He is in all respects a complete gentleman in his personal life and I found it a genuine pleasure just to be in the presence of such a talented man. I am also doubly honored to consider him my friend. We are so blessed to have such a man among us for so long.
- [on his favorite The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) episode] What I really enjoyed was the episode where Rosco thinks he inherits a million dollars and makes Boss Hogg his deputy. That was a fun, fun show. And then the other show that I enjoyed, I got to play a dual role, where I play a guy who actually has his face built like Rosco and he's trying to imitate Rosco. So I actually play Rosco two different ways. That one was fun. But I'll be very honest with you. Almost every show that I worked, it was a blessing. I worked, of course, mostly with Boss Hogg. Sorrell Booke [Boss Hogg] spoke five languages. He was a brilliant actor, and he let me ad lib all over the place, and he would go along with it.
- When I was putting the "Best of Hollywood" book together, I sat down and added up just the list of Westerns I've done, and it came to well over 200.
- [on his early career] Well, I was very lucky, because I was under contract with Universal Studios for two years, and after I got out of there, I got up with Gene Autry and his series. So I was working constantly.
- [in 2009, about his role as Rosco Coltrane in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)] I acted the part, as good as I could. Rosco, let's face it, was a charmer. It was a fun thing.
- [in 2010, about his painting] I do mostly Southern landscapes. I do beautiful old barns that are falling down, and beautiful trees reflecting in the water. My lovely wife Dorothy and I travel quite a bit, so I take pictures of different things that inspire me to come home, when I come home here in North Carolina, into my art studio and paint these things. I put them on my web page and I'm proud to say that I'm selling paintings all over the world now. Some of them are commissioned. But I try to price my paintings in such a way that the average person can afford them. They make good Christmas gifts. It's a wonderful pastime for me, and it's been very profitable.
- [in 2012, about playing the guitar for his guest-starring role on The Andy Griffith Show (1960)] I'm not in the habit of lying, and yes, it's really important and they called me and say, "Can you play the guitar?". I said, "Are you kidding? I have two guitars" and I got over on the set and this is the music and I said, "I can't play that". They said, "You lied, you could play the guitar". I said, "No, I didn't lie. I said, 'I have two guitars'."
- [on Sorrell Booke] Scenes with Boss Hogg were 90% ad-libbed. He was such a professional.
- [in 2013] I did meet The Everly Brothers once and we talked for awhile. Then we figured out we were first cousins! My late mother was the sister of [Don Everly and Phil Everly]'s father, Ike Everly.
- [on getting into trouble while under contract with Universal Pictures] Well, actually I didn't make a habit of doing that, because I heard, if . . . well, you're not supposed to take the girls that are "under contract". I made a mistake, she was beautiful, she'd been on "Look" Magazine and I was honored to go out with her, but she was a blabbermouth and she came back to the studio, and everybody said, "You were out with this and you heard? Well, how did you find out?". I said, "She was taking everybody, we had six-month options and I've been there for two years. I had three first features unreleased and all of a sudden, they called me . . . my option came up and I said, "Well, I want a raise"and [Universal] said, NNo, you stay on the same salary or we're going to dump you". I said, "You're kidding, of course!' I got three features unreleased" and they said, "We're serious!".
- [on his feelings towards aging and death] The only thing that makes me sad about having so little time left is leaving the people I love and those who love me. There are also films and other projects that I want to get done, and there are always fish that need catching.
- I started painting when I was in high school.
- I just kept painting. I paint every day now and have sold some to Europe, and I do commission paintings. I paint Southern landscapes and some still-lives. What I love to paint mostly is old barns and ponds and creeks that I might conjure up in my mind.
- Kentucky holds a special place in my heart.
- [in 2011] They put the camera practically in my mouth and said we want to introduce you to your brother and it was . . . it was one of my brothers I'd never met.
- [on reprising his role in Return of the Killer Shrews (2012)] Well, it was funny, because I did the original The Killer Shrews (1959) as a favor. I made a movie with Sammy Ford, who was friends with a special effects man, Ray Kellogg, who wanted to direct his own picture. And we looked at the original's script, and he didn't have hardly any money whatsoever, but I did him a favor by acting in it. Ken Curtis, of course, was producing it from the start. I like Ken, and he wanted me to do it, so I went down there to Texas where we shot this thing. I didn't realize it was so cheap. I mean, it was really cheap. For me it was a blast, but it was so bad! I think it was voted the worst picture of the year at the time. And then it caught on as a drive-in cult film, and believe it or not, after so many years I noticed that it was playing all over the place. Somebody colorized it and "The Killer Shrews" became a little cult film. Steve Latshaw directed and produced a lot of little horror films that turned out to be very successful. And he said to me, "Why don't we do a sequel to 'The Killer Shrews'?" and laughed. I said, "Are you kidding? That was the worst movie that I've ever made!" And we kept talking about it through the years and, you know, 50 years later we decided that we were willing do it! So we got together and we wrote a script and I called John Schneider, who of course everybody knows John from The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) where he played Bo Duke, and we got Bruce Davison, who starred in Willard (1971) and also we got Rick Hurst, who was in "Dukes of Hazzard" as Cletus, and so we had a fun cast. So we decided to shoot our little movie in North Carolina, and we did, and we got a beautiful production out of it. We showed it several times in different drive-in movie places, and the public really liked it. Then we put it on the web at KillerShrewsMovie.com and we've had really good reactions to the picture, and so we're very excited about it. Return of the Killer Shrews (2012) is a tiny sequel. I mean, we didn't do a real slasher type of horror film. It was more of a "come and see it and we'll scare you and make you laugh" kind of movie, and we're so proud of it.
- [on writing his own book, "Best in Hollywood"]: I decided to write this book to share my own personal journey living the "American Dream". I hope it can inspire, as well as provide an honest, historical depiction of how Hollywood once was . . . and perhaps could be again some day.
- [in 2006 on what his favorite painting subject is] Actually the Southern landscapes. I'm an old country boy. I was born in Kentucky. I found out The Everly Brothers were my first cousins. I was adopted. I don't know why I can't sing. Thank God I can paint.
- [in 2014] I've done 87 feature pictures and I've done over 600 television shows. I worked with [James Stewart]. I worked with Henry Fonda. I worked, you know, with Humphrey Bogart, you know? You name them, I've worked with them. And it's really marvelous to have done this during my span, and I haven't finished! Lately, I've made four or five movies with my daughter and her husband at Hallmark. My daughter writes the scripts, so she is a terrific producer-writer, and her husband is a very good director, so they keep this old man busy. We live in North Carolina now, and we are going to be performing in "On Golden Pond" here in about two or 2-1/2 weeks, and we're very excited about that. It's funny--my wife is playing my daughter!
- [in 1998, on his "{Rosco Coltrate" character from The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)] I created a character that millions of people still love. I brought something to this show that no one else likely could have. I didn't get a cut of the merchandising on a show that inspired thousands of products, and even though you can still watch me play Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane every day on television, the checks from that job stopped coming a long time ago.
- [on auditioning for one of the starring roles on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)] Well, I said, "Well, I'll do what I used to do with my little girls,' when they were little, I'd go, 'Kew-kew-kew-kew, I'm going to get to you'. Well, they fell off the couch, laughing, and I was the first one they signed.
- I went to Rome, Paris and these places, and see people come up and go "'Kew-kew-kew-kew,' Rosco."
- [in 2006 about his painting, while starring in The Dukes of Hazzard (1979): Oh yeah, I had a captive audience. Even before the show, I used to make pictures with Burt Reynolds and [James Stewart] and all those people, and I'd go in my dressing room for lunch and paint. Burt Reynolds would buy a new one of my paintings every time he got a new girlfriend. So I'd say Burt, aren't you tired of that girl yet?
- I'm sitting in the audience, old country boy, and the curtain goes up and I'm like a kid in Disneyland. I said, "Wait a minute, I'm getting shot at every night, and these guys are traveling around with pretty girls. I'm in the wrong outfit!".
- From the time I was adopted when I was four years old up to now, my life has been like a roller coaster. There have been more ups than downs and I have been enjoying everything. I thank God every day for it.
- [on the popularity of 50-something Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on [The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), who also had difficulty getting his words out] Yeah. Well, you know, originally they wanted me to play Rosco as a straight sheriff. And I didn't want to do that. I said, "I'm going to play Rosco like a 12-year-old who likes hot pursuit".
- Actually, a lot of times when I caught the Duke boys, I'd let 'em go--because who else was I going to chase? I didn't have too much of a choice! If I wanted to chase somebody, yeah, I'd pick on the Dukes. But you could see underneath that Rosco and the boys really didn't hate each other at all. It was a love show!
- [in 2003] I get a little tired of watching these people getting interviewed, putting their feet on a desk and acting like they are a mega-star when they can't even spell "mega". These young people think they know it all but all they can do is make sequels with more four-letter words in them.
- [on his move from Hollywood to Florida, after having been burned out on the industry] It's a job. It's different than most people's job, but it's a job. You work four to five days on one project and then move on to the next.
- [On what he liked about doing westerns] As a young person, we all wished someday we could be a cowboy. I was lucky to be under contract at Universal Studios in 1949. That's all I did for a couple of years. After Universal, I started freelancing. I started working on all the Gene Autry series. I did Left-Handed Gun with Paul Newman, and of course, I did Fire Creek, with Jimmy Stewart and Shenandoah and I got to work with all those wonderful people. I was really blessed. I thank the good lord every day, because this old country boy had a wonderful, wonderful career. I'm still going. We formed our own production company in North Carolina, it's called Best Friend Films. We're going to shoot family type films with those new Red cameras.
- [on how The Andy Griffith Show became special to everyone in his own family] Of course, The Andy Griffith Show has always been one of my favorites, and I still watch it. And my grandchildren watch it. They must be the third or fourth generation.
- [praising Andy Griffith for his guitar playing skills] I really had fun because Andy plays a guitar and his makeup man Lee Greenway played banjo and guitar, so they had a hard time getting us on the set, because we'd be back there picking on the guitar a little bit and singing. I really enjoyed doing that show because they had a very talented cast.
- [when asked if he did a lot of driving on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)]: We did a lot of the driving, but didn't do the stunts. It was a difficult show. Even the driving out there in the desert with the dirt and the sun in the 103 degrees was tough. Plus the heat of the lights on you would burn you through your make-up. So sometimes it was very unpleasant, but other times, it was very pleasant to work at Warner Bros. on the beautiful air-conditioned soundstages.
- [of his absences of a few episodes of The Dukes of Hazzard (1979)]: My dressing room was a bunch of 50-year-old plywood boxes that they dragged around on a tractor... I was always falling in mud and getting filthy. And to clean off I had to stand between two blankets while someone hosed me down.
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