Maxim of acting: Honesty ... fake that, I'll have it made (1962 April 6)

[Garson O'Toole]

Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> I note that GB has a number of 1968 cites that mention the quote, coming
> from an unnamed book.

Many thanks for your response, Dan.

Note: This reply is to a comment that is 14 days old. The summary of
results is now on the QI blog here:
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/05/fake-honesty/

I did see some matches with GB dates of 1968. But after extracting
some text I decided that these matches were probably misdated. Here
are two examples with GB dates of 1968 that I tracked down on paper.

In December 1970 prominent television journalist John Chancellor
addressed a convention of educators. In the passage below he was
probably referring to the 1970 book of photos and essays "They Became
What They Beheld".

Cite: 1971, Proceedings of the Eighty-Fourth Annual Convention of the
Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, Held in
Atlantic City, New Jersey on December 3 to December 5, 1970, Address
by John Chancellor on December 3, Start Page 10, Quote Page 10,
Published by Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools. (Verified on paper)

[Begin excerpt]
I am reminded of the line in a recent book which some of you may have
heard about the television actor who was being interviewed and who
said that after years of television acting he had learned that the
essential to his craft, the key to what he did, was honesty; and he
said when you can fake that you've got it made.
[End excerpt]


In November 1969 a columnist in Educational Television magazine
mentioned the quotation about faking honesty. I hypothesize that the
writer in the passage below is referring to the April 1969 Life
magazine interview with Ed Nelson the actor in Peyton Place.

Cite: 1969 November, Educational Television, New Voices: The Effect of
Sound by Tony Schwartz, Page 29, Column 3, C.S. Tepfer Publishing Co.,
Ridgefield, Connecticut. (Verified on paper)

[Being excerpt]
The first thing I think of when you speak of honesty is a remark I
read concerning an actor on one of those television soap operas. He
said, in an interview, that it took him a number of years to realize
that the most important thing in acting is honesty, and when he
learned how to fake that he had it made.
[End excerpt]

(The earliest cite that I know for this saying is dated 1962 as noted
in the subject line.)

Garson

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