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

[Dan Goncharoff]

Are you aware that a version of the line is in the new movie "My Week with
Marilyn", based on Colin Clark's diaries from the time he worked as
Olivier's assistant during the filming of the movie "The Prince and the
Showgirl" in 1956.

The line put in Olivier's mouth, if my memory serves, was "Truth...when you
can fake that, you'll  have a good career."

DanG


On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 11:23 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Maxim of acting: Honesty ... fake that, I'll have it made
>              (1962 April 6)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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