Inspirational Quotes by Tallulah Bankhead (American Actress)

Inspirational Quotations by Tallulah Bankhead (American Actress)

Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68,) fully Tallulah Brockman Bankhead, was an American film star and libertine noted for her uninhibited public persona and theatrical accomplishments. Her most successful film appearance was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944.)

Born in Huntsville, Alabama, Bankhead won a regional beauty contest at age 15 and landed bit roles in a few silent films made in 1918. She made her Broadway début in Squab Farm (1918) and soon became famous for her striking stage presence and her husky voice, contrasting with her good looks. Quickly climbing to stardom, she easily gained renown for her quick-witted outspokenness and her intentionally outrageous public behavior.

The Rope Dancers (1923) launched Bankhead’s spectacular London stage career. She won critical acclaim for her performance as a troubled young waitress in the London production of Sidney Howard’s They Knew What They Wanted (1925.)

In 1931, Bankhead returned to America to star in films for Paramount and MGM. My Sin (1931) and Devil and the Deep (1932.) She returned to Broadway, performing in The Little Foxes (1939) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942,) earning the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

In her personal life, Bankhead struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. In 1943, she returned to Hollywood and won acclaim for her multifaceted performance in Lifeboat (1944.) She kept her career afloat by publishing a best-selling autobiography, touring in such plays as Private Lives (1948) and Dear Charles (1955,) and headlining her nightclub act. She also enjoyed success on network radio, hosting the all-star variety series The Big Show (1950–52.) Her last film appearance was in the British thriller Die! Die! My Darling! (1965.)

Bankhead published Tallulah: My Autobiography (1952.) Notable biographies include Denis Brian’s Tallulah, Darling (1972) and Lee Israel’s Miss Tallulah Bankhead (1972.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Tallulah Bankhead

I’m as pure as the driven slush.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Morals, Morality, Virtue

It’s one of the tragic ironies of the theatre that only one man in it can count on steady work—the night watchman.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Acting, Theater

I’ve been called many things, but never an intellectual.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Intellectuals, Intelligence

Let’s not quibble! I’m the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, “I’d rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.”
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Excess, Mistakes

It’s the good girls who keep the diaries; the bad girls never have the time.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Girls, Women

The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Mistakes, Remorse, Repentance, Regret

Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Personality, Identity

I have three phobias which, could I mute them, would make my life as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditch water: I hate to go to bed, I hate to get up, and I hate to be alone.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Mental Illness

No man worth his salt, no man of spirit and spine, no man for whom I could have any respect, could rejoice in the identification of Tallulah’s husband. It’s tough enough to be bogged down in a legend. It would be even tougher to marry one.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Marriage, Husbands

I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic and the others give me a stiff neck or lockjaw.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Sex

If you really want to help the American theater, don’t be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Audiences

They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Photography

I read Shakespeare and the Bible and I can shoot dice. That’s what I call a liberal education.
—Tallulah Bankhead
Topics: Education