Rip Torn - biography

“I think most actors are shy.  I really do.  The greatest actors can disappear.  I had friends call me the Blend-In Man.”

“There’s always some kind of blacklist throughout history.  But the difference is, in America they usually let you live.”

“I’ve got two old Volvos, two old Subarus, and an old Ford Ranger.  If you’ve got an old car, you’ve gotta have at least several old cars, ’cause one’s always gonna be in the garage.”

“When I grew up, people said, ‘You’ll never be the man your dad was.’ And I said, ‘Gee, I hope not.’”

“Everybody says, ‘You impress me as a guy who never wanted to be a movie star.’ I say, ‘Everybody in the world wants to be a movie star.’”

“I used to be friends with Miles Davis.  He didn’t like many folks.  I lived across the street from him.”

“Don’t ever humiliate a man.  If you’re gonna have to dress him out, you take him aside and do it that way.  That’s the one thing I don’t like about Hollywood: They go in for public humiliation.  You shouldn’t do that to a man.”

“Let the other guys do the crybaby stuff.  Go for the laughs.”

“If you’re lucky enough to have a pretty girl love you and share herself and sleep with you, make that your secret.  The best way to spoil love is by talking to too many people about it.”

“I like my crazy name.  Even during the time I didn’t work, people remembered it because it was always cropping up - in crossword puzzles, stuff like that.”

“Be your own politics, grow your own garden, and maybe you can help out more.”

“I honor religion except when it gets into shedding blood.”

“Anything new is always considered the devil’s tool.”

“I’ve never hit anybody who hasn’t clocked me two or three times.”

“If I could just get a piece of lemon, it’d be great.”

“Never think you’re better than anyone else, but don’t let anyone treat you like you’re worse than they are.”

“You can never turn your back on the ocean.”

Rip Torn has appeared in the following films:
Baby Doll (1956)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Time Limit (1957)
Pork Chop Hill (1959)
King of Kings (1961)
Hero’s Island (1962)
Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)
Critic’s Choice (1963)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
You’re a Big Boy Now (1966)
One Spy Too Many (1966)
Beach Red (1967)
Sol Madrid (1968)
Beyond the Law (1968)
Coming Apart (1969)
Tropic of Cancer (1970)
Maidstone (1970)
One P.M. (1972)
Slaughter (1972)
Cotter (1973)
Payday (1973)
Crazy Joe (1974)
Birch Interval (1976)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)
Nasty Habits (1977)
Coma (1978)
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)
Heartland (1979)
One Trick Pony (1980)
Jinxed! (1982)
A Stranger Is Watching (1982)
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Cross Creek (1983)
City Heat (1984)
Misunderstood (1984)
Flashpoint (1984)
Songwriter (1984)
Beer (1985)
Summer Rental (1985)
Extreme Prejudice (1987)
Nadine (1987)
Blind Curve (1988)
Cold Feet (1989)
Hit List (1989)
Zwei Frauen (1989)
Beautiful Dreamers (1990)
Defending Your Life (1991)
Death Falls (1991)
Dolly Dearest (1992)
Fixing the Shadow (1993)
RoboCop 3 (1993)
Where the Rivers Flow North (1993)
How to Make an American Quilt (1995)
Canadian Bacon (1995)
The Mouse (1996)
Hercules (1997)
Men in Black (1997)
Trial and Error (1997)
Senseless (1998)
The Insider (1999)
Wonder Boys (2000)
Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
Men in Black II (2002)
Rolling Kansas (2003)
Love Object (2003)
Eulogy (2004)
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)
Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
The Sisters (2005)
Forty Shades of Blue (2005)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Zoom (2006)
Bee Movie (2007)
Three Days to Vegas (2007)
Turn the River (2007)
August (2008)
The Golden Boys (2008)
Lucky Days (2008)
Happy Tears (2009)
American Cowslip (2009)
The Afterlight (2009)
The Legend of Awesomest Maximus (2011)


Rip Torn directed the following films:
The Telephone (1988)