Yvonne De Carlo

"I was on cloud nine all the time. After I made my hit in Salome, Universal sent me to New York so I could learn to be a proper movie star. I lived at the Sherry‐Netherland for two months and I went to the John Robert Powers school. They taught me things like how to walk off a New York curb and how to enter a room in a manner befitting a big‐time movie star."

"They also tried to teach me how to eat. One day the big boss came into town and took me to dinner. I knew why he was taking me to dinner; he wanted to watch me eat. I was so nervous that when I started to lift my soup spoon to my mouth, my hand shook so much that I had to put the spoon down again. I couldn't eat soup for a whole year after that."

"We had dinner with Duke Wayne and his wife recently. He's really worried about the picture industry and how much harm it's done. And he isn't just making casual conversation, either. Duke is very concerned."

"I'm from Hollywood. I'm too dumb to be nervous about New York."

"You want to know about the title, right. The most beautiful girl in the world. . . It was a straight publicity thing but it ballooned. Of course, I never could wear blue jeans to the market after that. I had a reputation to uphold."

"I played so many oriental princesses and cowtown saloon madams after that I lost count. I broke in all the new actors, to use a phrase. I acted with Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis before they became big names."

"Baby, I've never been drunk in public and I never run around with men half my age. The dames I started out with are all batty today. They had their looks and nothing more and now they think they're finished."

"Reality to me is a home, my kids, best friends and only then a career and the limelight. I never thought like Marilyn Monroe that I was washed up when I was 35."

"One critic called me one of the most magnificent resources Canada has allowed to escape to the United States. Because I was born and raised in Vancouver and lived up there until I was 17. My kids sons Bruce and Michael are, of course, American citizens. But not me. I defiantly refuse to change."

"My mother was the shaping force in my life. Don't ask me how but she always had money for my dancing lessons. She was convinced I was going to be somebody."

"I think Yvonne De Carlo was more famous than Lily. But I gained the younger audience through The Munsters. And it was a steady job."

"I enjoyed being in The Ten Commandments. That was a great experience—to suddenly become one of those holy people. I was holier than thou."

"I enjoyed the comedies with Alec Guinness, and I had a real great time with Peter Ustinov in Hotel Sahara. I found I had the ability to do comedy. My timing was really inborn."

"Miss De Carlo photographs beautifully in color and in black and white film. She is a fine actress, an excellent dancer and singer. It is very unusual to find so much talent in one person."

"Early one morning she answered the telephone. . . . "Yvonne?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone. It was her agent. "You know about Ten Commandments, don’t you?" "Know what?" she asked. Of course, she knew about the picture. Everyone in town did. "What about it?" she asked. "Great news," the voice sounded breathless. "The part of Sephora—Moses' wife. Until today, that part was wide open. Not any more. Guess who’s got it? You! DeMille wants De Carlo!" Not until weeks later, in conversations with Mr. DeMille, did Yvonne find out how, without asking, she had won this important role. DeMille was in the process of casting and was considering Nina Foch for the role of Moses' Egyptian foster mother. Miss Foch's agent suggested that he see an earlier Foch movie called Sombrero. A date was set and DeMille, with a few of his staff, was shown the film in the studio screening room. Foch was fine, he commented to an assistant. "Cast her." And he started to rise to return to his office. Suddenly, looking up he saw a tormented, sadly beautiful face, veiled in a Mexican shawl, flash upon the screen. Sinking back into his chair, he watched the scene through. When it was over, he had reached another decision. "Get me that face," he ordered. "That’s Sephora.""

"It's fitting that Yvonne ends up as a star on the very lot where she started as an extra. Audiences will now see her as the really fine actress she is."

"I cast Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, the wife of Moses, after our casting director, Bert McKay called my attention to one scene she played in Sombrero, which was a picture far removed in theme from The Ten Commandments, I sensed in her a depth, an emotional power, a womanly strength which the part of Sephora needed, and which she gave it."

"Oh, how I loved the movies as a little girl. Particularly I loved Yvonne De Carlo—she was my favorite. Others, too, like Rita Hayworth, but I used to dream that I was Yvonne De Carlo. And I liked that little one—what was her name?—June Allyson, too. But for me there was only one Yvonne De Carlo."

"I remember Yvonne with very warm and positive feelings. There was a warmth and sexiness which came out in everything she did, and that is what was irresistible to audiences. Like most top actresses, she needed direction and support, but her objective was always to be equal to the stars around her, especially the males."