I was never a villain on the stage. I always played strong, sympathetic types. My first stage role with a speaking part, believe it or not, was as a priest. It wasn't until I began acting in films that the producers and directors saw me primarily as a bizarre villain.

I was appalled at the amount of study necessary in order to qualify in medicine, and gradually my desire was blunted by a keener - and secret - wish to become an actor.

I wish, naturally to prevent the possibility that someone may write an accidental, superficial, incomplete and perhaps untrue picture of me.

In the middle of my third Hollywood picture The Magician, the earthquake hit Hollywood. Not the real earthquake. Just the talkies.

I used to think then that I was Bohemian, but I know now that I am not. I prefer order and precision to untidiness and looseness.

Have you ever walked late at night through a forest when you are first in love?

For me, half the joy of achieving has been the struggle and the fight, the pitting myself against the world and all its competition - and winning.