Sex Symbols Talking Pictures

Handsome heroes, gorgeous heroines.

Since the very beginning,

cinema has had its sex symbols.

They are the stars that have set the audiences' pulses racing fastest,

the men and women who the camera just seemed to love that little bit

more than most.

In this programme, we will be hearing from some of the pin-ups

and bombshells who found themselves labelled sex symbols,

and finding out what it meant to them.

We start our good-looking line-up with one of Hollywood's greats,

Gary Cooper. A man whose rugged elegance and style

made him one of the major heart-throbs of his time.

When I was a schoolgirl,

Mr Cooper, your picture was always pinned up inside my desk.

Thank you.

Now, if I was a schoolgirl today, would you still expect me

still to write for your picture and your autograph, or do you regard the

majority of your feminine fans as belonging to the older age groups?

Well, um, I don't know.

The motion picture business is a very satisfying business

in many ways, and one of them which, may pertain to your question,

it does happen once in a while, um, very young girls, children,

and speaking now of you... you being a girl.

Young girls still come up to you in the street, do they?

They come up to me and say, "I'd like your autograph".

And "I like your picture, so and so, and so on."

And they also sometimes say, "And my mother likes you very much."

And they also say sometimes,

"My grandmother likes you very much(!)

"She saw your first picture."

Now, you and Mr Clark Gable, who is also in London at the moment,

he arrived today.

I didn't know that.

You're both the same age, 58.

Well, he's older than I am!

-LAUGHTER

-A few months. Perhaps.

-He's three or four months older than me.

-Does it show?

No, I think he looks in better shape than me.

Well, the two of you must be two of the longest lasting

heart-throbs on screen.

And I wondered if you could explain to me what the attraction is,

that you think you both have

that gives you this perpetual appeal to women?

Well, I... it's nice of you to ask me that question because

the idea must be going through your mind,

but I really don't know that that's true.

I think, perhaps, it is with Gable.

I think Mr Gable has always been a sort of a heart-throb fellow.

I started out in pictures fully intending to become a heavy.

After I found I could get a job in pictures. That's the fellow

who really does all the dirty work and is the nasty person.

-Anyway...

-You never got around to playing it, though?

Well, I did, when I first started out I played a few heavies because

they involved fights and that was money in the pocket in those days.

For good fight scenes and stunts we made extra dough.

But, I don't think I have ever been a heart-throb type on screen.

I think, um, this has been asked me

so many times, and I've just sort of concluded that the only reason

I got along in pictures was because I'm an average looking fellow.

And I've been mistaken for, coming in a strange town,

as the fellow somebody knew back in Podunk or any other town.

I look like the average guy next door...

If some of the average men looked like you, I must say(!)

No, I really mean that.

I think I look like the fellow next door or round the block, and stuff.

You know, there's nothing spectacular about it.

Gary Cooper ranked among the biggest male stars of the 1940s.

One of the biggest female stars was Jane Russell,

thanks to the most controversial film of the period, The Outlaw,

directed by Howard Hughes.

The film was shot in 1941.

But censors found Russell's performance

so overtly sexual that it took two years of arguing before

they finally agreed the American public was ready to see it.

They called her the queen of the motionless pictures,

all because of a movie that nobody had seen.

This movie.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead.

Say, that sounds real nice.

I like to hear you ask for it.

Keep it up.

Beg some more.

What would you like me to say?

Well, you might say "Please", very sweetly.

Please.

Will you keep your eyes open?

Yes.

When you look right at me while I do it?

AUDIENCE LAUGH NERVOUSLY

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

The movie was The Outlaw,

the lady went on to become one of Hollywood's biggest and most

glamorous stars, we are delighted to welcome her, Jane Russell.

APPLAUSE

-And looking marvellous, looking wonderfully glamorous.

-Thank you.

I saw, somewhere in the paper over the weekend,

that you're sick to death of talking about that film, The Outlaw.

Certainly am!

Lord, let's see, 45 years or some horrible thing,

wouldn't you be sick of it?

Yes. But, of course, it was the beginning, wasn't it?

And, indeed, in your book, there is a still, really, from The Outlaw,

isn't there as well? So you...

Well, my publisher got around me, you see.

Yes. Would you like to forget all about it now?

Yeah!

And Howard Hughes, and all that kind of thing?

Oh, no, I don't want to forget Howard Hughes.

-Yeah, but you're asked about him quite a lot, aren't you?

-Yes.

What kind of... can we take you back there?

Because it is interesting for us.

What kind of a furore at the time did Outlaw create?

Were you part of it? Or were you divorced from it?

No, I was pretty much divorced from it.

But, it was all going around, and then it would filter back to me.

Yeah.

And they told me that I was... we were being preached about

out of the pulpits, and people were being thrown out

of the Catholic Church if they went to it, you know.

Yeah. Excommunicated for watching the movie.

But it was... it was... I think it's a very tame movie, myself.

Well, in retrospect, looking back with the standards of today,

it is, isn't it? Did it bring you instant fame?

It brought you instant fame, did it bring you instant riches?

Ah, yeah(!) 50 a week, I was making.

LAUGHTER

-As much as that(!)

-That's all. That's it.

That was for about two or three years, before they actually released

-the movie, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

And what did you do during that time?

Did you feel that you had been used by the publicity machine?

I was just doing publicity from, you know, 9 o'clock, we'd go out

and work until the light turned yellow which is about five o'clock.

I did that five days a week.

Rather like you're doing, promoting your book at the moment.

Yeah, well, I had been a model before, Terry,

so I just went on modelling, as far as I was concerned.

Now, what about the great day when the premiere came,

was that a great relief for you?

Had you almost forgotten you made the movie by then?

Well, as a matter of fact, we'd never seen it.

And Jack and I got on the stage with the comedian,

we were the straight men, and he was the comedian in the middle, and,

er, we had to sneak out and go up in the balcony and sit on the steps

because we couldn't find a seat to see the movie for the first time.

-After all that time.

-We thought it was very slow and boring!

LAUGHTER

What about the various heart-throbs that you worked with,

did you ever feel nervous about working with people like Mitchum?

-Oh, I just fell in love with all of them!

-Did you?

Yeah!

Did you ever tell them that you'd fall in love with them?

Oh, they knew!

LAUGHTER

It was mutual!

LAUGHTER

That was my next question. Whether it was reciprocated?

In those days of Hollywood, was it fairly free and easy,

that life that the stars led?

Were they under the producers' thumbs

as far as their behaviour was concerned?

Oh, well, the producers tried.

But, goodness, you've heard about Errol Flynn, haven't you?

Poor Jack Warner almost tore all his hair out, you know.

It was a very family kind of affair.

It was, um, that was your home lot, and you knew everybody there.

There was...there were the bad boys, the kids that got out of line,

and they'd get hauled back and their wrists slapped.

-Were you a good girl, or a bad girl?

-No, I was pretty good.

-LAUGHTER

-Yeah.

Ten years after the release of The Outlaw came one of cinema's

all-time great love scenes, in 1953's From Here To Eternity.

Shocking at the time, the famous passionate

encounter on the beach featured Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr,

usually known for playing an English rose,

and here cast very much against type.

What sort of intrigues me,

is how you got the part in From Here To Eternity, if you're

looking round for someone to play the part you played in that...

-You wouldn't have thought of me.

-..the sort of sex starved woman.

You wouldn't have thought of you. So, how did you get it?

Well, it, I, er... that too was sort of, rather,

not too long story, don't get worried!

I'm not worried at all! I've got all night.

Oh, good. Well, they...

LAUGHTER

I like the way you said that.

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good reading(!)

-No, I...

-You were going to tell me about From Here To Eternity?

I'd done all these movies that were, as you say, a little ladylike,

and I thought, "Oh, I've got to find something..."

And I had just, at the time, I'd changed agents, and I went

to a very marvellous man, who is dead now, called Bert Allenberg.

And within, I mean, two weeks of my being

what's known as under his banner, he called me up one day

and he said, "You know they are going to make From Here To

"Eternity at Columbia?" and I said, "Yes.2

He said, 'Have you read it?'

So I said, "Of course", so he said,

"How about playing the part of Karen?"

and I said, "Oh, come on,

"they're never going to think of me for that."

And he said, "Well, I can try."

So, I waited all day

for him to phone me in the evening because he'd gone to see

Harry Cohn, this frightening monster of Colombia.

And, er, the phone rang in the evening,

I picked it up and it was Bert, and he said... I said, "Well, what?"

And he said, "You're right, they kicked me out of the office."

I said, "I told you not to go in there and make a fool of me",

da, da, da, da... you see.

But he was a very clever man, all he did was go in there,

make the suggestion and leave.

And Harry Cohn screamed, "You've got to be crazy, blah, blah,

"blah", you know.

The germ had been sown in his mind, and the next day, it worked.

He called in his producer,

he called in Fred Zinnemann, who was the director, and said,

"That crazy Allenberg has got a suggestion for who to play Karen,

"Deborah Kerr."

And they both kind of went, like that, and said,

"Well, of course."

-And that's literally how that happened.

-Amazing.

And there is one sequence in that film which I'm going to show

-now, one clip.

-Oh, no, not that one!

Yes, indeed, the famous one, which...

..which, I mean, really broke the mould.

And, it's one of the most famous scenes in that,

and many other movies, I suppose.

It's the beach scene. Let's have a look at it now.

I never knew it could be like this.

Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.

-Nobody?

-No. Nobody.

Not even one?

Out of all the men you've been kissed by?

That would take some figuring.

How many men do you think there've been?

I wouldn't know. Can't you give me a rough estimate?

Not without an adding machine.

Do you have the adding machine with you?

I forgot to bring it.

Then I guess you won't find out, will you?

Maybe I already know.

APPLAUSE

Did you... you've got goose pimples, have you?

-Yes, slightly. It's a long time since I've seen it.

-Is it?

-Yes.

It all looks so comfortable on-screen.

-Wasn't it?

-No(!)

LAUGHTER

It was sandy(!)

Did you realise at the time, when you were doing that

particular scene, that it was going to be such a crucial one,

in a way, I mean, I only say crucial because a lot of people would

say that, that one scene is one of the landmarks in cinema,

because the whole permissive sex movement in movies

started from there.

Yes. I suppose it did, in a way, because now when one sees it,

it looks so absolutely, I mean, too normal, you know, practically.

It's funny, isn't it to think of how,

really, how startling the scene was?

Deborah Kerr's versatility meant she was never defined by that one

fantastic role.

Over the years other stars have come to be seen almost

exclusively in terms of their sex appeal,

and some, like Jayne Mansfield, just embraced it.

She won a Golden Globe at one point in her career,

but her acting was overshadowed by the sex bomb image.

At times, that meant interviews which included subjects like the not

very sexy sounding Chiswick flyover...

Well, the first thing I'd better say is this,

that Miss Mansfield isn't in that bed because she is ailing,

I'm not sitting here because I'm a doctor.

She's in bed because in a minute she's going to be made love to

by an actor, in a film called The Challenge.

I know that publicity in general doesn't frighten you,

Miss Mansfield, because hardly a day goes by that you aren't

cooperating with the publicists.

But, I wonder how much this publicity

overshadows your actual acting?

I don't think it has anything to do with acting.

Because I'm certainly not acting...

I mean the time spent, I mean you're in front of the public,

perhaps, as often in pictures in newspapers as you are in films.

I tell you, Robert,

there are two important things in the life of an actress.

The most important is to be a good actress, to be a very fine star.

That is tremendously important.

The other important thing is to be known,

because if you're a Bernhardt or a Shakespeare, if no-one

knows about it then you may as well, just kind of, act in your own home,

which doesn't do too much good if you want to be a successful star.

So, I feel that the right balance of acting, the right

balance of publicity, coupled with talent brings forth a giant star,

that cannot be toppled over.

Have you ever refused to do a publicity stunt?

I mean is there a kind of publicity you try and avoid?

I've never done a publicity stunt in my entire life, and I never will.

If the time ever comes when I will do a publicity stunt,

then I'll be 150 years old.

I think I'm probably using the word in a different

sense from the way you're understanding it.

What about the Chiswick flyover? In my opinion that was a stunt.

It wasn't in mine, it wasn't in the opinion of the people who asked me.

They built a very beautiful freeway, or flyover,

as it's called over here,

and I was quite honoured to have been asked to open this because

it was a great sign of progress, and I very happily did that.

I think it's... I think it's... any time that a country, or city,

or group of people make that much progress, civic wise, I think

it's wonderful to make sure that the event gets the deserved publicity.

I'm sure that's why I was asked.

But do you think you were an apt choice?

I mean, I imagine that you know very little about flyovers?

You're a terribly well-known person,

but you aren't actually associated with flyovers.

Is anyone?

I suppose not, perhaps, outside of a borough surveyor.

You're presented as a symbol of sex appeal, now,

I wonder if you care to define that phrase, sex appeal?

Sex appeal is a wonderful, warm, womanly, healthy feeling.

If you're a woman, it's womanly, if you're not its manly.

Does it come from inside, Miss Mansfield?

It comes only from inside.

It's nothing that's manufactured,

it has nothing to do with measurements or lipstick colour.

To me, it's cleanliness and use

and an effervescent desire to enjoy life.

That's what sex appeal is to me.

The sort of vibrancy that you find present in a young kitten.

I think you're a romantic even in your business interests,

Miss Mansfield,

because I understand you market a Jayne Mansfield hot water bottle?

-Yes, I do.

-Is it selling well?

It selling fantastically.

I didn't know the demand would be so great.

But, I suppose I am somewhat of a romanticist

when it comes to good business deals.

What do you mean, a romanticist in business deals?

-I mean I like to be successful in business.

-I see!

I hear you've got fountains in your living room,

and a very large dining table with a marble top,

capable of seating 40 people, and fur on the walls in the

bathroom. Now apart from the fur on the walls in the bathroom...

Which bathroom?

-Oh...

-I have 13.

-I see. Have they all got fur on them?

-Only one.

It was a furry bikini rather than a bathroom that helped turn

Raquel Welch into a sex symbol.

The 1966 film One Million Years BC was sold on the image of her

dressed in animal skins, and from that moment on, and throughout the

'70s her name was synonymous with sex appeal.

Here she is talking to Michael Parkinson in 1972.

Were you from the beginning... were you an attractive child?

Were you a good-looking kid?

I don't really think I was, I think

I had, like, hair parted

in the middle and braids, and my dad

always said that I should be...

I don't know...neat in appearance.

I wasn't allowed to wear ruffles or bright colours or

have my hair in curls

like a lot of girls had who went to school with me.

I never thought of myself as pretty, pretty.

But, when I, er, got a little bit older

and the equipment arrived, the, er...

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

Well, then I thought, "Gee, this is pretty terrific,

"maybe I ought to try it out a little more."

And I'd sort of strut my stuff around, and...

see how it all worked. It worked pretty good.

There you were, you arrived in Hollywood

with all the equipment, as you, yourself, said.

With thousands and millions of other girls,

even walking down the street, much much better...

Who are now petrol pump attendants and this sort of thing.

Oh, I don't think so.

Well, you know, they are certainly not starring in movies.

But, I mean, what was it...

Was it a difficult thing to be treated seriously?

I was thinking about the casting couch business of Hollywood?

Did you get chased around the table?

Well, I don't know. That's kind of an X-rated item.

-Go on, tell me the truth.

-Um...

-LAUGHTER

-Not really, no.

There were a few times when people disappointed me a bit,

but it wasn't really...

LAUGHTER

Oh, help, somebody help!

No! I... Did I? Yes, I did. I said what I thought I said.

No, it's not like The Carpetbaggers, which my mother had given me

recently to read and said,

"That is what Hollywood is all about."

It wasn't like that, no. There are a few wolves,

but there's wolves in any nightclub, discotheque, restaurant.

-Yeah.

-I mean, it's not loaded with those type of people.

Do you find that there's more of them now around,

the wolves around, than there were before? More apparent?

Here you are. Do you find that because you are, who you are men

are either more pushy towards you, or perhaps frightened off you?

Well, sometimes I think they're a little frightened.

First of all, I think they think I'm a whole lot bigger than I am.

LAUGHTER

I remember one time... I remember one time,

there was this guard at this gate

and I came in to see screening of a film of mine

and I walked by and he said, "Hello."

Then later I walked by and he said, "Are you Raquel Welch?"

I said, "Yeah."

"Are you Raquel Welch?" I said, "Yeah."

He said, "Ah, I thought..."

I said, "I know, you thought I was..."

And it's true, I mean, I'm OK, but, I'm really,

I guess you could say petite.

I don't know if I'm really petite but I'm only 5'6,

and I've got very small bones, can you see?

-Yes.

-I've got small bones, and I'm not, sort of an Amazon.

I'm not going to break anybody in half, and I...

-I wish you would!

-LAUGHTER

Oh, are you one of those hit me again types(?)

AUDIENCE LAUGH AND APPLAUD

Have you ever thought, when you are in this business,

have you ever tried to define what sex appeal is?

Golly, no, I can think of a lot of men that I know, that I think

are sexy, but I don't know if I can really describe what it is.

Who are the men you think are sexy?

Oh, you want a whole list?

Oh, I don't know, I mean there are a lot.

Well, my boyfriend I think is sexy.

He looks a lot like Errol Flynn.

-Really?

-Yeah. And, um, let me see, I guess... um...

Frank Sinatra.

-Is sexy?

-Oh, yes. Because he's a man.

LAUGHTER

No, but, I mean, you feel he's a man.

I mean, he just has a great, sort of, strength.

And I, erm, oh, think Joe Namath is terrifically sexy.

I like sports figures,

Um, let me see... who else?

Lauren Bacall said on the programme the other day that she

thought looking around, there weren't many strong man left.

Well, Paul Newman?

-What's the matter with Paul Newman?

-I don't know, ask Lauren Bacall!

Paul Newman is all right(!)

Paul Newman certainly was all right, cool, terrifically handsome,

and amongst a handful of men who were,

especially in the '60s and '70s, considered the ultimate heart-throbs.

Robert Redford, Sean Connery, Warren Beatty, as we shall see in this

next sequence of interviews, all of them struggled

with this sex symbol status.

Do you sign autographs?

No. I don't sign autographs.

There's no sense telling you why,

but I'll tell you

when I stopped signing them.

I was standing at a urinal,

and a guy came through the door with a pencil

and a piece of paper in his hands, and I said, "Never again."

That is the terminal insult.

But, it's a cleft stick, you can't have one without the other,

-you can't be an international movie star and be unrecognisable?

-No, no.

I understand it comes with a territory,

but, autographs are something else.

I remember many occasions in the old days,

when Joanne and I were having a romantic dinner,

or we were having dinner with the kids, or walking down Fifth Avenue,

and there was some unwritten law that anyone could stop

you from doing whatever you were doing,

and you had to put your name on this piece of paper.

I wasn't around to vote when that rule was made.

And, er, I think the only obligation that I have to

an audience is to do the best I possibly can,

to prepare myself, to not cheat them on the screen.

And, um, I don't know if anything else is really required.

There is something of a command in that.

Smile, take off your glasses,

I'm sorry, my pants will drop off.

It makes me uncomfortable.

Robert Redford also struggled with the superstar status that came

with his good looks.

It's not pleasant, that's the whole double edged sword, that.

Because you're naive at the time,

you're just playing a role.

And you've started in the business,

if you started as I did,

as an actor who like to think

he came from the legitimate stage.

Which I did, in New York.

You think of yourself first of all as an actor.

And, then, suddenly you're playing a variety of different roles,

no-one is really making too much about it.

Suddenly you're in a particular production that's

very successful, and then the next thing you know you're labelled.

And as you stretch to a different role, the acceptance is less,

the credibility of being able to stretch is less.

-And that's bothersome.

-And people don't want you to stretch, do they?

Well, I think you're right.

I suspect people don't.

I'm beginning to think more and more,

that people tend to want to restrict

you to a certain slot.

And if they've been pleased by performance in that slot

they'd just as soon have you stay there.

For me, that's for television.

That's for television series, and I don't think it's bad,

it's perfectly fine, but it's not for me.

Now Sean Connery, who found elements of being Bond a bit of a bind.

How has being James Bond affected your life?

Well, this is the sort of outcome of one of the facets,

that's the, erm, I live in Acton.

We have a marvellous house in Acton.

A wonderful situation. Unfortunately, it's too accessible.

People can come, you know, right up to the front gate and get in.

It's the only house in the street. It's a cul-de-sac right by a park.

It's the perfect situation, but, they just come up sit on top of the

cars, or come in the gates, knock the door, it's too easy, you know.

It's to do with the invasion of one's privacy, I don't believe

any of the rubbish about the price of fame or all that sort of jazz.

I don't go for that at all.

Have they been an unpleasant? Are people and pleasant?

As a rule, no, but you get some real head cases that come around

and have the most absurd requests like, it would be marvellous

if we could have tea, or can we come and take some photographs?

Can I sign on your wall, or you know? Juvenile, insane ideas.

There's only one way to solve it, it's impractical,

and that is not to be there.

And here's Warren Beatty who, of course,

had a reputation as one of Hollywood's greatest lotharios.

I was thinking, really, about the difficulties of a young man,

suddenly with success thrust on

him, and there certainly must have been things you couldn't handle.

Looking through the press cuttings of that period,

there were a lot of unfavourable comments...

Well, the press, that's another matter. There's something,

in the entire meat grinding

snowball of the economics

of the movie business,

that require a new,

young commodity to be

interesting in some way.

I think, probably, it's not so easy

to make someone so interesting,

and to make them famous, to develop grist for that mill,

certain choices have to be made.

Usually, with a young man, it's that he's very rebellious,

and an enfant terribles, et cetera,

and just to get it out of the way, sometimes you comply.

You know, it's just, well, I'll give you what you want and, erm...

but the level of boredom between the show business press

and the young actor who needs to be exploited, I think, is

exceeded by almost nothing I can think of offhand.

So, that makes what you call bad press clippings,

but then they all go into the morgue,

where all the clippings go, and the most ridiculous things...

..are there.

Among Warren Beatty's famous conquests,

was a woman considered to be one of Europe's greatest ever sex symbols,

the French actress, Bridget Bardot,

here we find BB on the BBC in 1956, having a curious

conversation with an interviewer who seems mainly interested in her pets.

You're 22, Miss Bardot, and you're one of the highest-paid

actresses in France, what do you think your success is due to?

I... I don't know.

You don't think it's got something to do with the sexy parts

you play in your films?

Yes. Maybe, yes.

Do you really enjoy making this kind of film or do you want to

be a serious actress?

Oh, no. I prefer this kind of film.

I will be a serious actress when I will be older.

I see. I've heard that dogs are the most important thing in your life.

Dogs?

Yes, I think I prefer love.

-But you have some dogs?

-Ah, yes, and I love dogs.

What kind of dog have you got?

I have a

little black spaniel cocker.

Any other animals?

For my birthday, one month ago,

a friend of me gave to me

a little monkey.

It was very, very funny.

And I was very surprised

when I saw the monkey.

And it was impossible for me

to keep it at home

because he was doing

pee-pee all the time(!)

Now, Miss Bardot,

you work very hard,

I'm told that you've made 15 films

in the last three years.

When you get some time off what do

you like to do the most?

I have a rest.

Because I am very lazy.

Anything else?

I like listen records,

-and go and see shows. Shows?

-Aha.

And go for a walk with my dog.

You say you like listening to records,

what kind of records do you like the most?

Oh, classical, and rock and roll,

and jazz. Everything.

I like all the records.

Well, now that you make so much money, I think

it's about £12,000 a film, something like that, what are your ambitions?

To get more.

Do you ever want to go to Hollywood?

No, I'm very well in Europe.

Well, thank you very much indeed,

Miss Bardot.

While Bridget Bardot is France's sensual sex kitten,

Catherine Deneuve is its ice cool icon of aloof, sophisticated beauty.

One of Europe's acting greats,

she was interviewed by Terry Wogan in 1989.

Whoever it was that gave you

the title of the most beautiful

woman in the world, did you

thank them for that,

or did you find that a very

difficult thing?

Well, by the time I was told, you know,

to be a very good-looking woman I thought it was very nice

because it's something you take as a compliment. It is a compliment.

Of course.

But, with years passing by you find the compliment a very heavy

crown to carry.

And sometimes I find it difficult,

but you cannot always have the good side of everything.

Anyway, I think it's a nice challenge to have,

and also, being an actress it's not something

I live all the time with, because acting, you forget about the look.

You can never forget completely,

but most of the time when you're working you can forget sometimes.

Someone as beautiful as you,

do you welcome a settled ageing

process, do you like the idea of getting older?

No, no.

That the most honest answer I've had from an actress, ever.

No, I don't. Not only because I'm an actress... I think it's difficult

for an actress because you have to face the idea that you will

do other kind of films and parts,

and it's true that for a woman it's much more difficult than for men.

But, as a person, you know, I have...

I don't like the idea that I will have less energy.

I'm a very energetic woman

and the idea that it's going to slow down, I don't like that idea.

-So... I really...

-Will the loss of your looks worry you?

-The what?

-The loss of your looks. Your appearance.

Well, actresses, you know, they worry every day about their looks.

When you have to go on television,

when you have to do still pictures, when you have to do

things like that, but then you worry the time you look in the mirror,

and then after that you are worrying with other things are good enough.

The look it's only when you're getting ready and being prepared,

and after that you have the troubles or the problems.

Catherine Deneuve there touched on the matter of the sex symbol

ageing, but for the most enduring sex symbol of them all, sadly,

that wasn't an issue.

Marilyn Monroe had been a sensation since the early 1950s

but her death in 1962, aged just 36,

saw her elevated to the status of an American cultural icon.

Marilyn never did a sit down interview with the BBC,

but the fascination with her has meant that anyone who ever

worked with her would inevitably end up discussing their experiences.

She was an extremely complicated creature.

She was intelligent, she was unhappy,

she... you couldn't get very close to her.

And she was very nervous, well,

the proof of it is that the poor darling killed herself.

Er, so, she was... She didn't really trust her talent.

She was very gifted.

She played, comedy very well,

she would do all kinds of studying which she needn't have studied.

Not that studying isn't right, but she was so much more skilful

than anybody could possibly teach her.

She was a natural actress, and had enormous individuality,

and she knew what she was doing.

I will say that,

in the case of Marilyn Monroe, I was caught by an indefinable something.

I have a memo in which I write to Zanuck that

"I don't think she can act, I don't think she can dance,

"I don't think she can walk, and I'm sure she can't talk.

"But, there is nothing that either of us can do to keep

"her from becoming a star."

And you had that feeling about Marilyn.

The camera liked Marilyn Monroe.

She'd sit on the set, kind of down and you'd get her out there,

say 'Camera', and her head would come up like this,

and all of a sudden she became sexy.

In real life nobody'd take her out.

But she had a strange...

HE SIGHS

..thing that made her sexy to millions of people.

So, that, in order for that to happen the camera has to like you.

Her personal madnesses were so, so, er,

destructive that it made her unhappy

and anyone that surrounded her.

Consequently, it cost her her life.

It had nothing to do with

the picture business.

-You think not?

-Not at all.

You think no matter what she'd have done

she would have destroyed herself?

Billy Wilder, who directed Some Like It Hot,

said she was a mean seven-year-old girl.

And I've got a feeling that's about as good

a description of Marilyn as any, you know.

I directed Marilyn in her first

role of any consequence,

The Asphalt Jungle,

and her last picture, The Misfits.

A number of those who were close to

her during the making of The Misfits

thought it would be only

a few short years before she died or

went into an institution.

Her great enemy was sleeplessness,

only God knows why she feared it so much.

Perhaps it was simply that not to sleep meant losing her beauty?

I'm inclined to think that there was more to it than that.

In any case, she fought her enemy, consciousness, with sedatives.

Until she had achieved not only sleeplessness,

sleep, but insensibility.

Then, stimulants would be employed to awaken her.

This vicious circle played such havoc with her body that she

had to be hospitalised for ten days in the middle of the picture.

An overdose of sleeping tablets has become synonymous with suicide.

In Marilyn's case, I think

it was simply an overdose of sleeping tablets.

It's a terrible pity that so much beauty has been lost to us.

Will there ever be a sex symbol to rival Marilyn Monroe?

It's highly unlikely.

And although every new generation of actors includes a fresh

line-up of heartbreaking heroes and heroines,

when it comes to long-lasting appeal, very few can rival the sexy,

seductive stars of cinema's golden and most gorgeous years.