Terry Moore
ACTOR
We’re going to focus on your experiences at 20th Century Fox and with director Mark Robson making Peyton Place but there’s so much else you could talk about, including making your movie debut in 1940, your roles in Mighty Joe Young and Elia Kazan’s Man on a Tightrope, let alone your Oscar-nominated performance in Come Back, Little Sheba and your long relationship with Howard Hughes.
We could go on for weeks, couldn’t we? But, oh well, we’ll narrow down. (laughing) I worked at Fox with Fredric March directed by the best director I ever worked for, Elia Kazan. I liked it at Fox and that’s what made me want to accept their contract offer from Fox in 1953. Also my best friend was Susan Zanuck, Darryl’s daughter, and that was another reason for my wanting to go to Fox. was treated like a queen at Fox. We had drama teachers, singing teachers, dancing teachers – you got it all – and that was so important to us.
The studio looked very much like it is now. I always thought it was the prettiest lot and I one of the most important lots. It was very exciting being there. Having a huge picture of me in the lobby in the Zanuck building and in the commissary. I loved all that.
How much personal contact did you have with Darryl Zanuck?
I stayed out of the executive offices. I made sure I was never, ever alone with Darryl Zanuck. If you wanted to avoid that, you could. I did. I think Howard [Hughes] would have killed Darryl Zanuck if, well … as I said, I stayed out of the executive offices.
How did you come into the orbit of Mark Robson, who directed you in Peyton Place and who later directed the movie version of another sexy, controversial by another female author, Valley of the Dolls?
I met with Mark Robson and wanted me to play one of the larger parts, either Allison MacKenzie whom Diane Varsi eventually played or Selena Cross played by Hope Lang. But [producer] Jerry Wald kept pushing for me to play Betty Anderson.
I think Jerry Wald told me that himself. He and Mark Robson did not agree on what I should play. Mark really wanted me to do one of those bigger roles. I was disappointed but mostly because if I had played one of those roles, I’d have gotten to film in Maine with the other cast and crew. But, honestly, I would have been uneasy with the role of Selena Cross, who is raped by her father. Anyway, it turned out well for me and the picture that Betty Anderson became a memorable character in the movie and a big character later TV series “Peyton Place.“
How do you remember Mark Robson as a director?
I found Mark Robson to be very kind, understanding, very knowledgeable. I thought he was a great director. He was an actor’s director. I saw my dearest friend Martin Landau every Friday of my life at the Actors Studio. Martin said he didn’t feel any director ever helped him but Kazan. The main thing a director can do for an actor is stay out of your way. What’s tough for me, for many actors, is when the director tries to push me in a direction that isn’t right. Mark didn’t do that. He encouraged. I’d look over and see him nodding or smiling. He would let you know when he loved it. That was all I needed. I knew he liked what I was doing and that was so important to me. It was encouraging. He was a great man.
Did you test for the movie?
The only movie I ever had to test for was King of the Khyber Rifles and I that because it was my dream to work with Tryone Power. I still dream about him. He was maybe the greatest, kindest human being I’ve ever known. I remember my mom saying to him, ‘Ty, you’re as beautiful on the inside as you are on the out.’
It just happened that when he was getting his plane to go do what turned out to be his final Solomon and Sheba, I was catching another flight to Spain. One of the last things he said to me was, ‘You know, Terry, I wouldn’t mind if I died tomorrow. I’ve had such a wonderful life. There’s only two things I would want –to have a son and to die on set, like my father and grandfather did.” I was talking about him the day that he died on the set of that movie. I was going back to the Plaza Hotel and Bob Evans said to me, “Have you heard about Ty? He told me and all I could think of was, ‘Thank god he’s going to have a son.’ His wife was pregnant.
Did you know Mark Robson offscreen?
I didn’t know any of my directors off the soundstage except for Kazan because we were in Germany for several months filming Man on a Tightrope. I am surprised to hear, though, that other people had different experiences with him making Valley of the Dolls. I loved working with him!