John Mahoney

“I belonged to Stratford Children's Theater when I was a boy growing up in Manchester. Even then, I was always doing character parts.”

“It was post war. It was very gray, very dreary. Everything was still rationed when I first saw the United States in 1951. I went over to visit my sister who was a war bride.”

“And then I went to visit my sister in the states and all of a sudden it was just like, it's like... it's like the movie Wizard of Oz when all of a sudden it changes from Black and White to glorious Technicolor.”

“I don't need the money after 11 years on 'Frasier,' and there aren't that many great roles onstage left for somebody my age. I'm more interested in playing those roles than I am in playing bit parts in movies.”

“'Frasier' was a classy gig. I didn't for one minute think it was less prestigious or artistic than doing a play.”

“I like to learn the lines and not get any precontrived things in my head about the part. Just get on stage and see what the other actors are doing, and respond to them as honestly as I can.”

“My first acting class was taught by a little known playwright, David Mamet, who then cast me in my first play, opposite John Malkovich.”

“That's how I learned how to act. I learned by doing it. I didn't start acting until I was 37.”

“I took the fear of marriage from my parents' relationship, because I didn't want to end up in a relationship like that, whereas my brothers and sisters learnt a lesson from it and made sure they didn't carry it on into their own marriages.”

“Actually I was born in 1940 in Blackpool because my family lived in Manchester but Manchester was being bombed. So my mother was sent away to Blackpool to have me and then went back; so I lived my first eighteen years in Manchester and then emigrated to the States when I was eighteen.”