13 TINY NIGHTMARES - FJA INTERVIEW

PP: Famous Monsters is a huge accomplishment and quite a notable feather in your cap. What are other experiences you would place up there as shining moments in your life?

FJA: Shining moments in my life...hmmmm...when I stood in England regarding the two urns with the ashes of Bram Stoker and his son; when I shook hands with H.G. Wells; when I met Marlene Deitrich and there was a young actor opposite her just doing a second role, I don’t know if he went on to amount to anything or not, er – Cary Grant?

PP: Oh yes, I think I’ve heard about that guy. (laughs)

FJA: And then when John Landis used me in eight of his films. He had me as President of the United States in "Amazon Women on the Moon." In my next film, I graduated and became President of the World. Then, after two terms, I was out of a job and all I could get was to be a judge in "Nudist Colony of the Dead." It was quite a comedown from President of the World.

PP: How the mighty have fallen...

FJA: Yes, indeed. (chuckles)

PP: We’re talking about your appearances, and I read somewhere that you can claim the largest film career with the least actual screen time.

FJA: (Chuckles) I’ve done 106 cameos, and if you put it all together it probably wouldn’t even mount up to an hour.

PP: Have you any favorite cameo appearances that come to mind?

FJA: Yes, as the curator of the last museum on earth after World War Three had destroyed civilization in a film called "Aftermath." Also, as Technician #3 in an android factory in "The Time Travelers."

PP: Were these roles particularly fun to do, or was it the people you were working with that make them memorable?

FJA: Well, the directors were all very fond of me, and I of them.

PP: I heard once that you referred to yourself as "the poor mans –"

FJA: "Vincent Price?" Yes, well when he was alive many people considered us as look-alikes, and when they couldn’t afford Vincent for a film, they got me for half-Price. (Laughs)

PP: You and Mr. Price were friends for quite some time, weren’t you?

FJA: Very good friends, indeed. Once, he was flying over to Barcelona to meet up with me for a fantasy film festival. This was fifteen years after Boris Karloff had died. He said that during the night on the plane a lady came to him all excited, "Oh sir, could I have your autograph? I can’t tell you how many years I’ve enjoyed your films Mr. Karloff." So, Vincent Price brought Boris Karloff back to life with the only autograph fifteen years after he died!"

PP: That would be worth something today, wouldn’t it?

FJA: (Chuckles) Yes. He gave me his very last autograph. He knew he was on his way out and decided he would sign his name for the last time. Did you ever hear of Brother Theodore?

PP: Oh, Yes!

FJA: He was a dear lifelong friend of mine. I can still hear him saying (adopts a crazy Teutonic tone) "My name, right now, is Theodore and I was born two years after the discover-r-ry of dirt. I am now at the height of my senility." He tells about an abortionist..."and in her hand she held the tool of her trade – a long black hat pin. She stabbed it into my eye. I laughed – it was my glass eye!"

PP: I remember seeing him on the Letterman show, and I just remember him being this little ball of fury. He was hysterical. I remember one of his lines. He would say, (I also adopt a crazy Teutonic tone) "From the moment you ar-r-re born, you are old enough to die!"

FJA: (Laughs) He was saved from a concentration camp by Albert Einstein.

PP: Wow, really?

FJA: He lived to be 93. I spoke to him on the phone at least once a week towards the end of his life to cheer him up.

PP: I only knew of him through his TV appearances, but I understand he was quite a cult figure in the New York area.

FJA: Oh, yes.

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