Erskine Sanford Biography

Legend has it that Orson Welles saw his first theatrical production at age seven, when a touring company of Mr. Pim Passes By played in Welles' hometown of Kenosha, WI. Invited backstage, young Welles was effusively greeted by the play's leading man, Erskine Sanford, whose kind and encouraging words inspired Welles to pursue an acting career himself. Whether this story is true or not, the fact remains that, in 1936, Erskine Sanford left the Theatre Guild after a 15-year association to join Orson Welles' experimental Mercury Theatre. When Welles took the Mercury Players to Hollywood in 1940 to film Citizen Kane, Sanford was assigned the small but plum role of Herbert Carter, the sputtering, apoplectic former editor of the New York Inquirer. The actor went on to appear prominently in such Welles-directed films as The Magnificent Ambersons (1942, as Mr. Bronson), Lady From Shanghai (1947, as the judge), and MacBeth (1948, as King Duncan). Outside of his Mercury Theatre activities, Erskine Sanford played featured roles in such mainstream Hollywood productions as Ministry of Fear (1943) and Angel on My Shoulder (1946) before his retirement in 1950. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

• 1. Drover: He was just another murderer [ie Picard]..... Nobody can help me decide this. [ie the fate of Picard]
  2. Jean Picard: I'd better be going along, Gestapo clocks may be fast.
  3. Jean Picard: Somehow [Paris] is always beautiful before dark.
  4. Jean Picard: Tell Marianne... we'll think of something.
  5. Drover: What is it that brought you [Picard] back. [to turn himself in to the Gestapo]
  6. Jean Picard: What time do they shoot me?
  7. Jean Picard: Its been a long road.
  8. Jean Picard: Yes, but it has a good ending.
  9. Gestapo Agent: You see, you forgot how to answer that one. [a question that quizzed all captives]
  From Uncertain Glory. Submitted by rick b (54 days ago)

• 1. Jean Picard: I'm looking a that little pulse there in your throat. [talking to Marriane]
  2. Drover: We've had enough fishing, both of us. [after wasting time fishing]
  From Uncertain Glory. Submitted by rick b (54 days ago)

• 1. Drover: No Picard, you have an appointment in Paris tonight.
  2. Jean Picard: At this point everybody in the world is trembling.
  3. Jean Picard: How better can a man live the last than three days of his life [on meeting Marianne]
  4. Marianne: We don't know where to turn or who to tell.
  5. Jean Picard: What? are all the men around here blind? [asking about Marianne's romances]
  From Uncertain Glory. Submitted by rick b (54 days ago)

• 1. Drover: It wasn't my idea, [their plan to fool the Germans] there is always the guillotine you know.
  2. Drover: I intend to enjoy my pension some day. [chains Picard to the bed]
  3. Jean Picard: Always the policeman, here I dig help to dig my own grave and you still don't trust me.
  From Uncertain Glory. Submitted by rick b (54 days ago)

• 1. Jean Picard: At least it has more dignity than the guillotine. [being shot by a firing squad]
  2. Jean Picard: A hundred innocent lives for one guilty one [his own]
  3. Jean Picard: I'll be honest with you, I do have a prejudice against the guillotine.
  4. Jean Picard: A hundred men you could have saved and didn't.
  5. Drover: I'm willing to risk everything on a theif and a murderer [he will release Picard to be caught by the Germans and certain death for Picard]
  6. Father Le Clerc: Anything that maintain a free spirit is worth a life.
  7. Jean Picard: What's wrong with [a name like] Emile on a tombstone? Sounds like a hair dresser.
  From Uncertain Glory. Submitted by rick b (54 days ago)