Faye Dunaway Net Worth

Faye Dunaway's Quotes

• I really hate talking about Mommie Dearest (1981)! It is like an obsession with people! Why do people need to focus so much on one film I made over 20 years ago? It was not a great time in my life and the film was not an experience I want to think about. Period!
• The rhythms of being an actress are by definition intensity and then letting out. It's like a heartbeat.
• [on signing a six-picture deal with Otto Preminger that she later got out of] As much as it cost me to get out of the deal with Otto, if I'd had to do those movies with him, then I wouldn't have done Bonnie and Clyde (1967), or The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), or any of the movies I was suddenly in a position to choose to do. Beyond the movies I might have missed, it would have been a kind of Chinese water torture to have been stuck in five more terrible movies. It's impossible to assess the damage that might have done to me that early on in my career.
• [on playing an alcoholic in Barfly (1987)] This character, who has given over her days and nights to a bottle, is my way back to the light. This is a role that I care deeply about. I haven't felt this passion for a character since Network (1976). I saw the promise of a comeback for me in the deglamorized face of Wanda, a woman of sweet vulnerability.
• [on Supergirl (1984)] The film was really just a send-up, a spoof, and I had a lot of fun with Selena. But every time I tried to do something funny, [director Jeannot Szwarc] wouldn't let me. He said, "you have to be the straight person". I always wanted to do comedy but it's daunting when you've not done it before.

Interesting Facts about Faye Dunaway

1. She auditioned for the role of Daisy that went to Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby (1974). Her 1995 autobiography was titled "Looking for Gatsby: My Life".
2. Attended Boston University. Gave up a Fulbright Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London to join the original training program at the Lincoln Center Repertory Theater in New York. She got her first starring role in "A Man for All Seasons" just days after graduating from college. She was the daughter of a career army man which resulted in her traveling constantly in her early life.
3. Her son with Terry O'Neill, Liam O'Neill, was born in 1980.
4. Her first husband, Peter Wolf, was the lead singer of the rock band J. Geils.
5. Ranked #65 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
6. Converted to Roman Catholicism while in Boston, Massachusetts. [December 1996]
7. Has a connection with the James Bond - 007 franchise: was considered for the role of Domino Derval in Thunderball (1965) and as the female lead in Octopussy (1983) (Maud Adams ended up with the role). Faye had a chance to work with Pierce Brosnan (the fifth 007) in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (1999).
8. Competing for beauty titles was considered de rigueur for Southern girls in the 1950s, and Dunaway remembers in her autobiography that she was somehow convinced that she could NOT leave Florida until she won one. She missed being crowned May Queen at Leon High School in Tallahassee by a mere six votes, and had another near-miss at a title when she was voted runner up for Miss University of Florida in 1959. Dunaway finally scored her beauty crown when she was named Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, and promptly transferred to Boston University.
9. Jane Fonda, Ann-Margret, Tuesday Weld and Natalie Wood were each offered Dunaway's breakthrough role of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) but they all turned it down. Other actresses up for the part included Jean Simmons, Leslie Caron (who were rejected as too old), Sue Lyon, Carol Lynley, Jean Hale, Cher, and even Warren Beatty's big sister Shirley MacLaine (before Beatty signed on to play Clyde, of course).
10. The role of Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown (1974) was originally marked for Ali MacGraw, wife of the film's producer Robert Evans. By the time production started, MacGraw had left Evans for actor Steve McQueen and other actresses were considered for the part. Dunaway's main competition for the role was Jane Fonda.
11. By her own admission in a New York Times interview many years back, she and late comedian Lenny Bruce were briefly lovers and lived together for a week, circa 1963. She was also engaged to director Jerry Schatzberg in the mid-1960s.
12. In order to be taken seriously as an actress, she turned down a regular role on The Guiding Light (1952) in 1965.
13. Her portrayal of actress Joan Crawford in the critically panned film Mommie Dearest (1981) was ranked #41 on the villains list of the 100 years of "The Greatest Screen Heroes and Legends", while her portrayal of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) - which she shared with Warren Beatty was ranked #32. She is one of only two actresses - the other being Bette Davis - to have two villainous roles in the list.
14. Member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority.
15. One of only four actresses, along with Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock and Liza Minnelli, to win both the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Razzie Award for Worst Actress (Dunaway shared her award with Bo Derek).
16. Is only 14 years older than Diana Scarwid, who played her daughter in Mommie Dearest (1981).
17. Is the only actor/actress to have appeared in both the 1968 version (The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)) and 1999 version (The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)) of "The Thomas Crown Affair".
18. Her performance as Evelyn Cross Mulwray in Chinatown (1974) is ranked #36 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
19. Her performance as Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) is ranked #34 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
20. According to the DVD commentary by John Waters on Mommie Dearest (1981), Dunaway feels the film's reception ruined her career, to an extent, and she refuses to discuss the film (hence her lack of participation in its release).