Zitate

[about a concert given by his band] There were only about 50 people there, and they were all enjoying the band, and almost all were dancing. One fellow was standing off to the side watching for the longest time; it was Dustin Hoffman. He loved it. He said it reminded him of when he was a little boy and his parents took him to see Ted Lewis. Martin Short was a riot. He said, "I wanna sing with Johnny Crawford!".

[on his orchestrated band] It's a unique, romantic sound, and people love to hear it. It takes people back to an older America and a simpler, more elegant time. It's a sound I really love, and I find that once people get a chance to hear it live, in all its glory, that they love it, too.

[why he thinks his Mark McCain character on Westlich von Santa Fe (1958) became popular with audiences] What boy wouldn't love dressing up as a cowboy and getting paid for it! It was hard work, and I took it very seriously as an actor, but I was living in a dream.

I always say that life is not easy for anybody. People hear about the young actors who have a rough life, but there are plenty of other kids who aren't actors who have a rough time, too, and I don't know if the ratio is any different.

[comparing his character on Westlich von Santa Fe (1958) to his real-life role as a bandleader] The way I look at it, Mark McCain could have grown up to lead dance bands in the 1920s and '30s. As a young man who sang and played the guitar in two episodes, he might have made his way to Los Angeles, where there was lots of work for musicians in the early 1900s. By 1931, when he would have been the same age that I am now, he might have been leading his own band. I like to think he would have.

[on his on- and off-screen chemistry with Chuck Connors, who played Lucas McCain on Westlich von Santa Fe (1958)] He was my hero. I enjoyed being with him. He wasn't as stern as he was on camera. He was like a kid around me.

[Of Chuck Connors] Well, it was a great childhood, and he was bigger-than-life, a wonderful guy, very intelligent, and a big influence on me, and a great supporter, too. He was always interested in what I was doing and ready to give me advice or help me and he would call me out of the blue, and I really miss him. He left us in '92, and it's still a shock to me to think that he's not around because he had so much energy, and loved life and loved people, and he was "The Rifleman." He was that and a lot more.