I put the movie days totally behind me... It was a part of my past that I really kind of put in a little drawer and shut the door.

I grew up in Hollywood during WWII, and my mother was afraid that my father was going to be drafted because she didn't think we were going to be able to live on army pay. She didn't want to have to get a job, so she decided to put me to work, and that's how I got started in the movies.

Life continues to be difficult. It always will be because that's just life. But I am so glad I have put some happiness into the world.

I never saw movies I was in because my mom told me that would be prideful, being stuck on yourself.

I was raising seven kids. I lived in the bedrooms, in the laundry room, in the kitchen, in the car - car pooling all over. I just didn't have time to sit down and watch a lot of TV. So I really didn't.

My mother died when I was 12, and right after, my dad died in a car crash. I was 15 and had no family. The court sent me to live with my uncle and aunt in Missouri.