Stockard Channing (Actor)

"I never went to drama school or anything. I just started working on the stage and learning from experience. I don't think I was always very good. I didn't have mentors; I could have used a couple. But you have to respect every possible way that performers achieve what they achieve. All that matters is what's on the stage - telling the story, moving people, making them laugh. That's what the job is. I don't care if it's about the hat you wear, or if you have to drink a bottle of Scotch to do it. Everyone should have their own thing, and how they get there is their own problem to solve. I do think there is snobbery about this." - Channing quoted in InTheater magazine, April 12, 1999

"I was brought up in a very conventional background to be the sort of woman who marries some guy with money and has the house and the kids in prep schools and lives this very protected life. On the other hand, I went off and joined the circus." - Channing quoted in The New York Times, March 6, 1994

"Stockard never has a complaint, never makes excuses, never frets about age or shape or typecasting or anything of that nature. She's just a classic dame, a great broad." - co-star, Martin Sheen to TV Guide magazine, March 15-22, 2002

"What I love about the theater is the moment of absolute solitude you have in the dark. You're going to walk out of the dark into the light. And something's going to happen." - Channing quoted in New York magazine, Oct. 22, 1990

On Dec. 14, 2004, Channing was arrested and charged with driving under the influence after being stopped while driving on the shoulder of the Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles. In 2005, she pled no contest to driving under the influence. Channing was fined $390, given three years' probation, and ordered to attend an alcohol education class.