Dying is easy...

Posted by RRC on July 26, 2009 at 16:51

In Reply to: Dying is easy... posted by Poppi on July 26, 2009 at 16:33:

: Was it Oscar Wilde who coined the phrase: 'dying is easy; it's comedy that's hard'?

In the 1982 movie "My Favorite Year", Peter O'Toole's character says "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." The general idea has been attributed to several dying actors but not in those exact words, e.g. Edmund Gwenn supposedly said in response to "It must be very hard" either "It is but not as hard as farce." or "Oh, it's very hard, very hard indeed. But not as hard as doing comedy." depending on whose story you hear. Edmund Gwenn died in 1959. Some of the "sources" died as early as 1833. It seems likely that this "quote" was made up.