I’ve always liked long hair. My dad’s always had long hair, but he always tells me, ‘I never had it in a ponytail.’ And I say to him, ‘You weren’t an England goalie either, were ya.’
It is much easier to become a father than to be one.
Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was a lad. From then on, he lived in fear that death was just around the corner, and he set about programming me to work hard and bring in some cash.
My dad died, I think, at 87. So I’ll be lucky if I make 87. But in a lot of cases, the younger people live longer than their parents. And they know more. My dad used to tell me he ate the hog from his rooter to his tooter. So do I when I’m not trying to lose weight.
Being an only child, I didn’t have any other family but my mom and dad really, since the rest of my family lived quite far away from London.
My dad saw it as a goal before I did, when I was 12 years old. I didn’t think competing in Olympics was possible until I was 16.
My dad was really complex, and I was raised by that. My mom is really bright – very book bright – and so those things collide… I learned that I could put all of that stuff together in the world of acting, and I could make a dollar at it.
Both my parents are Italian. My mom was born and raised in Italy. My dad was born in Canada, but then they moved to Italy.
My dad didn’t graduate high school. My mom is a high school graduate. My mom is a factory worker. My dad owned a bar in the inner city.
My dad is a really honest, hardworking, straight guy.
Whether I do an original film, a dance, or a remake of my dad’s hit songs, I have always been compared to him.
It was tough times in Ohio when we lived there. My dad was between unemployed and just selling random knickknacks at a flea market. My mom was a cashier at a Chinese food restaurant. They both had awesome careers back in Taiwan, and they came here for my sister and I.
The beauty of where I’m from – this small little town called Wallburg, North Carolina – I didn’t have a TV; I was out playing ball with my dad, shooting clay pigeons.
I didn’t grow up wealthy. We couldn’t even afford spaghetti sauce when I was first born, but my mom and dad worked really hard and came from the bottom up.
My dad used to hear me humming songs while watching television and discovered I have a nice sweet tone which should be further trained and toned.
The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary. And that was only because my dad had a Lady Gaga license plate on our old car and it was making me crazy because he was getting followed everywhere, so I bought him a new car.
My dad’s my best mate, and he always will be.
My dad always taught me to never be satisfied, to want more and know that what is done is done.
I grew up in Birmingham, but my parents are originally from Barbados. My dad, Romeo, was a long-distance lorry driver, and my mother, Mayleen, worked in catering.
My dad didn’t have a formal education, but he had a wonderful vocabulary. So in ‘Harvest,’ I wanted my main character to be an innately intelligent man who would have the vocabulary to say whatever he wanted in the same way as lots of working-class people can.
My humour is a mix of my parents’. I get the chatty, anecdotal stuff from my dad and the filth from my mam, Valerie. She has a very dark sense of humour, I think from having grown up with disabilities. It’s a coping mechanism. She had polio when she was eight and has been in a wheelchair for about 20 years.
When I was a teenager, my dad used to call me ‘Hollywood’ because I wore sunglasses all the time, even at night. Cue song.
When Dad passed away, grandpa took on that mantle of teaching me how to tackle at football or taking me and mum to cricket.
You can’t be the dad who takes your kid out after your wife has said, ‘No ice cream,’ buys the ice cream, and says, ‘Don’t tell your mother.’ You teach the child to lie – and to disrespect the other parent.
I’ve got uncles who wore garish stuff, you know, electric blue polyester suits, and they carried it off. But my dad never went down that path, he has never been into loud stuff. His style was fashionable, but never sharp.
I was around computers from birth; we had one of the first Macs, which came out shortly before I was born, and my dad ran a company that wrote computer operating systems. I don’t think I have any particular technical skills; I just got a really large head start.
My dad is a big Outlaw country guy – Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Waylon, Willie. He loves Elvis and turned me onto Elvis. He was always playing me stuff. He and I would sing and entertain the family. We’d have a little skit on Thanksgiving or whatever.
When I was a kid, I thought my dad was a little bit harsh with me at times. Sometimes I needed an arm around me instead of my dad telling me what I did wrong, but it obviously worked.
My dad Chester was a pianist and later a well-known television entertainer so football was never really something that was on his radar. However when I was a young boy a family friend took me to see an Arsenal game and from that moment on I was totally and utterly hooked.
My dad is just like everybody else’s dad. I see him as kind of a goofy guy with a great sense of humor. I try to get in a battle of wits with him, but he always gets me. I emulate him because I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as he does.
I would never have done what I’d done if I’d considered my father as somebody I wanted to please.
My dad is this very sensible guy who never let me feel that anything was beyond my station.
Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.
Mickey Rourke’s character in ‘The Wrestler’ – that was my dad, that was my uncles, that was so many members of my family. It was the only thing they knew. And then they would end up wrestling for a hundred bucks, go to autograph signings for two hundred bucks.
I grew up in Des Moines. My dad had a house full of books, things like P.G. Wodehouse books and ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte.
Here’s what happens in a play. You get involved in a situation where something is unbalanced. If nothing’s unbalanced, there’s no reason to have a play. If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad’s not dead and asks him if he’s had a good time, it’s boring. But if something’s unbalanced, it must be returned to order.
My dad and sister are vegetarian and I was brought up as one, but I ate a bit of fish and meat. After the attack my oesophagus melted and I had to have plastic stents put into my throat to rebuild it, so I couldn’t swallow and I was fed via a high-calorie drip through my stomach.
My dad was a cop. My mom worked at various jobs – she worked as a homemaker, a bank teller, a bartender.
One Christmas my father kept our tree up till March. He hated to see it go. I loved that.
My dad was the town drunk. Most of the time that’s not so bad; but New York City?
I was born in Orange County – in Santa Ana. My dad is from California. I was raised on the East Coast. My first two years were in California, but I claim East Coast. I’m sorry, I don’t rep California.
I grew up watching my dad be a singer, so it’s something I’ve always been interested in.
I speak to my mum and dad about the club, and my uncle and all my mates are big Leeds fans as well. They’re on the up, if you like. It’s a better situation than it was when they were in League One not so long ago.
Dad was the pitching coach, while Mom was the emotional supporter. Her unconditional love was great, and she wanted what was best for me. It was more about what she did than what she said, and she made sure I was the best I could be.
Wherever you’re from, you adapt to your environment. It definitely made my music a little bit more explicit. Because I really was in North Philly, I listened to State Property and stuff. Everything my dad listened to, I listened to.
I used to go to Sheen High Street with my dad on a Saturday, and there was a butcher next door to the fishmonger. I hated the smell of the fishmonger, but I found the smell of the butcher’s much more appealing. And I liked the big knives. I thought it looked like a decent job.
I think I’ve got my business notions and my sense for that sort of thing from my dad. My dad never had a chance to go to school. He couldn’t read and write. But he was so smart. He was just one of those people that could just make the most of anything and everything that he had to work with.
Unfortunately, I never saw Pele play. What I know of him is through my grandfather, my dad’s dad, who used to talk to me and tell me about how he played.
Humor is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?
My dad always taught me to never be satisfied: to want more and know that what is done is done. That was his way of seeing the game. You’ve done it, now move on. People might say, ‘Well, when can you enjoy it?’ But it worked for me because, in the game, you need to be on your toes.
One day I said to my dad, ‘Are you disappointed that I’m working a minimum-wage job and I didn’t go to college?’ I’ll never forget his response. He said, ‘It’s not about how much money you make or what your job is, but it’s more about your character. For that, I’m proud of you.’
I hate being clean-shaven. My daughter gets very upset if I shave and says, ‘Bring back the spikes, Dad.’
