I was 5-foot-8, no face, just pale white eyebrows and eyelashes. Nothing to photograph.
Size doesn't mean a thing.
[James] Cagney once said to me, "Listen, kid, I want to give you a tip. I'm 5 feet 4 inches tall and I play opposite guys 6 feet 3...By the time the scene's over, I'm 6 feet 3."
What They Said In 1975
That film [Footlight Parade] brings to mind a question frequently asked of me: Did my height ever give me trouble with leading ladies? Only with one - Claire Dodd. She was the tallest of all the ladies I've ever worked with - a tall, handsome gal - and in close shots opposite her, they had to slip a two-inch apple box under me.Which brings me to the subject of my height. For reasons unknown to me, people are always interested in my exact height. The literal truth is, I don't know what it is. I haven't measured for years and I'm really not interested enough to do so. I do know my wife is five foot one, and I tower over her by a good seven inches.
Various newspaper accounts of my career pegged my height at different levels, and I think the reason they never agree is because in any fight scene I have always insisted on having an opponent bigger than myself.