Death of a Salesman (1985 TV Movie)

Stephen Lang: Harold 'Happy' Loman

Quotes 

• Linda Loman : I am not saying he's a great man. Willy Loman never earned a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being - and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He must not be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention! Attention must be finally paid to such a person! You called him crazy...

  Biff Loman : Mom, I didn't know...

  Linda Loman : Wait of minute! A lot of people think he's lost his-balance. But you don't have to be very smart to know what his trouble is. The man is exhausted!

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Sure.

  Linda Loman : A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.

• Biff Loman : I've always made a point of not wasting my life. Whenever I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : You're a poet, Biff. You know it? Yeah, you're an idealist.

  Biff Loman : No, I'm mixed up very bad.

• Biff Loman : I tell you Happy, I don't know what the future is. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : What do you mean?

  Biff Loman : I spent six or seven years after High School trying to work myself up, being a shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. It's a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway, on hot mornings in the the summer, to devote your whole life to keeping stock or making phone calls? By selling and buying? To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation? When all you really desire is to be outdoors with your shirt off. And always, to have to get ahead of the next fella and still, that's how you build a future.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : I'm gettin' married, Mom. I wanted to tell you.

  Linda Loman : Go to sleep, dear.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : I just wanted to tell you.

  Willy Loman : Keep up the good work.

• Biff Loman : Are you content, Happy? You're a success, aren't you? Are you content?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Hell, no.

  Biff Loman : Why not? You're makin' money, aren't you.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : All I can do now is wait for the Merchandise Manager to die.

• Stanley : What'd you hit a number or somethin'?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : No, it's a little celebration. My brother is - I think he pulled off a big deal today. I think we're going into business together.

  Stanley : Great! That's the best. Because a family business, you know what I mean?-that's the best.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : That's what I think.

  Stanley : 'Cause what's the difference? Somebody steals? It's in the family. Know what I mean?

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : You don't happen to sell, do you?

  Miss Forsythe : No, I don't sell.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Would you object to a compliment from a stranger? You ought to be on a magazine cover.

  Miss Forsythe : I have been.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : What'd I say before? You see, Stanley, she's a cover girl.

  Stanley : Oh, I could see, I could see.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : What magazine?

  Miss Forsythe : A lot of them.

• Biff Loman : There were a lot of nice days. When he'd come home from a trip; or on Sundays, making the stoop; finishing the cellar; when he built the extra bathroom; and put up the garage. You know, Charley, I think there was more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made.

  Charley : Yeah. He was a happy man with a batch of cement.

  Linda Loman : He was so wonderful with his hands.

  Biff Loman : He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Don't say that!

  Biff Loman : The man didn't know who he was.

  Charley : Nobody dast blame this man.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : Bob Harrison, he said you were tops, and then you go and do some damn fool thing like whistling whole songs in the elevator like a comedian.

  Biff Loman : Well, so what? I like to whistle sometimes.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : You don't raise a guy to a responsible job who whistles in the elevator!

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : Come on, Biff, let's buck him up.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : [a "strudel" walks into the restuarant]  Oooooooo... Look at that mouth. Oh, God, and the binoculars.

• Harold 'Happy' Loman : Miss Forsythe, this is my brother.

  Biff Loman : Is Dad here?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : His name is Biff. You might've heard of him. He's a great football player.

  Miss Forsythe : Really? What team?

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Are you familiar with football?

  Miss Forsythe : No, I'm afraid I'm not.

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Biff is quarterback with the New York Giants.

• Willy Loman : Isn't that-isn't that remarkable? Biff - he - he likes me!

  Linda Loman : He loves you, Willy!

  Harold 'Happy' Loman : Always did, Pop.