Charlie Varrick director, Don Siegel said:

“Walter Matthau is addicted to gambling and knows it all too well. He compounds his illness by actually not wanting to win. His excitement and enjoyment in gambling comes from losing."

Charlie Varrick villain, Joe Don Baker, said:

“For the scene where Walter is hanging upside-down in the bi-plane, I asked Walter if he wanted to go over the lines, so he won’t have to hang there so long."

Walter replied to me:

‘My dear Don, I’ve hung from my heels out of a window, held by a Mafia gorilla, until I agreed to pay my gambling debts. So I’m not worried about hanging from a plane’.”

On the first day of filming Grumpier Old Men, Kevin Pollack tried to make small-talk with Matthau saying, “Well, the script looks pretty good.”

“The script sucks,” Matthau replied, “but I’m in debt for two-million dollars.” (which was true ).

Roger Ebert said,: “Matthau told me in 1994 he had lost $50 million in betting over the years.”

The back of Matthau’s funeral program had his picks for the next week’s horse races. (true )