Lemmon remembered how he unexpectedly got the part of Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver in the 1955 film "Mister Roberts," directed by John Ford. Lemmon was on the set of another movie, – having already lobbied for the part of Pulver – when a man with a hat and an eyepatch, wearing an old coat and sneakers, walked up to him and told him he would be good for the "Mister Roberts" role. "Well, spread the word, will you?" Lemmon recalls saying to him. "He asks, 'Do you want to play it?' I said, 'Of course I want to play it'... I figure this guy is a grip or something. He says, 'Spit in your hand.'... There was something about him, so I spit in my hand and shake his hand, and he says, 'I am Ford and you are Pulver.' And he just walks away."
