Actors Art

Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood is the first full-length biography of this pioneering Australian film star. It's the thrilling story of a working-class Sydney boy who went to Hollywood, took on the Americans at their own game on their own turf in one of the toughest industries there is - and won. It's also the story of a talented actor who was almost brought down by the demons of alcohol and ego, but who ultimately overcame them to triumph.

Geboren wurde er 1935 in Brooklyn: mit sechzehn begann Woody Allen seine lebenslange künstlerische Karriere, als Witzeschreiber für Zeitungen. Schreiben sollte er auch später: Drehbücher, Theaterstücke, Storys für den New Yorker. Dazu kam bald eine Karriere als Stand-up-Comedian, als Schauspieler und dann als einer der bedeutendsten Regisseure unserer Zeit. Seit sechs Jahrzehnten steht Woody Allen vor und hinter der Kamera, macht er Filme, mehr als fünfzig sind es geworden.

Charming and classically handsome, John Gilbert (1897-1936) was among the world's most recognizable actors during the silent era. He was a wild, swashbuckling figure on screen and off, and accounts of his life have focused on his high-profile romances with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, his legendary conflicts with Louis B. Mayer, his four tumultuous marriages, and his swift decline after the introduction of talkies.

Rollyson fully explores Brennan's work with Hollywood's greatest directors, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Fritz Lang. As a father and grandfather, Brennan instilled generations of his family with an outlook on the American Dream that remains a sustaining feature of their lives today. His conservative politics, which grew out of his New England upbringing and his devout Catholicism, receive meticulous attention and a balanced assessment in A Real American Character.

Ed Lowry joined the vaudeville circuit in 1910 at the age of 14. He never achieved stardom equal to the likes of Fred Allen, Jack Benny, George Burns, Buster Keaton, or Eddie Cantor, and he never considered himself an "artiste". Instead, he saw himself as a hoofer and comic simply trying to make a living on the vaude scene. My Life in Vaudeville recounts Lowry's long career in entertainment from the viewpoint of a foot soldier with a big dream.

From this comprehensive, yet critically measured wealth of material, Rollyson offers a distinctive and insightful portrait of Marilyn Monroe, highlighted by new perspectives that depict the central importance of acting to the authentic aspects of her being.

At the age of 17, in the glory days of moviemaking, Piper Laurie was living every little girl's dream. A contract star with Universal, Piper was elevated to the heights of Hollywood, her name emblazoned on 1950s marquees across America for hit movies like The Prince Who Was a Thief, The Mississippi Gambler, and Ain't Misbehavin'. Meanwhile, Piper's beauty was admired by the likes of Ronald Reagan, Howard Hughes, Paul Newman, and Tony Curtis as well as dozens of directors and legions of fans.

A lively and colorful biography of Hollywood's first superagent - one of the most outrageous showbiz characters of the 1960s and 1970s, whose clients included Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, Faye Dunaway, Michael Caine, and Candice Bergen. Before Sue Mengers hit the scene in the mid-1960s, talent agents remained quietly in the background. But staying in the background was not possible for Mengers.

Moviegoers know her as the housekeeper in White Christmas, the nurse in Now, Voyager, and the crotchety choir director in Sister Act. This audiobook, filled with never-published behind-the-scenes stories from Broadway and Hollywood, chronicles the life of a complicated woman who brought an assortment of unforgettable nurses, nuns, and housekeepers to life on screen and stage.

Rote Haare, scharfer Verstand, Wagemut, Witz und Selbstbewusstsein - Regina Ziegler ist unverwechselbar. Seit über 40 Jahren schreibt sie Filmgeschichte und scheut weder Widerstände noch Kritik in einer von Männern dominierten Branche. Aufgeben? Niemals. Immer wieder ist die Grande Dame des Deutschen Films aufs Ganze gegangen, hat mit den bedeutendsten Regisseuren gearbeitet, Schauspieler zu Stars gemacht, weltweit Auszeichnungen erhalten und die deutsche Kulturlandschaft geprägt.

"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?" These famous lines from The Graduate (1967) would forever link Anne Bancroft (1931-2005) to the groundbreaking film and confirm her status as a movie icon. Along with her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in the stage and film drama The Miracle Worker, this role was a highlight of a career that spanned a half-century and brought Bancroft an Oscar, two Tonys, and two Emmy awards. In the first biography to cover the entire scope of Bancroft's life and career, Douglass K. Daniel reveals how, from a young age, Bancroft was committed to challenging herself and strengthening her craft.

Tom Wilson, the actor, comedian, and writer best known for playing "Biff" in the classic movie "Back to the Future," goes on an unplanned adventure after meeting fellow actor Clayton Moore, the man who played The Lone Ranger on T.V., experienced the pitfalls of pop celebrity, and most notably, died over a decade ago.

The Camera Lies unpacks Hitchcock's legacy both as a director who continuously taught audiences to distrust appearance and as a man with an uncanny insight into the human capacity for deceit and misinterpretation.

He spent his earliest years in post WWII refugee camps. He came to America and grew up in Cleveland, stealing cars, rolling drunks, battling priests, nearly going to jail. He became the screenwriter of the worldwide hits Basic Instinct, Jagged Edge, and Flashdance. He also wrote the legendary disasters Showgirls and Jade. The rebellion never ended, even as he became the most famous, or infamous, screenwriter in Hollywood.

Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning actor with the legendary blue eyes, achieved superstar status by playing charismatic renegades, broken heroes, and winsome antiheroes in such revered films as The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict, The Color of Money, and Nobody’s Fool. But Newman was also an oddity in Hollywood: the rare box-office titan who cared about the craft of acting, the sexy leading man known for the staying power of his marriage, and the humble celebrity who made philanthropy his calling card long before it was cool.

How do the most glamorous people in Hollywood behave when they're not in Hollywood? They run the gamut, and Nat Segaloff followed them for 25 years. He started in the staid and stuffy - but also politically tinged and rapidly evolving - city of Boston, then picked up the trail in Los Angeles. In Screen Saver: Private Stories of Public Hollywood, he writes about the celebrities he worked with when they thought they were out of the public eye. These are the scoops about the bad, the beautiful, the boring, and the blessed.

For two moviegoing generations, Cary Grant was class—an effortless embodiment of gentlemanly grace and humor. But Cary Grant’s greatest achievement was in creating himself and the irresistible character he became. In this savvy, fascinating portrait, McCann tracks the transformation of a life and looks closely at the sources of Cary Grant’s charms, which did not come easily. Generously filled with anecdotes about fellow actors and directors, a realistic portrait of a complicated man emerges.

With compelling realism mixed with equal doses of self-deprecating wit, youthful bravado, and hard-earned humility, Symptoms of Withdrawal chronicles Lawford's deep and long descent into near-fatal drug and alcohol addiction, and his subsequent formidable path back to the sobriety he has preserved for the past 20 years.

Beverly Washburn was one of Hollywood's most familiar child actors during the 1950s and '60s, a consummate performer who excelled at both comedy and drama with equal ease. Renowned for her uncanny ability to cry on cue, she appeared in countless television shows during the medium's Golden Age, and many of the era's best-loved movies, including Walt Disney's Old Yeller, The Greatest Show on Earth, Shane, and Spider Baby, just to name a few.

In the first full biography of actor Sidney Poitier, Aram Goudsouzian analyzes the life and career of a Hollywood legend, from his childhood in the Bahamas to his 2002 Oscar for lifetime achievement. Poitier is a gifted actor, a great American success story, an intriguing personality, and a political symbol; his life and career illuminate America's racial history.