English Actors

Gay marriage is at the forefront of America's political battles. The human story at the center of this debate is told in Double Life: A Love Story, a dual memoir by a gay male couple in a 50-plus-year relationship. With high profiles in the entertainment, advertising and art communities, the authors offer a virtual timeline of how gay relationships have gained acceptance in the last half-century.

Henry Fonda’s performances - in The Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Lady Eve, 12 Angry Men, On Golden Pond - helped define "American" in the 20th century. He worked with movie masters from Ford and Sturges to Hitchcock and Leone. He was a Broadway legend. He fought in World War II and was loved the world over. Yet much of his life was rage and struggle. McKinney’s Fonda is dark, complex, fascinating, and a product of glamour and acclaim, early losses, and Midwestern demons - a man haunted by what he’d seen and who he was.

Been there, done that, indeed. Texas-born and Harvard-educated, Jack Valenti led several lives, any one of which could have provided ample material for an unforgettable memoir. As it is, This Time, This Place is the gripping story of a man who saw the terrible face of war; who was in the room as political decisions were made that would benefit or devastate countless lives; and who championed the interest of the vast and globally influential movie industry with tenacity and vision.

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.

Hollywood Madonna explores the full saga of Loretta Young's professional and personal life. She made her film debut at age four, became a star at fifteen, and many awards and accolades later, made her final television movie at age seventy-six. This biography withholds none of the details of her affair with Clark Gable and the daughter that powerful love produced. Bernard F. Dick places Young's affair in the proper context of the time and the choices available to women in 1935.

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.

Covering more than 30 years of Reagan's film and television work, Marc Eliot sheds new light on Reagan's bachelor life, his two marriages, and his two runs as the president of SAG. It also examines his personal relationship with superagent Lew Wasserman, the crucial player who helped develop Reagan's movie-star persona, which would prove essential to his eventually becoming President of the United States.

Marlon Brando, screen legend: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best.

The name Bruce Lee is synonymous with martial arts superstar. Lee’s movie career was cut tragically short by his death at just 32 years old. Starring in six big-release feature movies, Lee revolutionized martial arts movie-making and challenged Western prejudices against the East. Challenging the status quo of martial arts practice, Lee created his own unique system, Jeet Kune Do. More than a martial art, Jeet Kune Do is a philosophy for life that is founded on the art of fighting without fighting.

She is a one-name legend, a global icon, the ultimate diva. Yet most of what we know about Barbra Joan Streisand is the stuff of caricature.

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.

Cowboy Stuntman chronicles the life and achievements of this colorful Texan and Olympic gold medal winner who spent a half century as a Hollywood stuntman and actor, appearing in 10 John Wayne movies and doubling for a long list of actors as diverse as Robert Culp, Michael Landon, Steve Martin, Strother Martin, Robert Redford, and Roy Rogers.

At the age of two, Mimi began working as a child actress, sharing the screen with the some of the legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood: Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, John Wayne, Loretta Young, Jane Wyman, Dorothy McGuire and many, many more. This is a tale of the kid-actors filming on the sound stages of 1950s Hollywood, kid-actors playing their parts in a very adult world, learning hard lessons with sometimes life-altering consequences.

It would take a restless camera to document Jane Fonda’s life for she is a woman of formidable energy, but Fred Lawrence Guiles’ expert commentary captures her in motion. We pursue her in a tireless route of study, self-discovery, and social awareness that causes her to ultimately reject the lifestyle of her first husband, Roger Vadim, for the role of political activist with her present husband, Tom Hayden. We witness how the shift in political climate transforms her from history’s scourge to history’s darling.

Tyrone Power was as versatile in life as he was on the screen. He was a multifaceted man and was the last idol created by the vast star-making machine 20th Century Fox. Coming from a family of multi-generational actors, Tyrone Power broke the proverbial mold. His on-screen charisma in the 30s and 40s propelled him to the forefront of must-have actors. His on-screen accomplishments were many, yet he did not hesitate to enter the military when his country went to war. After the war, he continued in his career, but the years took their toll.

David Morrell is best known for his acclaimed thrillers, including The Brotherhood of the Rose, Creepers, Murder as a Fine Art, and his debut novel, First Blood, in which Rambo first appeared. But Morrell is also a master of nonfiction. Twenty of his essays about iconic writers, actors, and singers are collected in Stars in My Eyes: My Love Affair with Books, Movies, and Music.

A Hollywood love story, a Hollywood memoir, a dual biography of two of Hollywood’s most famous figures, whose golden lives were lived at the center of Hollywood’s golden age, written by their daughter, an acclaimed writer and producer. Fay Wray was most famous as the woman - the blonde in a diaphanous gown - who captured the heart of the mighty King Kong. The book’s - and Wray’s - counterpart: Robert Riskin, considered one of the greatest screenwriters of all time. Fay Wray and Robert Riskin lived large lives, finding each other after establishing their artistic selves.

For five decades, no American filmmaker has been as prolific or as paradoxical as Woody Allen. From Play It Again, Sam (1972) to Midnight in Paris (2011) and Blue Jasmine (2013), Allen has produced an average of one film a year; yet in many of these movies Allen reveals a progressively skeptical attitude toward both the value of art and the cultural contributions of artists.

Two shows changed the face of Australian television forever, and rocked the nation to its foundations. Two shows changed the face of Australian television forever, and rocked the nation to its foundations. And now, the creator of Number 96 and the Executive Producer of The Mavis Bramston Show takes you behind the scenes of these two controversial, outrageously ground-breaking series for a jaunt through the industry's Golden Years.

The sparkling memoir of a movie icon's life in the footlights and on camera, The Good, the Bad, and Me tells the extraordinary story of Eli Wallach's many years dedicated to his craft. Beginning with his early days in Brooklyn and his college years in Texas, where he dreamed of becoming an actor, this book follows his career as one of the earliest members of the famed Actors Studio and as a Tony Award winner for his work on Broadway.