English Actors

The Authentic Actor: the Art and Business of Being Yourself illuminates for today’s actors the skills, strategies, and mental approach to navigating the intersection of art and commerce. It’s the culmination of Michael Laskin’s over forty years in the profession, and thousands of hours of classroom work and private coaching. Today’s “Authentic Actor” is someone who has successfully merged their highly developed talent with their fully examined identity. Defining, refining, and understanding your indelibility as an actor, your “blink-of-an-eye” factor, is key.

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.

This is a combo of 16 topics, and unique artists, composers, writers, and actors, compiled into a comprehensive biography guide. Listen to the struggles, the background, the poverty and wealth, and genius brains from the16th to the 20th century - all of which have brought certain insights, and understandings in artistic, literature, musical, or dramatic movements, to the next level. You will understand the motivation and circumstances of these great artists better. It will help you rethink your own life, your own legacy, and your plans for the future.

A young doctor falls in love with the art of acting. Surprising success in Hollywood and rewards from a lucky marriage lead him to repay life with dedicated service in West Africa. The stories relate how the doctor became a doctor, how he stumbled into acting, won an enviable Hollywood career, gained a wonderful family, and suddenly decided to leave his good fortune to provide medical service in a poor country in West Africa.

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon are probably best remembered for their films together, but both were clearly established actors in Hollywood by the time they appeared in their first film together. The great film director Billy Wilder once noted of Jack Lemmon that Lemmon "was my everyman", and Lemmon did indeed represent a great everyman to American audiences during the latter half of the 20th century.

Actors! Have you been considering the enticing move to LA? Well, this is the book for you! Join award-winning actress Krystina Bailey Brawer as she takes you on her journey to navigating the "City of Dreams". She will share with you her wins and woes and how to never give up on your goal. Are you down for the ride?

Brimming with previously untold stories and insights, How Coppola Became Cage both revels in and demystifies Cage's onscreen eccentricities. No other modern actor has explored such profound creative extremes while bending the boundaries of good taste. Here is the origin story of an actor who truly is wild at heart and weird on top.

Ever wonder why so many B actors wind up as A-grade politicians? Or how the casting couch worked? Acclaimed author Kathleen Sharp traces the influence of show business through the lives of its first power couple. Edie and Lew Wasserman built the world’s largest talent agency, MCA, created the multibillion-dollar Universal Studios, and helped shape Washington, DC.

Dueling Banjos: The Deliverance of Drew is a collection of stories of the making of the iconic movie, Deliverance, told from the perspective of one of the four main actors in the film, Ronny Cox, who played the character of Drew. Based on the novel by James Dickey, the movie was filmed in the summer of 1971 and was released the following year in 1972. Forty years later, it remains one of the most recognized films in movie history for being raw, emotional, violent and shocking - yet it leaves a lasting impression of artistic excellence.

Raised in the Hollywood of the 1920s as the privileged son of a pioneer studio mogul, Budd Schulberg went on to win fame as a distinguished novelist, short story writer, playwright, Oscar-winning screenwriter, and boxing historian.

The goddaughter of Igor Stravinsky and a graduate of Hollywood High, Eve Babitz posed in 1963, at age 20, playing chess with the French artist Marcel Duchamp. She was naked; he was not. The photograph made her an instant icon of art and sex. Babitz spent the rest of the decade rocking and rolling on the Sunset Strip, honing her notoriety. There were the album covers she designed: for Buffalo Springfield and the Byrds, to name but a few. There were the men she seduced: Jim Morrison, Ed Ruscha, Harrison Ford, to name but a very few.

All James wanted was a little solitude at his favorite resort: bright sunshine overhead, soft, white sand underfoot, and a hammock to read in while the warm breeze rustles through the coconut palms and almond trees. However, when an old acquaintance shows up, and James is obliged to share "his" beach, a profound exchange over a bottle of rum leads to a lust-fueled encounter in the dark.

Presented in vivid detail, Living with Inattentive ADHD showcases how attention deficit hyperactivity disorder profoundly affects a person’s daily life and emotional well-being. The essential primer on a lesser known diagnosis of ADHD, this book features both prescriptive and experiential solutions for inattentive attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

From Marion Davies's humble days in Brooklyn to her rise to fame alongside press baron William Randolph Hearst, the public life story of the film star plays like a modern fairy tale shaped by gossip columnists, fan magazines, biopics, and documentaries. Yet the real Marion Davies remained largely hidden from view, as she trusted few with her true life story. In Captain of Her Soul, Lara Gabrielle pulls back layers of myth to show a complex and fiercely independent woman, ahead of her time, who carved her own path.

There is no general consensus about how Shakespeare "should" be played. There are no rules. But, while the Bard created superhuman characters and placed them in situations that stretches the imagination to its limits, he also provided his actors with the keys to playing them.

Just a few short weeks ago, I was Cal Newhart. An ex-marine struggling to adjust to the realities of civilian life. Now, I am the Paladin. A mythical warrior of vaunted strength and ability, able to summon armor and weapons in the blink of an eye. An elven princess summoned me to the magical continent of Telos. A goddess has charged me with defeating the demonic vrag from across the sea. Fortunately, I'm not alone. A stern yet beautiful Valkyrie, a seductive dark princess, and an innocent elven spell-caster will help me along my journey. And I'm going to need all the help I can get.

An invaluable reference for anyone who is a working actor, or wants to be. Learn how to make it in the day-to-day business of acting and stay sane and focused while attempting to merge art and commerce. This audiobook covers everything the author wishes someone had told him about how casting decisions are made, what rejection really means, how to behave on a set, the two factors the business is built on, and much more. Markus Flanagan offers encouraging, highly useful pointers on such vital matters as: How do you combat getting typed?

Ambrose Palmer, an aspiring actor, journeys through the circles of hell of a brutal industry. We follow him, his lovers, and a small clan of novice performers as they weather the storms of the acting profession. But behind the sex and hilarity lurks the desperation of Thatcher’s England.

From watching his colleague get shot in the testicles by a jealous producer to running Hollywood's most successful television studio, Harris Katleman had a front row seat in the development of the television industry. Through a number of hilarious accounts, Harris Katleman shares his journey from office boy to talent agent to television producer, and finally to studio head at both MGM and 20th Century Fox. Along the way, we meet industry giants including Rupert Murdoch, Bob Iger, Barry Diller, Marvin Davis, Kirk Kerkorian, Mark Goodson, and Lew Wasserman.

The work of Mike Nichols pervades American cultural consciousness - from The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Angels in America, The Birdcage, Working Girl, and Primary Colors, not to mention his string of hit plays, including Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. Over a career that spanned half a century, Mike Nichols changed Hollywood, Broadway, and comedy forever. Here, for the first time, Ash Carter and Sam Kashner offer an intimate look behind the scenes of Nichols' life.