English Actors

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.

They say that laughter is the best medicine, and no one could quite make us laugh like Robin Williams. His meteoric rise to fame was fueled by an irrepressible sense of humor and dazzling improvisational skills. From the extraterrestrial Mork to the inspiring John Keating in Dead Poets Society and the endearing Genie in Aladdin, Williams’ performances captured the hearts of millions.

David and Tamela Mann have been married for 30 years, but the singers, actors, and entrepreneurs are just as, if not more than, happily in love as they were in the early days of their relationship. In their new audiobook, the couple will relate the story of their first encounters as teenagers, the importance of communication, and how they’ve been able to keep that spark burning through all these years.

This is the definitive biography of the most powerful man in Hollywood during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, the man who founded The Hollywood Reporter and the most storied nightspots of the Sunset Strip. In the 30 years as Tinseltown’s premier behind-the-scenes power broker, Billy Wilkerson introduced Clark Gable and Lana Turner to the world, brought the Mafia to Hollywood, and engineered the shakedown of the Hollywood studios by Willie Bioff and his mob-run unions. He also helped to invent Las Vegas, tangled with Bugsy Siegel (and possibly was involved with his murder), and touched off the Hollywood blacklist.

With brutal honesty and his trademark take-no-prisoners humor, Tracy tells the story of his rise to fame, with all its highs and its many lows - from the very public battles with alcohol and diabetes that threatened both his career and his life to the private and poignant end of his 20-year marriage. In his singularly warped and brilliant way, he muses on family, love, sex, race, politics, ambition, and what it takes to bring the funny.

For the first time ever, Jennie Garth is putting it all out there, sharing her joys and her sorrows, her successes and her failures, with candor and a surprising, even bawdy, sense of humor. From her sudden rise to fame as a golden-haired teen beauty, to recently redefining herself as a single working mother to three growing girls, Jennie Garth has defied the odds and thrived in a town that can be more than a little tough on its blondes.

In the 1940s it was William Holden who became America's first choice among films requiring a shy, cynical, and sexually potent "broken hero" on the screen, less thoughtful, perhaps, than Gregory Peck, and less rigid than Gary Cooper. Perhaps Holden's many unwilling heroes filmed over a 40 year career were aided by the reality that Holden was much like them, an actor who was uncomfortable on the set and terrified of screen intimacy.

When Tag O’Rourke, struggling actor-slash-barista, meets Jay Warren, son of acting royalty, it’s loathing at first sight. Loathing…and lust. Tag’s dream is to act, but it’s a dream that’s crumbling beneath the weight of student debt and his family’s financial problems. If his career doesn’t take off soon, he’s going to have to get a real job. After all, feeding his family is more important than feeding his soul. Luckily, Tag’s about to get his big break…

“The Poor Dead K’Ehleyr Show” is a 35-minute odyssey strewn with backstage stories from my journeys through guest-starring as 4 different alien species -- tales that include people like Gene Roddenberry and Michael Westmore -- and then, most saliently, featuring: The Return of K’Ehleyr!

This anthology contains action, adventure, spicy tales, and some swishing tails. A rare treat of compiled stories in one place. Enjoy!

No one could protect her once she was inside. No friend would hear her if she screamed. A brilliant undercover journalist and actress, Nellie Bly is admitted into Blackwell's Island asylum in New York as a homeless "crazy" lady. What will she be in 10 days?

With a foreword by Academy Award winner and theatre legend Horton Foote, this inspiring new book will strengthen in you the most essential and vital skills of great acting! It will lead you to a very personal way of working, as an actor who is absolutely authentic and tremendously simple—so rare in today's theatre.

Raymond Sarlot bought the Chateau Marmont in 1975, but what was originally a business purchase became a love affair as he delved into the hotel's incredible history. From its perch overlooking the Sunset Strip, the glamorous Marmont reigned for decades as the spot for artists, writers, musicians, and actors of every stripe and remains a home-away-from-home for A-listers like Scarlett Johansson and Johnny Depp. Here, Sarlot and coauthor Fred E. Basten share a wealth of scandalous and intriguing tales about them all.

Sidney Lumet: A Life is the first-ever biography of this seminal American director whose remarkable life traces a line through American entertainment history. His biography takes us from the world of Yiddish theater to Broadway spectacles, then inside the Federal Theatre, the Group Theatre, the Actors Studio, and the early "golden age" of television - all of which precede Lumet's astonishing five-decades-long adventure in movie making.

"We're calling her Marilyn Monroe." Those were the words 12-year-old Jane Lawrence remembered when she was asked to head the up-and-coming blonde starlet's fan club at 20th Century Fox under the supervision of studio head Darryl Zanuck. Jane was no stranger to movie sets or movie stars, being that her father, Sidney Lipsitch, headed RKO's legal department. She spent many Saturday afternoons at her home with the likes of Robert Mitchum, Lucille Ball, and Ethel Merman, but helping launch the career of one of the world's most legendary sex symbols was a task beyond Jane's wildest dreams.

Lisa Jakub had what she was supposed to want: She was a working actor in Los Angeles. She had more than 40 movies and TV shows to her name. She had been in blockbusters like Mrs. Doubtfire and Independence Day. She walked the red carpet and lived in the house she had bought when she was 15. But something was missing. Passion. Purpose. Happiness. In this funny and insightful book, Lisa chronicles the adventures of growing up in the film industry and her difficult decision to leave behind the only life she had ever known.

In 1969, Illeana Douglas' parents saw the film Easy Rider and were transformed. Taking Dennis Hopper's words - "That's what it's all about, man" - to heart, they abandoned their comfortable upper-middle-class life and gave Illeana a childhood filled with hippies, goats, free spirits, and free love. Illeana writes, "Since it was all out of my control, I began to think of my life as a movie, with a Dennis Hopper-like father at the center of it." I Blame Dennis Hopper is a rollicking, funny, at times tender exploration of the way movies can change our lives.

When a freak accident ruins his body and his memory, Wes Malcolm loses his scholarship and his place in the world. Every treatment has failed, save one: a fully immersive VR game, designed by his late, disgraced father, that mimics the condition his body used to possess. To everyone's disbelief, his body and mind slowly improve, bit by bit, but it's still not enough. Then one night, he wakes up in a world just like the game his father designed. Here, he can grow, learn, and thrive.

The Hollywood way of life has long been a potent mix of scandal, secrecy, and sensation: exactly like the Hollywood way of death.... In this unique study, Peter Underwood charts the lives, loves, and deaths of 30 of Tinseltown’s most glittering stars. Many deaths were sad or senseless; some were tragic; others were the revenge of old age, while a few were the revenge of something altogether more sinister.

Jay Chandrasekhar has spent the past two decades writing, directing, and acting in film and TV. With his comedy group, Broken Lizard, he has produced and directed beloved movies such as Super Troopers, Beerfest, and Club Dread. Now, with the coming release of the long-awaited Super Troopers 2, Jay is ready to tell the ridiculous, madcap, dead-honest story of how he built his career, how he formed Broken Lizard, and, ultimately, how he made Super Troopers.