English Actors

From the New York Times best-selling author Marc Eliot comes the definitive biography of one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful actors, producers, and directors in the history of American motion pictures. Marc Eliot examines the ever-exciting, often tumultuous arc of Eastwood's life and career, from his days as a disaffected college dropout, to his rise to fame as the archetypal loner, to his acceptance into the pantheon of the Academy as a multiple Oscar Award winner.

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.

The blunt and honest memoirs of Emmy-winning actress Bonnie Bartlett Daniels. It’s the story of her 70-plus year career, and her struggles in the pre-#metoo and pre-feminist world. It’s also the rare and unique story of a 70-plus year marriage (with film, theatre and TV icon William Daniels.) In a full telling of her life, we learn that through years of psychoanalysis and, ultimately, thanks to motherhood, she was able to heal the scars left by her abusive father and learn to love her life as if it were a rainbow “with a pot of gold at both ends.”

As he did in his bestselling biographies of Jimmy Stewart and Clint Eastwood, acclaimed Hollywood biographer Marc Eliot digs deep beneath the myth in this revealing look at the most legendary Western film hero of all time; the man with the distinctive voice, walk, and demeanor who was an inspiration to many and a symbol of American masculinity, power, and patriotism.

Mike Epps is one of America’s favorite and funniest people, but the path to fame was paved with opportunities to mess it up. And mess it up he did. Growing up in “Naptown” - what people who live there really call rough-around-the-edges Indianapolis - Epps was drawn to a life of crime, but as he quickly discovered, stealing and dealing didn’t really fit his sweet sensibilities. Not to mention he wasn’t very good at it - take, for example, the day he had to call the cops on himself when a dog wouldn’t let him leave a house he was burgling.

Mastering the Texas Accent is an essential audiobook for actors seeking to develop a genuine Texas accent, ideal for film, theater, and voiceover roles. This guide provides an in-depth exploration of the Texas dialect, starting with the foundational elements that give this regional accent its unique character. Listeners will learn how to modify vowels, drop certain consonants, and adopt the characteristic Texas drawl that makes speech from the Lone Star State instantly recognizable.

Joan Crawford was a leading film personality for more than 50 years, from her beginnings as a dancer in silent films of the 1920s, to her portrayals of working-class shop girls in the Depression '30s, to her Oscar-winning performances in classic films such as Mildred Pierce. Today, many picture Crawford only as a wire hanger-wielding shrew rather than the personification of Hollywood glamour. This new biography of Crawford sets the record straight, going beyond the gossip to find the truth about the legendary actress.

What do you do when actors won't do what you tell them to? Remembering his own awkwardness and terror as a beginning director working with actors who always had their own ideas, director John Badham has a bookload of knowledge to pass along in this inspired and insightful must-listen for cinema fans as well as actors and directors at all levels of their craft.

Jess Oppenheimer, "the brains" behind I Love Lucy, weaves this wonderfully entertaining tale of how his life experiences led him to create the iconic sitcom. Packed with humorous behind-the-scenes stories of stars like Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, William Frawley, Jack Benny, Douglas Fairbanks, and Fred Astaire.

In this Audible Original “mini-memoir”, the Academy Award-winning star of Little Miss Sunshine and Argo looks back on his life as a series of philosophical turning points, learning experiences, and a-ha moments. Drawn from a collection of seemingly inexplicable stories and encounters from Arkin's 84 years on this planet, Out of My Mind is a candid, relatable and delightfully irreverent take on how one man went searching for meaning and ended up discovering himself.

The gruesome murders of the beautiful and talented actress Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and four others that same night at the hands of the notorious “Manson family” rocked the nation. As one of the most horrific crimes in modern history, these atrocities, the trial, and the subsequent conviction of Charles Manson and his followers caused a media sensation, spawning movies, documentaries, and best-selling books, including the classic Helter Skelter.

She vigorously played the dumb-blonde stereotype in her movie roles, but there is nothing at all dumb about Marilyn Monroe. Born to a single mother who suffered from severe mental illness, the odds were stacked against the girl originally named Norma Jeane from the very beginning. She became a ward of the state and bounced around from foster home to foster home. The fact that she rose from such impoverished beginnings to become one of the top-billed acts in Hollywood speaks for itself.

William Sanderson has enjoyed a prosperous career in Hollywood as a highly successful character actor whom everyone seems to recognize - but they aren't always certain from what. But as you will learn in his memoir, Sanderson is far more than merely the sum of his characters. His tumultuous, rags-to-riches story is instructive in demonstrating the power of perseverance and fortitude in overcoming one's struggles with self-doubt and self-sabotage and - thanks to the love of a good woman - ultimately carving out a positive, contented life.

The cry for Wes Malcolm's death has followed him from Earth all the way to Avalon, and an entire new breed of Hordebeast has taken up the call. Howling wolf-men now hunt him as an escaped convict, a false teacher, and a traitor to a legacy he had rejected immediately. Now he needs to evade the monsters long enough to get the former hostages to safety, then grow strong enough to battle his hunters and win. To do so, he’s going to have to delve into the ruins of this world and discover ghosts and secrets from another age, including the hidden history of Earth itself.

Eric Yang has weathered the first arrival of aliens. Earth is embroiled in endless conflict as a new dawn of warfare changes humanity. His base building, gear purchases, and determination will achieve victory or so he hopes. Join Stronghold Mansion as they persevere the age of VIkingism.

The Tony Award-nominated writer of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and the long-running hit Off-Broadway play Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and a Sundance Festival award winner Charles Busch has created a unique place in the entertainment world as a playwright, LGBT icon, drag actor, director, and cabaret performer, with his extraordinary gift for both connecting with and channeling the leading ladies of show business.

Wes Malcolm has wrested Avalon back from men, monsters, and false gods. The next step is to bring the battle to his enemy's camp. The world of the Woadlands is under siege from two cataclysms at once. Fey of the winter courts seek to smother the planet in eternal frost, while an alien cancer gnaws at the ancient trees that power the magic of this world. Worst of all, his earthly enemies have spent the last 50 years making both threats far more dire, sabotaging the natives' every chance at survival. Even the planet's godlike Icons believe their world is doomed.

Philip Carlson was the first agent to sign Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Billy Crudup, Liev Schreiber, Claire Danes, Idris Elba, Kyra Sedgwick, Adrien Grenier, and Paul Giamatti. He has represented Viola Davis, Kathy Bates, Brian Dennehy, and W.H. Macy among many and gifted others. He shares his practical trade secrets in this extraordinarily comprehensive guide on how to get into show business.

Los Angeles in the 1960s and '70s was the pop cultural capital of the world - a movie factory, a music factory, a dream factory. Eve Babitz was the ultimate factory girl, a pure product of LA. The goddaughter of Igor Stravinsky and a graduate of Hollywood High, Babitz posed in 1963, at age 20, playing chess with the French artist Marcel Duchamp. She was naked; he was not. The photograph, cheesecake with a Dadaist twist, 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.

New York Times best-selling author Donald Spoto has brilliantly explored the lives and careers of numerous Hollywood stars and entertainment icons. In Possessed, his subject is the inimitable Joan Crawford, one of the most electrifying divas of the Golden Age of American film. A more thorough, revealing, and sympathetic portrait of the often maligned movie star - most notably lambasted, perhaps, in the scandalous best seller, Mommie Dearest - Possessed is a fascinating study of the real Joan Crawford, a remarkable actress, businesswoman, mother, and lover.