Book picks similar to
Herbert Marshall: A Biography by Scott O'Brien
non-fiction
biography
movies
old-hollywood
Secret Hollywood: Crazy and Interesting Stories about the Rich and Famous
Bill O'Neill - 2021
Grab your copy of Secret Hollywood and start gossiping!
Whisper Mountain
Vivian Higginbotham Nichols - 2017
Because it was extremely difficult to verbalize the events to her own children years later, her adult family knew very little of the details until 30 years after her passing in 1967. That is when her granddaughter discovered her writings and promised to tell the story of what she endured.
Ronan O'Gara: Unguarded: My Life in Rugby
Ronan O'Gara - 2013
Ronan O'Gara has been at the heart of Munster and Irish rugby for the past fifteen years. Now, as he comes to the end of a glittering playing career, it is time for him to reflect on those many successes and occasional failures with the straight-talking attitude that has become his trademark. Never one to shy away from the truth, the result is Ronan O'Gara: Unguarded. Packed full of anecdotes and analysis of the teammates O'Gara has been proud to share the shirt with, and of the coaches he has played under -- often in controversial circumstances -- this is the definitive record of an era when Munster rose to triumph in Europe, and Ireland to win the Grand Slam, before crashing down to earth again. It is simply the must-have rugby book of the year.
Steve McQueen
Marshall Terrill - 2001
It chronicles the good with the ugly, revealing the great power McQueen wielded. It features numerous behind-the-scenes stories from some of his (and cinema's) greatest films, including The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillon. The book's triumph is the way in which the author explores McQueen in full through his larger-than-life exploits but as important, the lesser known, humanitarian side of the Hollywood legend. It also captures the fundamental essence of what made McQueen cinema's "King of Cool."
My Week With Marilyn
Colin Clark - 2000
The film united Britain's leading actor, Laurence Olivier, with Hollywood's most glamorous sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe - and clashes between them entered film legend.For one glorious week, the world's biggest star sought comfort in the arms of the set's most junior employee. This is the frank, fresh and comic story of how Clark came to share Monroe's confidences - and her bed!This edition combines Colin Clark’s acclaimed 'The Prince, the Showgirl and Me' (191995) and his 'My Week with Marilyn' (2005).'More illuminating than the millions of words and pictures pumped out to expose or dish the dirt on the Monroe legend.' - Sunday TelegraphClark’s extraordinary experiences on and off set have now been turned into a major film starring Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Judi Dench, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh and Dominic Cooper.
Lou's on First
Chris Costello - 1981
Starting in the 1930s, Costello attained enormous fame touring the burlesque circuits with straight man Bud Abbott (1895-1974). Their live skits (including "Who's on First?"), radio programs, and films such as One Night in the Tropics, Buck Privates, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, and In the Navy made comic history.Behind the scenes, however, Costello faced numerous crises: a bout with rheumatic fever that left him bedridden for months, the drowning death of his young son, and constant haggles with Universal Studios over its reluctance to adequately finance productions of Abbott and Costello films. Lou's on First goes beyond Costello's clownish persona to explore his Pagliacci nature: the private demons behind the happy public face, the heartbreaking moments in an otherwise storybook marriage, the business ventures soured by unscrupulous managers, and the true nature of the breakup of his twenty-one-year partnership with Bud Abbott.
Treadmill to Oblivion: My Days in Radio
Fred Allen - 1954
Filled with Allen's wit and humor, the book includes many radio skits featuring Allen, his wife Portland, and stars such as Jack Benny and George Jessel, and provides a fascinating look at radio during its “Golden Age.” Prior to his radio career, Allen was a vaudeville star; those exploits are recounted in his book Much Ado About Me. Fred Allen died in New York City in 1956 at the age of 61.
Polanski
Christopher Sandford - 2007
Polanski would go on to become one of the best and most infamous directors in Hollywood’s history, with a list of achievements that includes Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Macbeth, Chinatown, Tess, Frantic, and more recently, the Golden Globe- and Oscar-winning The Pianist.Yet the most dramatic story has unfolded within his own personal life: in August 1969, his pregnant wife Sharon Tate and seven of their friends were butchered by the Manson family. Polanski was in London at the time. Eight years later he was arrested by L.A. police on charges of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in Jack Nicholson’s home. Polanski fled the country and has since lived in exile in Paris.The director is currently filming Oliver Twist and promises to follow it with his version of the Tate killings. Both projects, dealing with child exploitation and murder, can only fuel the controversy that surrounds him. This biography is timed to coincide with the release of the movies, and will be the first opportunity to read about this talented yet wildly excessive personality in such depth for over fourteen years.
Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon
Charles Casillo - 2018
Marilyn Monroe. Her beauty still captivates. Her love life still fascinates. Her story still dominates popular culture. Now, drawing on years of research and dozens of new interviews, this biography cuts through decades of lies and secrets and introduces you to the Marilyn Monroe you always wanted to know: a living, breathing, complex woman, bewitching and maddening, brilliant yet flawed. Charles Casillo studies Monroe’s life through the context of her times—in the days before feminism. Before there was adequate treatment for Marilyn’s struggle with bipolar disorder. Starting with her abusive childhood, this biography exposes how—in spite of her fractured psyche—Marilyn’s extreme ambition inspired her to transform each celebrated love affair and each tragedy into another step in her journey towards immortality. Casillo fully explores the last two years of her life, including her involvement with both John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, and the mystery of her last day. Just a few of Casillo's revelations: *Despite reports of their bitter rivalry, Elizabeth Taylor secretly reached out and tried to help Marilyn during one of her darkest moments. *The existence of Marilyn’s semi-nude love scene with Clark Gable—long thought to be lost.*A few nights before she died, Marilyn encountered Warren Beatty at a party and disclosed some of the reasons for her final despair. *A meticulously detailed account of the events of her last day, revealing how a series of miscommunications and misjudgments contributed to her death.
Audrey and Bill: A Romantic Biography of Audrey Hepburn and William Holden
Edward Z. Epstein - 2015
In 1954, Hepburn and Holden were America’s sweethearts. Both won Oscars that year and together they filmed Sabrina, a now-iconic film that continues to inspire the worlds of film and fashion.Audrey & Bill tells the stories of both stars, from before they met to their electrifying first encounter when they began making Sabrina. The love affair that sparked on-set was relatively short-lived, but was a turning point in the lives of both stars. Audrey & Bill follows both Hepburn and Holden as their lives crisscrossed through to the end, providing an inside look at the Hollywood of the 1950s, ’60s, and beyond. Through in-depth research and interviews with former friends, co-stars, and studio workers, Audrey & Bill author Edward Z. Epstein sheds new light on the stars and the fascinating times in which they lived.
Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince
Budd Schulberg - 1981
Moving Pictures is his fascinating remembrance of growing up amidst the glamour, swank, courage, triumphs, defeats, cabals, and double-crosses of an industry in the making. His utterly candid account includes unsparing portraits of outsized characters in all their power, venality, charm, pettiness, and vindictiveness. As a book on the early days of the movies in Hollywood, this one is hard to beat. Abundantly illustrated with black-and-white photographs.
True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders
Dina Di Mambro - 2013
Uncover true stories of mystery and murder in a dozen different chapters featuring William Desmond Taylor, Thomas Ince, Jean Harlow, Thelma Todd, Joan Bennett, Lana Turner, George Reeves, Gig Young, Bob Crane, Natalie Wood, Robert Blake, and Mickey Cohen. Included in the cast of characters of this book are Johnny Stompanato, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies, and Charlie Chaplin. And find never before told mob stories about Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, Virginia Hill, and a host of notorious underworld figures. From 1922 until 2001, explore some of Filmland's most fascinating mysteries, scandals and murders true Hollywood noir lived by the players behind the scenes. Each chapter dissects the various theories in each case, but it is up to you to make up your own mind. From the West Coast mob and city corruption intertwining with Hollywood mysteries on and off the screen, to the plots of noir films pulled from actual happenings in the underworld, get the stories behind the stories, the darker images playing out in living color behind the silver screen. While most of the actors featured here met with untimely tragic deaths or notorious misfortune coloring the remainder of their lives, the talent of these highly creative individuals and the legacy they've left us gives them a timeless immortality.
I Said Yes to Everything: A Memoir
Lee Grant - 2014
She threw herself into work, accepting every theater or teaching job that came her way. She met a man ten years her junior and began a wild, liberating fling that she never expected would last a lifetime. And after twelve years of fighting the blacklist, she was finally exonerated. With courage and style, Grant rebuilt her life on her own terms: first stop, a starring role on Peyton Place, and then leads in Valley of the Dolls, In the Heat of the Night, and Shampoo, for which she won her first Oscar.Set amid the New York theater scene of the fifties and the star-studded parties of Malibu in the seventies, I Said Yes to Everything evokes a world of political passion and movie-star glamour. Grant tells endlessly delightful tales of costars and friends such as Warren Beatty, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Sidney Poitier, and writes with the verve and candor befitting such a seductive and beloved star.
Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography
Victoria Price - 1999
In addition to being an icon of stage and screen large and small, Price was also an avid art collector, a gourmand, a dashing and relentless charmer, and a loving father. His daughter Victoria was born shortly before Price turned 51, at the height of his popularity. Though the star's busy film schedule took him in and out of his young daughter's life, he was always a larger-than-life presence and, simply, her father. Victoria adored him, and despite his harrowing schedule, their relationship was close. That is, until Price married his third wife, the headstrong and independent actress, Coral Browne. Victoria was a girl of twelve, and her new stepmother resented the strong relationship between father and daughter, and consequently did much to keep the two apart. Late in Price's life, however, he and his daughter were brought together again for some of their most memorable time together. In this elegant biography-cum-memoir, Victoria Price reveals a man both complex and human. An actor of range, he starred in both the film noir milestone Laura and the Biblical classic The Ten Commandments. As a "pre-war anti Nazi sympathizer," he was greylisted during the Red Scare of the 1950s-until, in a desperate gesture, he signed a secret oath that saved his career. And his passion for the arts gave him a second life as an erudite columnist and collector, even as his films graced drive-ins nationwide. Victoria Price's account life of her father is full and candid; both his passionate and charismatic public persona and his conflicted inner life are treated with curiosity and understanding.Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography is, in short, the thorough-and uniquely intimate-life of a legend.
Gregory Peck: A Charmed Life
Lynn Haney - 2003
And most of his leading ladies—among them, Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, and Ava Gardner—would not disagree. Irreverent, candid, refreshingly honest, Lynn Haney's carefully researched biography not only charts the remarkable career of the Oscar-winning star but also plumbs Peck's frequently troubling complexity in his off-screen roles as husband, father, lover, and son. About the tough times, Haney minces no words; but the misfortunes by no means eclipse the energy, intensity, and excitement that characterized Peck's five decades of moviemaking. This is a book filled with telling photographs, and a story cast with movie moguls from Louis B. Mayer to Darryl Zanuck, with directors from Hitchcock and Walsh to Huston and Wyler, with nearly every major luminary in Hollywood, and, starring for the first time in toto, Gregory Peck.