Book picks similar to
Marilyn Monroe: Private And Undisclosed by Michelle Morgan
biography
marilyn-monroe
non-fiction
biographies
Bogart: In Search of My Father
Stephen Humphrey Bogart - 1995
Along the way, he came up with surprising anecdotes involving Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, John Houston, Audrey Hepburn, and Stephen Bogart's stepfather, Jason Robards, that make the real Humphrey Bogart come vividly to life.
His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra
Kitty Kelley - 1983
Celebrated journalist Kitty Kelley spent three years researching government documents (Mafia-related material, wiretaps and secret testimony) and interviewing more than 800 people in Sinatra's life (family, colleagues, law-enforcement officers, personal friends). Fully documented, highly detailed and filled with revealing anecdotes, here is the penetrating story of the explosively controversial and undeniably multi-talented legend who ruled the entertainment industry for more than fifty years.
Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll
Ann Wilson - 2012
Since finding their love of music and performing as teenagers in Seattle, Washington, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, have been part of the American rock music landscape. From 70s classics like “Magic Man” and “Barracuda” to chart- topping 80s ballads like “Alone,” and all the way up to 2012, when they will release their latest studio album, Fanatic, Heart has been thrilling their fans and producing hit after hit. In Kicking and Dreaming, the Wilsons recount their story as two sisters who have a shared over three decades on the stage, as songwriters, as musicians, and as the leaders of one of our most beloved rock bands. An intimate, honest, and a uniquely female take on the rock and roll life, readers of bestselling music memoirs like Life by Keith Richards and Steven Tyler’s Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? will love this quintessential music story finally told from a female perspective.
Foxy: My Life in Three Acts
Pam Grier - 2010
Others may know her from her role as Kit Porter on "The L Word." But that only defines one part of the legend that is Pam Grier. Foxy is Pam's testimony of her life, past and present. In it, she reveals her relationships with Richard Pryor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Freddie Prinze Sr., among others. She unveils her experiences as a backup singer and a blaxploitation star. In particularly candid and shocking chapters, she shares-for the first time-her view of those films and the persecution that blacks, especially women, needed to endure to make a name for themselves . . . including how it felt to be labeled one of the most beautiful women alive, yet not be permitted to try on clothes in a department store because of the color of her skin. And in words sure to inspire many, she tells the story of her ongoing battle with cancer. From her disappointments to her triumphs, nothing is held back. With FOXY, Pam wishes to impart life lessons to her readers-and hopes to touch their hearts.
Robin
Dave Itzkoff - 2018
He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations – all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams’s comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression – topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews – and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.
The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide
Jenna Fischer - 2017
Louis. With a theater degree in hand, she was certain everything would fall easily into place. Never mind that she didn’t know a single person in the entertainment industry. She was determined, she was confident, she was ready to work hard. So, what could go wrong?Uh, basically everything. It would be eight long years before she landed her Emmy-nominated role of Pam Beesley on The Office—nearly a decade of failure, struggle, rejection and doubt. The path to professional acting was more competitive than she’d ever imagined. Headshots, agents, classes, auditions . . . there was a lot to learn. And with so many obstacles to navigate, it wasn’t always easy to fight off discouragement. If only she’d had a handbook for the struggling actor. Or, better yet, someone to show her the way—an established actor who could manage her expectations, educate her about the business, and reassure her in those moments of despair.Jenna Fischer wants to be that person for you. With candor and wit, Fischer lays out what it takes to establish yourself in the profession. Based on her own memorable and hilarious experiences, she provides invaluable advice on how to get the right head shot, what to look for in representation, and the importance of getting out there and just doing something. She also provides helpful hints on how to be gutsy and take risks, the tricks to good auditioning and callbacks, and how not to fall for certain scams. (Auditions in a guy’s apartment are probably not legit—or at least not for the kind of part you’re looking for!)Fischer’s inspiring guidance will make you feel like you have a trusted friend who’s made the journey and has now returned to walk beside you, pointing out the pitfalls as you blaze your own path toward the life of a professional actor.
Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait
Kendra Bean - 2013
For more than thirty years, her name alone sold out theaters and cinemas the world over, and she inspired many of the greatest visionaries of her time: Laurence Olivier loved her; Winston Churchill praised her; Christian Dior dressed her.Through both an in-depth narrative and a stunning array of photos, Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait presents the personal story of one of the most celebrated women of the twentieth century, an engrossing tale of success, struggles, and triumphs. It chronicles Leigh’s journey from her birth in India to prominence in British film, winning the most-coveted role in Hollywood history, her celebrated love affair with Laurence Olivier, through to her untimely death at age fifty-three in 1967.Author Kendra Bean is the first Vivien Leigh biographer to delve into the Laurence Olivier Archives, where an invaluable collection of personal letters and documents ranging from interview transcripts to film contracts to medical records shed new insight on Leigh’s story. Illustrated by hundreds of rare and never-before-published images, including those by Leigh’s "official" photographer, Angus McBean, Vivien Leigh: An Intimate Portrait is the first illustrated biography to closely examine the fascinating, troubled, and often misunderstood life of Vivien Leigh: the woman, the actress, the legend.
Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip
John Gilmore - 1997
With caustic clarity and 20/20 hindsight, Gilmore unstintingly recounts his relationships with the likes of James Dean, Janis Joplin, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Jean Seberg and Lenny Bruce and many other denizens of the twentieth century's dubious, Pantheon both on the way up at the peaks of their notoriety.
Silent Stars
Jeanine Basinger - 1999
Here are the great divas, Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson; the great flappers, Colleen Moore and Clara Bow; the great cowboys, William S. Hart and Tom Mix; and the great lover, John Gilbert. Basinger also includes the quintessential slapstick comedienne, Mabel Normand, with her Keystone Kops; the quintessential all-American hero, Douglas Fairbanks; and, of course, the quintessential all-American dog, Rin-Tin-Tin.
Buster Keaton Remembered
Eleanor Keaton - 2001
Decades after their release, his movies remain unsurpassed marvels of comic invention and mechanical timing. In Buster Keaton Remembered, a unique illustrated survey of Keaton's career, Eleanor Keaton, his wife of 26 years, and film historian Jeffrey Vance provide a personal account of this icon of American cinema.Drawing on professional papers, screenplays, studio records, and scrapbooks, the authors trace Keaton's beginnings in vaudeville, where he perfected his gags; his first silent shorts with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle; the brilliant features he conceived, directed, produced, and performed in; and his later sound films for M-G-M and others. Fresh prints of classic film stills and never-before-published photos from the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, together with a lively, anecdotal text, offer a behind-the-scenes look at how Keaton came up with his hilarious ideas, choreographed his elaborate stunts, and crafted his films.
The Most Beautiful Woman in the World: The Obsessions, Passions, and Courage of Elizabeth Taylor
Ellis Amburn - 2000
Filled with stunning revelations about the men in her life—Burton, Clift, Hilton, Dean, Fisher—it is a glorious celebration of the turbulent life of a brilliant star that none in Hollywood or heaven could ever outshine.
The Name Below The Title: 20 Classic Movie Character Actors From Hollywood's Golden Age
Rupert Alistair - 2014
Hollywood studios had large stables of contract and stock players from all walks of life and in all shapes, sizes and ages. This great population of personalities formed the league of character actors. They played the sidekicks and best friends of the stars who headlined the movies in which they appeared. They also portrayed parents, grandparents, oddball relatives, wise-cracking neighbors, smart-aleck store clerks and loveable barkeeps. Lest we forget the sinister side of this society, villains also claimed a stake in this assembly of saints, sinners and every type in between. These colorful personalities were usually one-dimensional, someone to whom the star could confide secrets or vent frustrations. In many cases they carried the same persona over from one film to the next, perfecting their stereotype so that audiences knew what to expect from them in a positive and affectionate way, collecting their beloved favorites over the years. The Name Below the Title features 20 of the best and most fun examples of the Hollywood character actor during Hollywood's most famous era from the 1930s through the 1950s.
Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong - 2013
Mary Tyler Moore made her name as Dick Van Dyke’s wife on the eponymous show, a cute, unassuming housewife that audiences loved. But when her writer/producers James Brooks and Allan Burnes dreamed up an edgy show about a divorced woman with a career, network executives replied: Americans won’t watch television about New York City, divorcees, men with mustaches, or Jews. But Moore and her team were committed, and when the show finally aired, in spite of tepid reviews, fans loved it.Jennifer Armstrong introduces readers to the show’s creators; its principled producer, Grant Tinker; and the writers and actors who attracted millions of viewers. As the first situation comedy to employ numerous women as writers and producers, The Mary Tyler Moore Show became a guiding light for women in the 1970s. The show also became the centerpiece of one of greatest evenings of comedy in television history, and Jennifer Armstrong describes how the television industry evolved during these golden years.
Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life
Manoah Bowman - 2016
In a span of less than twenty years, her talent graced a dozen classics, including Miracle on 34th Street, The Searchers, Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, and Gypsy, earning her three Oscar nominations and two Golden Globes. Few actresses in Hollywood history have carved out careers as diverse and rich as Natalie Wood's, and few have touched as many hearts in a tragically short lifetime.Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life boldly redefines Natalie not by her tragic death, but by her extraordinary life. This is the first family-authorized photographic study of Natalie Wood, and the first book to examine her glamorous film career as well as her private off-screen life as a wife and mother. Highlights include a special section on the making of West Side Story, a foreword by her husband Robert Wagner, a family album with never-before-seen snapshots captioned by daughter Courtney Wagner, an unpublished article written by Natalie in her own words, and an afterword by friend and costar Robert Redford. Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life will change the way the world remembers a Hollywood legend.