Ellen Terry's correspondence was both exuberant and extensive. Her remaining letters provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the Victorian theatre, and the difficulties of life for a woman maintaining a successful public persona whilst raising two illegitimate children.

Now in paperback, this posthumous work by an American classic was a fitting last book, an instant bestseller, and a huge success! One of the undisputed heavyweight champions of American comedy, with nineteen appearances on the Johnny Carson show, thirteen HBO specials, five Grammys, and a critical Supreme Court battle over censorship under his belt, George Carlin saw it all throughout his extraordinary fifty-year career, and made fun of most of it. Last Words is the story of the man behind some of the most seminal comedy of the last half century, blending his signature acerbic humor with never-before-told stories from his own life, including encounters with a Who's Who of 1970s celebrity-from Lenny Bruce to Hugh Hefner-and the origins of some of his most famous standup routines. Carlin's early conflicts, his long struggle with substance abuse, his turbulent relationships with his family, and his triumphs over catastrophic setbacks all fueled the unique comedic worldview he brought to the stage. From the heights of stardom to the low points few knew about, Last Words is told with the same razor-sharp wit and unblinking honesty that made Carlin one of the best-loved comedians in American history.

A refugee from post-World War II Europe who emigrated to the US in 1949, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) became one of America's foremost champions of independent cinema and one of its most innovative filmmakers. An admired poet in his native Lithuania, Mekas began recording his life on film shortly after his arrival in New York. Through his work as the author of the Village Voice's "Movie Journal" column, editor of Film Culture magazine, and founder of Anthology Film Archives and the Film-Makers' Cooperative, Mekas played a vital role in the promotion of avant-garde and independent films. His early films, Guns of the Trees and The Brig, challenged the structure of traditional narrative filmmaking. He is best known for his "diary films," including Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketches); Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania; and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty. His films, writings, and the institutions he built have influenced generations of filmmakers, poets, artists, musicians, critics, and scholars. In Jonas Mekas: Interviews, volume editor Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker collects eighteen interviews covering almost sixty years of the filmmaker's career. Mekas discusses his remarkable life as a refugee from Nazi- and Soviet-occupied Lithuania, his role as one of the major figures in the development of the American avant-garde, and his thoughts about his own work. In conversation with scholars, journalists, and other prominent artists, Mekas speaks of his passion for artistic expression and uncompromising vision for a liberated cinema. These interviews preserve Mekas's voice so that it might speak to future generations of artists and intellectuals.

Tsui Hark, one of China's most famous film artists, is little known outside of Asia even though he has directed, produced, written, or acted in 64 films over the last twenty years, some of which are considered to be classics of modern Asian cinema. This work, the first of its kind about Tsui Hark, begins with a biography of the man and a look at his place in Hong Kong and world cinema, his influences, and his thematic obsessions. Each major film of his career is then reviewed, with thematic comparisons made among them (lesser films are included but receive smaller reviews). Also provided are production details, comments from Tsui Hark himself, box office and awards information, anecdotes, and various other particulars. Also included are a complete listings of Hong Kong locations where information on Tsui Hark can be found, and where his films can be found outside of Hong Kong.

This book is the first major study of a French silent cinema star. It focuses on Pierre Batcheff, a prominent popular cinema star in the 1920s, the French Valentino, best-known to modern audiences for his role as the protagonist of the avant-garde film classic Un chien andalou. Unlike other stars, he was linked to intellectual circles, especially the Surrealists. The book places Batcheff in the context of 1920s popular cinema, with specific reference to male stars of the period. It analyses the tensions he exemplifies between the 'popular' and the 'intellectual' during the 1920s, as cinema - the subject of intense intellectual interest across Europe - was racked between commercialism and 'art'. A number of the major films are studied in detail: Le Double amour (Epstein, 1925), Feu Mathias Pascal (L'Herbier, 1925), Education de prince (Diamant-Berger, 1927), Le Joueur d'echecs (Bernard, 1927), La Sirene des tropiques (Etievant and Nalpas, 1927), Les Deux timides (Clair, 1928), Un chien andalou (Bunuel, 1929), Monte-Cristo (Fescourt, 1929), and Baroud (Ingram, 1932). Key features: *The first major study of a French silent cinema star. *Provides an in-depth analysis of star performance. *Includes extensive appendices of documents from popular cinema magazines of the period.

In 1922, an early association of film publicists known as the Western Associated Motion Picture Advertisers (Wampas) hit upon a strategy to call attention to their organization and their industry. The group selected 13 young actresses with potential star power and promoted them heavily as ""Baby"" (meaning junior) Stars. To be selected a Wampas Baby Star soon became a much-sought honor - a ticket to recognition and publicity in those days before the Academy Awards.While a few Baby Stars (Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford) went on to superstardom and others enjoyed modest success, some failed to shine. Many of the nearly 150 actresses chosen during the program's existence, 1922-1934, are forgotten names today.This book offers full biographical details on every actress selected as a Wampas Baby Star. Each actress' entry traces her career and lists films in which she appeared. A year-by-year section lists each year's stars and alternates. Appendices include lists of rivals and successors to the Wampas Baby program (such as the ""Paramount Protegees""), Wampas ""Drop-Outs,"" presidents of Wampas, and miscellaneous facts about the Wampas Babies (which actress was tallest? Shortest? Oldest at time of selection?). Photographs, a bibliography and an index are included.

The prodigious but humble scion of a New York theatrical family, Chester Morris acted on Broadway as a teenager and earned an Academy Award nomination for his first role in a Hollywood "talkie," Alibi (1929). He became leading man to filmdom's top female stars and starred in the popular series of "Boston Blackie" mysteries before creating substantial characters in the theater and the burgeoning medium of television. This first book about Morris provides a detailed, account of his life and career on stage, film, radio, and television, and as a celebrated magician. It also constructs a fascinating record of his previously undocumented labor activism during the early years of the Screen Actors Guild and his tireless efforts to aid U.S. troops on the home front during World War II.

The hardback of this first and authorised biography received very good reviews and immediately reprinted. It tells the story of one of the heroines of post-war British comedy, on radio, film and TV. Hattie Jacques is known as the billowing, imposing Matron in the Carry On films, as the star of such BBC radio classics as ITMA, Educating Archie and Hancock' s Half Hour, and as the fictional sister of Eric Sykes in his long-running TV sitcom. But the formidable, frumpy galleon-in-full-sail screen persona could not have been more at odds with the real-life woman, as this biography reveals for the first time. She had a tempestuous wartime affair with an American officer, and then a strange marriage to the actor John le Mesurier (Corporal Wilson in Dad' s Army) whose dissatisfactions she circumnavigated by moving her lover, a flashy Cockney car dealer, into the matrimonial home. But as well as being warm and sexy and generous she was also, owing to her lifelong struggle with her weight, needy and melancholic, and rueful that her size persistently typecast her and excluded her from many roles. This biography has been written with full co-operation from Hattie' s son, and show business friends like Barbara Windsor, Clive Dunn, Galton and Simpson and Ian Carmichael.

"[A] remarkably absorbing, supremely entertaining joint biography" (The New York Times) from bestselling author Scott Eyman about the remarkable friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart, two Hollywood legends who maintained a close relationship that endured all of life's twists and turns. Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for forty years, but they became friends when they were unknown. They roomed together as stage actors in New York, and when they began making films in Hollywood, they were roommates again. Between them they made such classic films as The Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts, Twelve Angry Men, and On Golden Pond; and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, and Rear Window. They got along famously, with a shared interest in elaborate practical jokes and model airplanes, among other things. But their friendship also endured despite their differences: Fonda was a liberal Democrat, Stewart a conservative Republican. Fonda was a ladies' man who was married five times; Stewart remained married to the same woman for forty-five years. Both men volunteered during World War II and were decorated for their service. When Stewart returned home, still unmarried, he once again moved in with Fonda, his wife, and his two children, Jane and Peter, who knew him as Uncle Jimmy. For his "breezy, entertaining" (Publishers Weekly) Hank and Jim, biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda's widow and children as well as three of Stewart's children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men-in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full details of their time together. This is not just another Hollywood story, but "a fascinating...richly documented biography" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) of an extraordinary friendship that lasted through war, marriages, children, careers, and everything else.

The long-awaited memoir by movie and theatre legend, Brian Cox. A Guardian, Times, Sunday Times and Independent Book of the Year *Featuring a foreword by the executive producer of Succession, Frank Rich, an executive producer of HBO's Succession, a former chief drama critic of The New York Times, and the author of the memoir Ghost Light.* 'One of the best showbiz memoirs ever written... it's as funny as it is furious... Brian Cox has done everything and with this book he leaves everyone else standing' - Mail on Sunday 'Absolute heaven' - Sunday Times 'A hugely readable memoir from a giant of stage and screen' - Mark Kermode 'A life well lived and a story well told. From first page to last Brian Cox the great actor is Brian Cox the great storyteller, and nobody is spared his sharp eye and his caustic wit, himself and some big Hollywood names included' - Alastair Campbell 'Laced with his characteristic generosity, self-deprecation and cut-the-crap wisdom' - Harriet Walter 'Mesmerizing' - Peter Biskind 'Blisteringly brilliant' - Bryony Gordon 'Funny and irreverent' - The Times From Titus Andronicus with the RSC to media magnate Logan Roy in HBO's Succession, Brian Cox has made his name as an actor of unparalleled distinction and versatility. We know him on screen, but few know of his extraordinary life story. Growing up in Dundee, Scotland, Cox lost his father when he was just eight years old and was brought up by his three elder sisters in the aftermath of his mother's nervous breakdowns and ultimate hospitalization. After joining the Dundee Repertory Theatre at the age of fifteen, you could say the rest is history - but that is to overlook the enormous graft that has gone into the making of the legend we know today. This is a rags-to-riches life story like no other - a seminal autobiography that both captures Cox's distinctive voice and his very soul. Rich in emotion and meaning, with plenty of laughs along the way, it will be a classic in the vein of The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven and What's It All About by Michael Caine.

As the Kremlin's crackdown on freedom of expression continues to tighten, Russian playwrights and directors are using documentary theatre to create space for the public discussion of injustice in the civic sphere and its connections to the country's twentieth-century past. Witness Onstage traces the history of documentary theatre's rapid growth in twenty-first century Russia and situates the form within the socio-political setting of the Putin years. It argues that through the practice of performing documents, Russian theatre artists are creating a new type of cultural and historical archive that challenges the dominance of state-sponsored media and invites individuals to participate in a collective renegotiation of cultural narratives. -- .

Stanislavsky in Focus brilliantly examines the history and actual premises of Stanislavsky's 'System', separating myth from fact with forensic skill. The first edition of this now classic study showed conclusively how the 'System' was gradually transformed into the Method, popularised in the 1950s by Lee Strasberg and the Actor's Studio. It looked at the gap between the original Russian texts and what most English-speaking practitioners still imagine to be Stanislavsky's ideas. This thoroughly revised new edition also delves even deeper into: the mythical depiction of Stanislavsky as a tyrannical director and teacher yoga, the mind-body-spirit continuum and its role in the 'System' how Stanislavsky used subtexts to hide many of his ideas from Soviet censors. The text has been updated to address all of the relevant scholarship, particularly in Russia, since the first edition was published. It also features an expanded glossary on the System's terminology and its historical exercises, as well as more on the political context of Stanislavsky's work, its links with cognitive science, and the System's relation to contemporary developments in actor-training. It will be a vital part of every practitioner's and historian's library.

A top vaudeville comedian for the first quarter of the 20th century, Henry Langdon rose from performing in Midwest traveling shows to headlining at the Palace Theatre in New York City. He would go on to draw comparisons to Chaplin for his work in the classic silent films ""Tramp, Tramp, Tramp"" and ""The Strong Man"", and he is often recognized as one of the 'big four silent comedians' alongside Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton. Later in his career, Landon also appeared in a great number of talking films, starring or co-starring in almost a hundred of them between 1924 and 1945 and working with several legendary directors, from Frank Capra to Michael Curtiz.This second edition of the only book-length biography of Langdon includes significant new information, including expanded coverage of his early years and more personal details that lend a human side to the Langdon story. The book also includes a comprehensive filmography and several photographs from all phases of Langdon's life and career.

In this "heartrending, passionate, and surprisingly humorous account of the conjunction between art and death" (Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author), acclaimed opera singer Charity Tillemann-Dick recounts her remarkable journey from struggling to draw a single breath to singing at the most prestigious venues in the world after receiving not one but two double lung transplants. Charity Tillemann-Dick was a vivacious young American soprano studying at the celebrated Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest when she received devastating news: her lungs were failing, her heart was three and a half sizes too big, and she would die within five years. Medical experts advised Charity to abandon her musical dreams, but if her time was running out, she wanted to spend it doing what she loved. In just three years, she endured two double lung transplants and had to slowly learn to breathe, walk, talk, eat, and sing again. With new lungs and fierce determination, she eventually fell in love, rebuilt her career, and reclaimed her life. More than a decade after her diagnosis, she has a chart-topping album, performs around the globe, and is a leading voice for organ donation. Weaving Charity's extraordinary tale of triumph with those of opera's greatest heroines, The Encore illuminates the indomitable human spirit and is "an uplifting story of overcoming significant odds to fulfill a dream" (Kirkus Reviews).

An Oscar-winning Best Actress for her tour-de-force role in ""Come Back, Little Sheba"", Shirley Booth would ultimately win every major acting award that could be bestowed on an actress. Awarded three Tony Awards, two Emmys, and a Golden Globe, Booth was described by the judges at the Cannes Film Festival as 'The World's Best Actress.' Yet today fans know her best as the warm-hearted, busybody maid of television's ""Hazel"".This, the first biography of the beloved star, provides complete coverage of a career that encompassed theater, film, radio, and television, and co-stars such as Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. It begins with Shirley's childhood in Brooklyn, and her rebellious decision to become an actress against the wishes of her strict father. Included is complete coverage of her tumultuous marriage to radio comedian Ed Gardner (of ""Duffy's Tavern"" fame), and a second, happier union that ended abruptly with her husband's death of a heart attack. Readers of this exhaustively researched biography will come to know a versatile and gifted star whose career spanned almost 60 years. Appendices provide extensive details of her Broadway, film, radio and television (episode-by-episode) credits.

From movie villains to scream queens, here are interviews with 36 actors and actresses familiar to fans of sixties and seventies cult cinema. Interviewees include the well-known (David Carradine, Christopher Lee), the relatively obscure (Marrie Lee), sex symbols (Valerie Leon), surfers who became movie stars (Don Stroud), and action heroes (Fred Williamson), among many others. Each interview is accompanied by a biography and filmography.

This thorough critical study of Chaplin's films traces his acting career chronologically, from his initial appearance in 1914's Making a Living to his final starring role in 1957's A King in New York. Emphasizing Chaplin's technique and the steady evolution of his Tramp character, the author frames the biographical details of Chaplin's life within the context of his acting and filmmaking career, giving special attention to the films Chaplin directed/produced.

Decades after his death, annual Gallop polls reveal that Marion Morrison is still firmly implanted among the top-ten favorite motion picture celebrities and American heroes. Most of us know this box office star as John Wayne. This comprehensive volume covers his expansive film career, from 1926 to 1976. Listed in alphabetical order are entries on films such as ""Angel and the Badman"" and ""Noah's Ark"" that exemplify the more than 170 films that the actor worked on. Each entry includes the film's date, run time, cast and crew credits, reviews, and a synopsis. Also under each entry is a special section devoted to rare information and interesting details such as where the productions were shot, budgets, costs, salaries, box-office performance, alternate casting and what competition existed for the moviegoer audience. Also included in this reference work are over 650 capsule biographies of the talent that shared the screen with the actor and worked on the productions, and over 800 contemporary reviews and commentary from such diverse sources as ""The New York Times"", ""Hollywood Reporter"", and ""Life Magazine"". There is a series of five helpful Appendices: Appendix A lists films by order of their release dates; Appendix B lists Wayne's fellow actors and colleagues and tells under which entry the relevant capsule biography may be located; Appendix C offers specific review information for the films; Appendix D provides facts on the biggest box office films; and Appendix E details the most popular films on television.

Before she achieved immortality on the long-running situation comedy Bewitched, Agnes Moorehead had established a distinguished career as a character actress. After her screen debut in Citizen Kane (1941), Moorehead became one of the most familiar female faces on the silver screen. For moviegoers of the 1940s and '50s, she was the quintessential character actress, earning four Academy Award nominations during a career that saw her gain the respect of her peers in all four major entertainment media: radio, film, theater, and television. In The Films of Agnes Moorehead, Axel Nissen looks at the actress's sixty-three feature films between 1941 and 1973. Each film is profiled here, with particular emphasis placed on the films that merit closer attention: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Mrs. Parkington, Dark Passage, All That Heaven Allows, The Left Hand of God, The Swan, Tempest, The Bat, and Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Arranged in chronological order, the discussion of these films highlights Moorehead's contribution to each feature. In addition to analyzing her performances, the author discusses the development of Moorehead's career as a whole, along with her relationship with various studios, directors, producers, and fellow actors. Based on extensive interviews with the actress's surviving friends and co-workers, as well as detailed archival research into primary sources, this book brings to light new information not just about Moorehead's work in film, but on her life and career in general. Though this book will certainly appeal to movie buffs, The Films of Agnes Moorehead will also be of interest to students and scholars of classic Hollywood films, including those interested in women and film, gender studies, and film history.

Charlotte Greenwood never intended to become a comedienne, but she was unfashionably tall at 5'10"" and her early aspirations to become a great dramatic actress eventually led her to the field of comedy. Greenwood, whose early life had taught her nothing if not how to be optimistic, stifled her disappointment and used her considerable skill to become one of the greatest comedic actresses of the early twentieth century. Based on Greenwood's unpublished memoirs; this biography presents a personal, detailed look at her colorful life. Beginning with her early years in Philadelphia, Boston and Norfolk, it relates her struggles with ill health, her social difficulties caused by her then unusual height and her realization of her ambition to become an actress. The main focus of the work is her career, which spanned more than 50 years and ranged from vaudeville to the stage and, finally, to films (during the World War II years she starred in Twentieth Century Fox musicals with Cesar Romero, Betty Grable, Edward Everett Horton, Jack Haley, Don Ameche, and Carmen Miranda). Her roles in a variety of works including ""The Passing Show of 1912"", ""So Long Letty"" (both stage and film), and ""I Remember Mama"" are also discussed. Special emphasis is placed on her career-defining (and best-known) role as Aunt Eller Murphy in the 1955 film adaptation of ""Oklahoma!"" Charlotte Greenwood's performance history, a list of her known recordings, and a filmography for her husband Martin Broones are also included.

Most of the bright and talented actresses who made America laugh in the 1950s are off the air today, but their pioneering Hollywood careers irrevocably changed the face of television comedy. These smart and sassy women successfully negotiated the hazards of the male-dominated workplace with class and humor, and the work they did in the 1950s is inventive still by today's standards. Unable to fall back on strong language, shock value, or racial and sexual epithets, the female sitcom stars of the 1950s entertained with pure talent and screen savvy. As they did so, they helped to lay the foundation for the development of television comedy. This book pays tribute to 10 prominent television actresses who played lead roles in popular comedy shows of the 1950s. Each chapter covers the works and personalities of one actress: Lucille Ball (""I Love Lucy""), Gracie Allen (""The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show""), Eve Arden (""Our Miss Brooks""), Spring Byington (""December Bride""), Joan Davis (""I Married Joan""), Anne Jeffreys (""Topper""), Donna Reed (""The Donna Reed Show""), Ann Sothern (""Private Secretary"" and ""The Ann Sothern Show""), Gale Storm (""My Little Margie"" and ""The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna""), and Betty White (""Life with Elizabeth""). For each star, a career sketch is provided, concentrating primarily on her television work but also noting achievements in other areas. Appendices offer cast and crew lists, a chronology of 1950s female comedy feature events, and an additional biographical sketch of 10 less familiar actresses who deserve recognition.