Classic Actor

Believe it or not, America's fascination with celebrity culture was thriving well before the days of TMZ, Perez Hilton, Charlie Sheen's breakdown, and allegations against Woody Allen. And the stars of yesteryear? They weren't always the saints that we make them out to be. Part biography, part cultural history, the stories contained in this book cover the stuff that films are made of: love, sex, drugs, illegitimate children, illicit affairs, and botched cover-ups.

Fifty years ago, a little boy was cast in a movie with some of Hollywood's brightest stars. The movie: It's a Wonderful Life; the boy: Jimmy Hawkins; today, he tells his story. Through personal recollection, careful research, and interviews with cast and crew, actor Jimmy Hawkins, who played four-year-old Tommy Bailey, takes you behind the scenes for a first-hand look at the American movie classic It's a Wonderful Life.

The most gorgeously theatrical of all Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby follows the delightful adventures of a hearty young hero in 19th-century England. Nicholas, a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times, must set out to make his way in the world. His journey is accompanied by some of the most swaggering scoundrels and unforgettable eccentrics in Dickens's pantheon.

The Sound of Music is a classic film cherished in the hearts of millions. It won five Oscars, including Best Picture, upon its release in 1965. This tribute to a Hollywood classic is sure to thrill everyone who's ever sung along to "My Favorite Things" at one of the many screenings that still take place today. Through interviews with the cast and crew, in-depth access to memorabilia and personal scrapbooks, and archival research at Fox Studios, author Julia Antopol Hirsch reveals the lively human story behind the making of the von Trapp family film.

"The Vanished Actor" is a mystery novel woven with suspenseful turns and intriguing characters, set in the fictional town of Norcaster, England, during the early 20th century. This thriller will transport you to the heart of a quaint British town during a time of budding modernity, yet shadowed by the timeless human inclination towards greed, deceit and mystery. An Unusual Disappearance The story unfolds with the curious absence of the renowned actor, Bassett Robertson - an unusual occurrence that sets in motion a journey into a labyrinth of perplexing clues and enigmatic characters. The ...

We are all classicists - we come into touch with the classics on a daily basis: in our culture, politics, medicine, architecture, language, and literature. What are the true roots of these influences, however, and how do our interpretations of these aspects of the classics differ from their original reality?

Nicolas Cage: leading man or character actor? Action hero or goofball comedian? Internet joke or one of the greatest actors of his generation? Beyond the gif bait and easy punchline, Nicolas Cage continually frustrates easy categorization or understanding. In National Treasure, pop culture writer Lindsay Gibb studies Nicolas Cage’s acting style and makes sense of the trajectory of his eclectic career. In the process, Gibb debunks the common claim that Cage makes bad choices.

This collection contains 12 of the greatest shows ever broadcast during the Golden Age of Radio – including episodes of The Jack Benny Program, Burns & Allen, Gunsmoke, The Amos ‘n' Andy Show, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Suspense, Dimension X, The Whistler, Sherlock Holmes and more. Radio’s finest actors perform before the microphones, including: Jack Benny, Tom Conway, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nigel Bruce, Chester Morris, Dick Powell, Howard Duff, George Burns, Gracie Allen, William Conrad, John Dehner and many more.

Charming and classically handsome, John Gilbert (1897-1936) was among the world's most recognizable actors during the silent era. He was a wild, swashbuckling figure on screen and off, and accounts of his life have focused on his high-profile romances with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, his legendary conflicts with Louis B. Mayer, his four tumultuous marriages, and his swift decline after the introduction of talkies.

The late film icon and screen legend Kirk Douglas was married to Anne Buydens for more than six decades. Here they both look back on a lifetime filled with drama both on and off the screen. Sharing priceless correspondence with each other as well as the celebrities and world leaders they called friends, Kirk and Anne is a candid portrayal of the pleasures and pitfalls of a Hollywood life lived in the public eye. Compiled from Anne's private archive of letters and photographs, this is an intimate glimpse into the Douglases' courtship and marriage.

For a century Bram Stoker's Dracula has reigned supreme as the undisputed masterpiece of horror writing. We have all grown up under the shadow of the elegant Count, at once an attractive, brutal and erotic creature of the night. The gothic tale of Frankenstein and his construction of a human being which runs amok, has, with the help of numerous films, become one of the most vivid horror stories.

Jeff Corey (1914-2002) made a name for himself in the 1940s as a character actor in films like The Killers (1946). Everything changed in 1951, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Corey refused to name names and was promptly blacklisted, which forced him to walk away from a vibrant livelihood as an actor and embark on a career as one of the industry's most revered acting instructors. In Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How to Act, Corey recounts his extraordinary story.

In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre Royal, where she would first lay eyes on Laurence Olivier in his brilliant performance as Anthony Cavendish. That night, she confided to a friend, he was the man she was going to marry. There was just one problem: she was already married—and so was he. Truly, Madly is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, even decades after both actors' deaths.

Screenwriter Jeb Rosebrook presents a captivating behind-the-scenes memoir of the making of Junior Bonner, a 1972 Western classic starring Steve McQueen and directed by Sam Peckinpah.

This is a story from the In the Ravine and Other Stories collection.

A short story from the British Library Crime Classic collection Final Acts. The third act of a play is cut short by the death of an actor onstage. Inspector Bristow must delve into the man's past and relationships with his colleagues to solve the mystery.

Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) was an English author of 21 novels and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works have been ranked with Jerome K. Jerome and W. W. Jacobs, his detective stories with Conan Doyle, his politico-science fiction with H. G. Wells, and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood. In his stories of detection, Bramah hit on the idea of a blind detective, Max Carrados, whose triumphs are all the more amazing because of his disability.

A collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov, featuring "A Tragic Actor", "In a Strange Land", "Oh the Public", "The Looking Glass", "Her Husband", and "Overdoing It".

These stories are small masterpieces. The scene is set quickly, and within a few sentences the storyline is underway. But all seem to contain elements of the unexpected.

Young, impressionable Masha sees a tragic actor, Fenogenov, during his benefit night and falls madly in love with him. Masha decides to run away with the actor and marry him despite her father's clear disapproval. Her father disowns her, describing her husband as idle, stupid and of no fixed home or occupation. Masha later finds herself in desperate need of money and has to seek help from her farther. Read in English, unabridged.