Beyond Peyton Place, although based upon the life and times of Ed Nelson, is much more than the biography of an actor who claims, in his own words, to have clawed and scratched his way to the middle. It is a fascinating recounting of the professional career of someone who has climbed to professional heights far greater than the middle, and who did it while always giving top billing to his wife and six children. There was not a performance genre in which Ed Nelson did not excel. He began doing high school and college amateur theater, became a floor director for a local TV station, accepted small movie roles filmed in and around New Orleans, and then moved his then-small family to Hollywood, without even enough money to own an automobile. He took whatever roles he could get in film, TV, and theater, and never looked back. Over the next fifty years he appeared in 40 movie roles, over 1,500 TV productions, 30 major stage appearances, and although best known for his starring role for five years as Dr. Mike Rossi in Peyton Place, was a resounding hit as Harry S Truman in the marvelous one-man show Give em Hell Harry! which toured the United States for almost a year. He succeeded Academy-Award winner James Whitmore, who originated the role. Ed Nelson will tell you that his life story is as much about those luminaries, both male and female, with whom he has shared the stage and camera, as it is about himself. Blessed with a phenomenal memory, he offers up stories, some amusing and some sad, but always with an underlying message that will give aspiring actors guidance and encouragement in their quest for a successful career.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The real thing from one of Hollywoods good guys.,
This review is from: Beyond Peyton Place: my fifty years on stage, screen, and television (Paperback)
The truth is so much more interesting than fiction. Here was a great looking young guy who, while trying to break into the movies, drove a taxi to support his wife and family. Then he gets discovered- in a really big way- Peyton Place. And, we've all seen him in the movies throughout the years.
He knew all the Hollywood insiders, from the inside, and talks about them in the book. Not gossip, the truth. It rings of reality. Great stuff. Did fame make him nuts? No way. This is the real item. Read this book!!!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't put it down!,
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This review is from: Beyond Peyton Place: my fifty years on stage, screen, and television (Paperback)
For the Peyton Place fan, this is a must-read. Mr. Nelson's character was central to the series all the way through, and of course his recollections of the show are interesting. But there's so much more to the book--he's had an unusual and inspiring personal life, and is a man of varied interests. There's lots of humor in the book, especially where he writes about working with Roger Corman. There's some kind of surprising or interesting tidbit on just about every page. Even the fact that he grew up in the South was a surprise to me; I've never picked up any trace of a Southern accent in his acting.
The most shocking things in the book, I think, were his daughter's treatment by the TSA after a work-related illness and Mr. Nelson's own experience with Hurricane Katrina. If you're looking for scandals, rumors, drugs, and sex this book won't do it for you. If you just want to find out what the life of a refreshingly normal, steadily working actor has been like, read this book. You will become even more of an Ed Nelson fan and want to seek out all of the movie and tv appearances he has kindly listed at the end of the book. (I now feel compelled to find the movie where his sneakers are showing under a crab costume!)
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An actor's ego? Or a disappointed actor?,
By TL "TL" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond Peyton Place: my fifty years on stage, screen, and television (Paperback)
I ordered this book with the hopes that I would enjoy it and would like what I learned about Ed Nelson, his outlook and personality. I came away from reading it with a decidely mixed opinion. Some have said the book is filled with humility. I beg to differ.
For a start, no one who is an actor (certainly not one arrogant enough to think his life story would be worth publishing despite never having made a real name for himself) is humble. Not surprising that the book could not find a major publisher, or that it has no appendix and that his credits are arranged very strangely. One only has to look at his comments about many other actors such as Jack Nicholson, who had major success and became stars. He insists most of them only did it through sensational press, behavior of which he was above partaking in. Uh-huh. So much for talent, eh? This really wreaks of a certain bitterness and self-deception to me. He then goes on to state daytime actors/soaps are NOTHING like the nighttime ones (of course, HE starred in a nighttime one, and later the ONLY daytime one of note) and that actors who appear in them rarely go on to better careers. Uh-huh. Well, according to the likes of Kathleen Turner, Lee Grant, Armande Assante, Kevin Bacon, Bonnie Bedlia, Robby Benson, Dyan Cannon, Kate Capshaw, Jill Clayburgh, Joan Crawford, Ted Danson, Brad Davis, Ruby Dee, Robert Deniro, Patty Duke, Morgan Fairchild, Joan Fontaine, Scott Glenn, Larry Hagman, Mark Hamill, David Hasslehoff, Joan Hackett, Richard Hatch, Dustin Hoffman, Hal Holbrook, Anne Jackson, Kate Jackson, James Earl Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Don Knotts, Louise Lasser, Judith Light, Jack Lemmon, Hal Linden, Nancy Marchand, Marhsa Mason, George Maharis, Donna Mills, Kate Mulgrew, Michael Nader, Patricia Neal, Barry Newman, Lois Nettleton, Jameson Parker, Gena Rowlands, Christopher Reeve, Eva Marie Saint, Susan Sarandon,Roy Scheider, David Selby, Tom Selleck, Martin Sheen, Rick Springfield, Beatrice Straight, Susan Sullivan, Richard Thomas, Dan Travanti, John Travolta, Cicely Tyson, Sigoruney Wewaver, Jobeth Williams and hundreds more, there is not only a value to working on (or, as is the case with nearly all of the aforementioned actors, starting on) daytime soaps, the only difference between a daytime one or a nighttime one is the time available to film them and the lighting. Peyton Place was no less melodramatic (and at times hard to swallow) than a daytime soap. In fact, it was created in part by one of daytime TV's legends of the soap world, Irna Phillips. I always find it suspicious when an actor has to bash other actors or programs in order to make themselves feel or seem more important. Such is the case with Mr. Nelson's book, albeit it is all wrapped up in the mantra of "hey, look at me, just tryin' to make a living..." I could point to dozens of other areas of the book that scream out with hubris. In short, I found this book to be a testament to a man who never made it where he really wanted to: films. Today, he is known for Peyton Place, a soap opera, and the books takes great pains to let us all know HIS soap opera was SO much different than any other. I could not help but see his disappointment with his non-star status, his forever being stuck in TV, and as to his name dropping... Someone who was for many years an active, well-known performer once said of Ed Nelson that he "had a great face, sexy voice, a mostly believable acting ability, was always on time and new his lines, had a not too decent body and a lack of real sex appeal." This assessment (his lack of star quality) explains why he never could make the leap from the small screen onto the large one. Certainly he had looks and talent (not as much as HE obviously believes he has), and perhaps had he been less conceited and more a more astute business man, he might very well have become the star he seems to think he is.
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