Cloris (Thorndike Biography) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Cloris Leachman (Author), George Englund (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2009 | ISBN-10: 1410418561 | ISBN-13: 978-1410418562 | Edition: Lrg

She received two Emmy Awards as the irrepressible Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moor Show. . .she won an Oscar for her supporting role as a frustrated housewife in The Last Picture Show. . .she delighted audiences with her deliciously villainous turns as Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein and Nurse Diesel in High Anxiety. . .and she earned even more award nominations playing a hard-drinking grandmother in Spanglish.

But who, really, is Cloris Leachman?

She's one of the most acclaimed, and unpredictable, actresses of our time. Transforming herself with every role, Cloris Leachman has been dazzling audiences for decades with her unusual gift for both comedy and drama. She's appeared in 11 Broadway plays, 57 films, and 137 television shows and has earned 16 awards and 23 nominations. Now, for the first time, the incomparable Cloris Leachman reflects on her amazing life and illustrious career. . .

From her hometown in Des Moines, Iowa (where she first saw Katharine Hepburn perform on stage, never imagining they would one day do Shakespeare together) to the bright lights of Broadway (where she had to work up the nerve to sing for Rogers and Hammerstein to get the lead in South Pacific) to the television studios of L.A. (where she hopped on producer James Brooks's lap to land the role of Phyllis), Cloris's journey has been filled with laughter and tears, marriage and motherhood, tragedy and triumph.

With surprising candor, she talks about her experiences at the Actor's Studio, her "Peck s bad boy" behavior on the set of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, her work with Mel Brooks and other filmmakers, her return to sitcoms with The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Malcolm in the Middle, and her difficulty shaking off the roles she immerses herself in. She shares wonderfully revealing anecdotes about her co-stars and friends: Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Dianne Keaton, Sissy Spacek, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and the Kennedy family. She reveals her source of inspiration behind High Anxiety (giant fake breasts) and The Last Picture Show (a disturbing childhood incident). Finally, she speaks frankly about being a celebrity icon, trying to balance her family, career, and boundless creativity energy.

This is the real Cloris Leachman as you've never seen her before.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Leachman has won an Oscar (The Last Picture Show) and nine Emmy Awards, placed third in the Miss America Pageant, and raised five children. Despite years as Phyllis on TV's
The Mary Tyler Moore Show and memorable roles in films, she's probably now best known for her comedic turn on Dancing with the Stars, in her eighties, no less. The
devil-may-care, unpredictable persona she exhibited there seems to embody the real Leachman. She shares her career and marriage highs and lows (her ex-husband is coauthor and
the love of her life, though they are not together) and dishes on actors and lovers (e.g., Brando, Gene Hackman, Bobby Darin) in an entertaining though distracted way.
She studied at the Actors Studio but came up with her own philosophy, "Acting is make-believe... Have fun" and "Don't be afraid you're going to make a fool of yourself."
She lives what she preaches. Recommended for all public libraries and acting collections. ----Rosellen Brewer - Library Journal

Acclaimed actress Leachman reflects on a distinguished career and unconventional life..Equally adept at drama and comedy, Leachman has been a fixture in the pop-culture
firmament for five decades, winning nine Emmy Awards (a record for an actor) and an Oscar for her downbeat performance in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show. Her memoir
takes a frank stroll down a particularly verdant memory lane, recounting her life and times in no particular chronological or thematic order, veering into endless
digressions and asides. The result is charming and frequently engrossing. Assisted by co-author and husband Englund (The Way It's Never Been Done Before: My Friendship with
Marlon Brando (2004), Leachman discusses many topics in salty, don't-give-a-damn language. Even when discussing the addiction and death of her son Bryan, she is grimly
sardonic about her own "drug": "it's got higher lethality than all of his combined. Your drug is hope, and you won't, you can't, you don't know how to give it up."
Leachman remembers Robert F. Kennedy as "cold" and laments the Kennedy brothers' shabby treatment of Marilyn Monroe. Her memories of Marlon Brando include dismay at
his selfishness and chaotic family life as well as admiration for his humor and talent. She provides a fascinating look at the Actors Studio in its heyday, startling
revelations about romantic trysts (Bobby Darin! Gene Hackman!), an honest depiction of her marriage (temporarily broken up at one point by Joan Collins), an account
of a terrifying early-stage experience with an imperious Katharine Hepburn and a bracing description of her tenure on Dancing with the Stars, which she joined as an
octogenarian. Self-characterized asmouthy and irreverent, Leachman delights with her candor in a host of delicious anecdotes. Her MTM co-star Ed Asner might not agree,
however; her account of a sexual wager between them, its outcome and his subsequent reaction, is priceless and embarrassing..Funny, gimlet-eyed and unpretentious someone
get this woman a talk show..Agent: Mitchell Walters/Curtis Brown. ----Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 369 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; Lrg edition (September 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410418561
• ISBN-13: 978-1410418562
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,639,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SINGULAR CLORIS, April 5, 2009

By 

Shannon Deason (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cloris: My Autobiography (Hardcover)

When I was a little boy, I used to watch the Mary Tyler Moore Show because Mary looked like my Mom and my mother was a female professional, at a time when that was hardly common, that is where I got my first taste of the iconic Cloris Leachman as the hilarious narcassist Phyliss, I have loved her ever since. This book is sooo Cloris, it's funny, touching and very positive; this is not a woman to feel sorry for herself. Ms. Leachman has done so much, but most remember her for her turns in Mel Brooks films, but I think the quenticential Cloris Leachman performance, one for which she was awarded an Academy Award, was not one of comedy, but of heartbreak, she was riviting as the older conquest of a much younger man, in The Last Picture Show, her performance was raw and powerful, and the character couldnt have been more different than the vapid nacassist Phyliss. Recently, I watch her on dancing with the stars, and though nobody would accuse Ms. Leachman as being Ginger Roger's in her prime, she was hilarious none the less, who doesnt love Cloris, I mean, right? In this book, she does not shy away from personal, albeit funny, stories, like the one about she and Ed Adsner, frankly, I think i could picture Lou and Sue Anne, before I could Lou and Phyliss, but it does make for a very funny story. If you have any interest in Ms. Leachman in the least then I cant imagine you not enjoying this funny, sometimes touching, biography of a show business legend.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars straight forward, delightful, April 2, 2009

By 

Walter G. Fitzsimons - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cloris: My Autobiography (Hardcover)

This long time hollywood icon and survivor lays out all manner of personal information, from back when to her on tv recently. All the stars of legend are shown as just folks, and the lessons of life layed out without pretense. Witty, entertaining, open and honest, the book has a charm about it that matches the author.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's How She Says It, April 27, 2009

By 

Joseph Albanese "The Joe Show" (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cloris: My Autobiography (Hardcover)

In CLORIS, Ms. Leachman recounts her long and varied career as an entertainer, parent, wife and health food advocate.

With a grin and a snappy way of phrasing things, Cloris Leachman and her son, George Englund, have put together a scrap book of the woman's life. Bits and pieces float about so it is not unusual to find her talking about Marlon Brando and Mable Albertson on the same page. That is both a boon and a drawback.

CLORIS is an interesting read. How could it not be when you are talking about an actress whose career spans nearly 50 years and includes everything from being a runner-up in a Miss America pagent to winning an Oscar and let's not forget her all time high of portraying Phyllis on the classic Mary Tyler Moore Show. Whether she is talking about Bagdonovich or Mel Brooks, she has something to say and you find yourself reading it carefully. However, much like in Tallulah Bankhead's autobiography published in the early fifties, Cloris Leachman does not follow any logical time pattern or stick to a clearly defined pattern when telling her stories. Instead, she drops her pearls in a random, almost helter-skelter way so that you have no idea where the next paragraph will lead you. Interesting? A bit but just when the story sounds like it will be getting juicy, Ms. Leachman branches off into another direction. A bit of structure would have made this an almost excellent read.

One note of interest and something that Cloris Leachman should be proud of is the way she casually deals with the affair that her husband had with Joan Collins. While Ms. Collins' has made the affair nothing less than a three act play in her own novel (Past Imperfect), Cloris Leachman wisely chooses to mention it and give it scant attention. She deserves applause for both talking about it and not making it a major selling point.

In all, CLORIS is one heck of a book that will leave you a bit dizzy but sated.