Customer Reviews

Cloris (Thorndike Biography)

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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.

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.

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.

Cloris Leachman has always been one of my favorite actresses. Here, for the first time, Cloris has written her life story filled with humor, wit, and honesty that the reader can see from the very first paragraph. She wrote "Cloris" with her former husband and father of her five children, George Englund.

In these pages Cloris discusses her early life with a desire to be an actress. She was soon entering beauty pagents, which led to acting auditions, that brought her to roles on early TV shows like "Lassie" and a memorable performance playing Billy Mumy's mother in "The Twilight Zone". After appearing in several Hollywood films Cloris garnered, perhaps, the greatest role of her career playing Phyllis Lindstom on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in 1970 garnering her with a Best Actress Emmy win. It was while doing the "Moore" show that Cloris was cast in "The Last Picture Show" where she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (it was, and still is, very rare for TV performers to have concurrent success on the big-screen).

Like all of us Cloris has had her share of ups and downs in her life. She discusses the failure of her TV sitcom "Phyllis" that was a spin-off of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", her discovering that her husband, George Englund, was having a torrid affair with Joan Collins, the future Alexis in TV's "Dynasty", and the loss of her son to cocaine.

A better-than-average biogaphy, I enjoyed "Cloris" immensely: I know you will too.

I was lucky enough to meet Cloris Leachman at a book signing in San Francisco.

Cloris Leachman had always been from the `Mary Tyler Moore" show or "Young Frankenstein" or "High Anxiety". I never knew much about this patron of the arts until I read this autobiography. It is delightful. I walked into Cloris Leachman's house and we just started to chat. That is the atmosphere you experience when reading her autobiography. It is linear in style, but she manages to inflect an interesting back-story here and there, making the read all that more interesting. It is literally a walk through time in this woman's life where she reveals unbelievably funny, bizarre and sad situations she had dealt with. This stands out as more personal than most autobiographies from celebrities and no doubt, she was assuredly helped by her partner George Englund.

She begins with (of course) her childhood and how much her mother encouraged to do what she wanted in piano or acting. All of this in a household where the father was less than available. I was surprised to know that in Des Moine, Iowa, she saw a play starring Katherine Hepburn and was so struck with the theater, she immersed herself into it, eventually later landing a part on a Broadway stage in New York opposite Katherine Hepburn!

Cloris Leachman is clearly a down to earth and a talented woman who never lost sight of her family or her place in the theatrical world. She's not humble, but simply matter-of-fact. She has no fear of productions on stage and explains several very interesting experience with famous and not famous co-stars that make you laugh or cringe. But she is never judgmental and at first you'll wonder whether she is a workaholic or just loves theater so much, she can't turn anything down. In fact, she loves performance so much, she'll take any job, at one point taking on understudies for seven roles simultaneously for two plays in New York, 1947. In 1948, she began a spot on radio for Kraft TV, mesmerizing the audience, particularly in a time when women were not to out-do men. She just takes it all in stride.

She explains her method of acting, what props are most available and what plays she had been in. She also tells of times where she just happens to meet people that are famous, but in a neighborhood sort of way. I did not know that her husband (Producer George Englund) and Marlon Brando were very close friends, nor that Judy Garland was Cloris's neighbor and confidant, where Cloris would make lunches for Judy's family when Judy was troubled. Accidentally finding herself in a room with Jackie Kennedy (awkward) after being invited to the Kennedy Hyannisport compound, she explains how easily one can be intimidated by "USA royalty". She meets the entire family and it is explained as if you were there, frantically trying to say what is proper and be a good guest. There are some very funny moments.

Cloris speaks of stating that Ronald Reagan would run for the Presidency simply by non-verbal clues from Nancy Reagan or her conversations with Hillary Clinton about Bill Clinton's run for President. My lord. She even knew Charlie Chaplin very well. All of this is presented in the most unpretentious way that you realize she has no need to embellish. It simply is not necessary. She admires these famous people, but is not stricken with a sense of overwhelming admiration. They are all humans.

The one thing that really strikes one as you read this, is that her family is the most important thing to her. Even through a separation and much later a divorce from Producer George Englund, it is clear that they are soul-mates forever. Her achingly short chapter on her son who passed away form drug abuse is heart-felt and you know why the chapter is so short. She observes life in a way that is rarely found. Her philosophies are not new nor inspirational. They are simply what she believes and this brings about her persona as it really is. She does not choose to be a celebrity, she simply chose to act in any way or capacity that was available to her, her precocious personality be damned or not. She ends with her attitude about greeting people with hugs. There is nothing better than that. She tells the reader that all she wants to do is put a big hug around you as you read her story. Cloris Leachman is a woman who is human with a great deal of class and love.

My roommate saw this book on TV and was under the assumption that it was a story of how Cloris dealt with the loss of her beloved son. I also lost my son at age 39 and was looking forward to her sharing her feelings and survival tools in dealing with a parent's worst nightmare. To be honest, I haven't totally finished the book (about 3/4 through it), but very disappointed. I feel that if she wasn't a celebrity, it would not have ever been published.

The book is, in my opinion, poorly written, scattered and more of a bragging tribute to Cloris by Cloris and her accomplishments. I have always loved her spunk, her acting ability and her unique way of looking at the world, but am so far disappointed. I expected more humor and truly funny stories, as well as her experience with her son's death.

I was so happy to see Cloris Leachman had written an autobiography. I've been a fan for so many years. So I felt cheated by this poorly written book. Some aspects are belabored, and others are glossed over. A few chapters near the end are literally only a couple of pages long. It's like someone interviewed Cloris and then laid out the notes for the book and decided to just publish them instead of actually letting her tell her own story.

I've seen her on live television enough to know that she's articulate, funny, knowledgeable, and in turns sophisticated and bawdy depending on the occasion. This book is none of those things. It's a thin watery story in which she sounds vapid and superficial, which is so very much less than her rich life and multi-faceted persona deserve.

This is a quick read. Cloris tells how she tried to balance her personal and professional lives with some pratfalls in between. I enjoyed her memories of her famous friends and flamboyant lifestyle. She is and always will be a "character."

Leachman's life may be filled with interesting stories, but you have to wade through her scattered thinking in order to find them in this messy book. She says at the beginning that she's not going to use the traditional method to tell her life story--and that's an understatement. Though she starts with her early Iowa years, she quickly starts skipping around. Soon the stories don't always make sense and the reader is left wondering why she is so often sidetracked instead of just finishing the story she started.

This woman thinks highly of herself--this autobiography is filled with self-praise and offers little in the way of introspection and humility. She talks about the greats she worked with or befriended, including some surprises (Judy Garland was a neighbor, Marlon Brando played with her kids, she told bedtime stories to Maria Shriver).

She flits through her life experiences, going back and forth from Broadway years to Hollywood to childhood. She has daddy issues that she can't quite explain. She is sexually assaulted a couple of times but seems to think nothing of it and claims that one attempt even helped her later in her career.

If you're looking for insight into her choices you will be unsatisfied--she doesn't seem to have any idea why she did the things she did. She rushes through the movies and TV shows she was part of--not giving much in the way of background stories. Her Phyllis references are few and yet she seems to be a living copy of that character. She admits to angering MTM cast members because of being constantly late and ignoring their feelings, and one has to wonder why this "professional" thinks she doesn't have to follow the rules everyone else abides by. She seems proud of disregarding others feelings, yet she doesn't connect that to the problems that caused others (especially her children).

She only alludes to some of her other TV roles (a couple paragraphs on Facts of Life) and movies. There just aren't enough stories about her work. Some of them are a bit hard to believe as they are told here--they're too glib and compact. She shows up in New York and suddenly is cast as the lead in South Pacific even though she has never sung before anyone before? Katharine Hepburn hears about her and casts her as co-star? There just has to be more to it than what she writes here.

Cloris knows people that it makes no sense for her to know--she became close to the Kennedy family when she was young and has a bizarre story of her then-husband "dating" Jackie Kennedy after the president dies. She has a strange Nancy Reagan story and hosted Elizabeth Taylor for chili. There are a number of things that go unsaid and her stories seem intentionally vague. It raises questions about possible affairs or relations, including her husband's closeness with Marlon Brando.

Her cavalier attitude is both playful and shocking. She doesn't seem to worry about her children's problems, including a drug-addicted son. She claims her divorce changed nothing with her ex-husband, who is credited as co-authoring this book. People die and babies are born with little emotion shown. There is no sense that this woman is in touch with her inner feelings.

The book is a breezy read and has all the elements of a great autobiography, but it is like someone took all the pages and threw them up in the air, then published them in whatever order they landed. In the end Leachman comes across as vacuous, insensitive and hyper. She always needs to be active but there is no reasoning to her choices. It's fun to read her take on her life experiences, but one suspects that if someone else wrote a more objective book there would be quite a different take on who Cloris really is.

I couldn't wait for this book to hit the shelves. However, once I got it I was sorely disappointed. The book jumps all over and her stories are a bit repetitive. Additionally, the book seems a bit self-serving in the way it is written. I love her career and that she has always been outspoken and cutting edge. Unfortunately, the book just wasn't a great read. Not even a good read. Sigh.