This book is necessary because cold reading is the process by which most professional acting jobs are filled, and it is in every actor's best interest to know as much as they can about it. To succeed in the business of acting, most actors will need to master a cold reading technique so that it becomes reliable and natural. Some actors will develop an effective technique of their own. Many will not. For the actor who is not comfortable with the cold reading process, there are only two options: get lucky, or get help.
BASIL HOFFMAN - Biography
Basil Hoffman is one of the most recognizable American character actors in film. His first film role was in LADY LIBERTY with Sophia Loren, directed by Mario Monicelli. On his first trip to Los Angeles in 1974, he filmed his second theatrical feature, AT LONG LAST LOVE, for Peter Bogdanovich, two television movies, television episodes of "Kung Fu," "Rockford Files," "Sanford and Son," "Police Woman" and "M*A*S*H," and numerous television commercials.
Following one brief return to New York for "One Life to Live", he moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Since then, although most of his work has been in film and television, he has made a few stage appearances, most notably in "Sand Mountain," by Romulus Linney, for which he won a Drama-Logue Award, the first staged reading of Martin E. Brooks' "Joe and Flo" at the Actors Studio, and the world premiere of William Blinn's "Walking Peoria."
He is best known for his work, often in classic films, with distinguished directors, including (in addition to Peter Bogdanovich and Mario Monicelli) Richard Benjamin, Carl Reiner, Peter Medak (four times) and Alan J. Pakula (twice); Academy Award winners Steven Spielberg, Delbert Mann, Blake Edwards, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard and Robert Redford (twice); and many others.
A long-time private acting teacher and coach, he has also been a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigious academic institutions, including (among many others) the American Film Institute; Louisiana State University; the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada; the University of Southern California; and the Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts in Beirut, Lebanon.
In 2008, he returned to Beirut as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the University of Balamand's Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and St. Joseph University's Institut D'Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques.
He is a former member of the Board of Directors of Screen Actors Guild and the Fine Arts Advisory Council of Loyola Marymount University. He is an Advisory Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and is a member of both the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He is also the author of the acting textbooks, COLD READING AND HOW TO BE GOOD AT IT and ACTING AND HOW TO BE GOOD AT IT (and The Second Edition) with a foreword by Sydney Pollack.
The basilhoffman.com Website is the best source for Basil Hoffman biographical material, including film clips and production photos.
