It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business [Hardcover]

Charles Grodin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1989

Here is an actor's autobiography that transcends genre. Grodin writes about his share of catastrophic setbacks with candor and liberating humor. He dispenses invaluable advice about the art of surviving in the celluloid jungle. Photos.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Grodin was born in 1935 in Pittsburgh, where he was part of a close-knit Jewish family and had good friends, despite his apparently nonstop arguing--with anybody on anything. In this ebullient, often rancorous autobiography, the stage, film and TV actor describes vividly hassles that cost him the plum role in The Graduate and numerous other setbacks before he starred in The Heartbreak Kid. Grodin learned the Hollywood maxim, "You're as good as your last success," when his next picture flopped and he had to start over again, finally making a comeback in Midnight Run. Instructive and entertaining, his story includes tidbits on Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Roman Polanski, Ellen Burstyn, Simon & Garfunkel, and many other luminaries, none more intriguing than the unsinkable Grodin. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Actor, writer, producer, and director Grodin--whose career has had notable ups, and downs--shows that perseverance should be the motto of anyone striving to succeed. The incidents of his naive youth in Pittsburgh--e.g., tackling a fully accoutered bruiser in order to make a football team--are fully as engaging as days at the Actor's Studio, cowboy parts in 1960s TV Westerns, lead role in Broadway's Same Time, Next Year , or flailing the rapids in the film Midnight Run . Having recognized the impression he made in Heartbreak Kid , Grodin in this engrossing autobiography atones for the sin of abandoning Jeannie Berlin on their honeymoon. Recommended.
- Kim Holston, American Inst. for Property and Liability Underwriters, Malvern, Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 317 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (August 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688088732
• ISBN-13: 978-0688088736
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,137,751 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars depressing, September 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business (Paperback)

This book is depressing for aspiring actors, in that it shows how much SHEER LUCK is required to make it as an actor. My conclusion is don't go into acting unless a close relative happens to be a big Hollywood name (Nicholas Cage would be flipping burgers now if his Uncle Francis Coppola hadn't cast him in a number of his movies, to give one of numeruos examples). Grodin himself said in a subsequent book, that actors read this one and thought "Well, if Grodin made it, I can." And he said, "What my book showed you is that the odds are against you making it."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting read, December 22, 2002

By 

Robert Sacks (Medford, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book, if only for the humor and perserverance shown by Mr. Grodin.

I think it should be on the syllabus of every entry level acting class.

My brother is contemplating going to film school, and I've already sent him his own copy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An EXCELLENT Look at Life as an Actor, February 7, 2006

By 

Andrew Jon Abrahamson (Los Angeles, CA - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business (Paperback)

Really, this book should be on every aspiring actors bookself. If you are considering becoming an actor, nothing can be substituted for taking classes and seeing if you really like doing it, but in terms of really getting an idea of what that life is like and what to expect, biographies are essential and this is one of the Kings of them all.

The book really is an autobiography, but being that pretty much his entire life was spent in show business, its a good guide as to what to do and how to overcome the many and constant rejections involved in a life in the business.

Seriously, this really is a must read.