Cloris Leachman

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By spasai70 on | From blpbooks.blogspot.com

Cloris (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series) Review

I've been a huge Cloris fan for many years - when I first started watching TV in college (never watched it
before then!) she was one of the first actors that I "noticed"...every episode of TV she was in was
always so much better because she was in it. Anyhow, I always wondered why she wasn't better known, despite a vast resume. No one I ever mentioned the name to seemed to have heard of her, outside of a very few who were big into
films and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". I met her in 2001 and she was much the same as Phyllis Lindstrom of "MTMS"...a zany, vivacious person whose zest and lust for life are inexhaustible. I always wondered if she'd
ever do a bio. And finally she did. I read it all in 24 hours, that's how excited I was to read it.
It filled in a few gaps about her pre-Hollywood days in the theater and about her relationship with husband-producer George Englund. There is an abundance of information about George's relationship with Marlon Brando, however, that really should've been left out of the book. The life and death of her son Bryan, I knew about already from various documentaries about her, but I was amazed at how she admitted that she was somewhat of an enabler and that she didn't intervene and get him the help he was needing to overcome his addiction. Her time on "Mary Tyler Moore" doesn't get much coverage, and the only thing she really says about Mary herself is that she was professional and on time and ready to work. What I did not know is that she had a strained relationship with Ed Asner, or that she was so close to Valerie Harper during the series (despite the rivalry of Phyllis and Rhoda!) And her spinoff series "Phyllis" is barely touched upon. She makes no mention of Lisa Gerritsen, who played her unforgettable daughter Bess - possibly because they lost contact after it ended. I was glad to hear her say that she does not equate acting with money. This comes as no surprise to me, given her enormous natural gift for performing. I wish more Hollywood actors had the same attitude. To me, Cloris Leachman represents the last of a group of survivors from a very large fraternity of older actors who learned the craft of acting during the days when quality was still the focus. She is indeed a legend and a unique artist who made mountains and opened up new vistas in rather mundane characters. The fact that she has not succumbed to Hollywood ageism and win major awards late in life speaks for itself. This book tells of just a small part of her life, but anyone who has seen Cloris Leachman on screen and appreciated her performances, should read this book.

Cloris (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series) Overview

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.

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Customer Reviews

Biography review - Brenda -
Very good reading. Enjoyed Cloris' type of writing and the story of her life.

Great Actress, Great Autobiog Book - George R. Reis -
Cloris did a great job with her Autobiograhy. Enjoyed hearing how this determined woman did so many things better than other actors. She was in my Roosevelt High School Class. I've watched her perform all of these years, and she never fails to deliver.

The Love That Linked Them - Kevin Killian - San Francisco, CA United States
Cloris is pretty amazing but I don't care for her, never have, and the purpose of reading this book was to see if a good book might be written by an actress whose work has always turned me off. Well, it certainly is a good book, and I have even revised my opinion of her as an actress slightly. She was never a real beauty but she had brains and a big, Rabelaisian spirit, and she was ambitious and lived life to the fullest! She should have played Auntie Mame, I bet she would have done well.

I remember seeing her as the repressed coach's wife in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and it's fun to hear the behind the scenes gossip about what was going on there in Texas. Seems like nobody really liked her co-star very much, the young cute Joseph Bottoms. She makes him seem like a bit of a psychopath, thus it makes her winning performance seem all the more unexpected.

Those were her glory days and yet they seem all too short. George Englund's status as the best friend of Marlon Brando, and the big family of boys she gave birth to, left huge holes in her resume so that when she became a star, she seemed already old, and casting her in those Mel Brooks movies as a sort of human freak was the icing on the horror cake. We never got to see her young, just in a parade of bigger than life crazy roles. The funniest part of the book is her chapter about having to play the mother to so many younger stars and how that made her feel! The least funny part was when her husband fell in love with young, luscious Joan Collins and Cloris was left holding the bag. It must make him feel weird being the ghost writer for his wife's memoirs, when he himself was such a schmuck in so many ways. Yet they're still together, which says something for love. Her affairs with Gene Hackman and Peter Viertel are glossed over, and her plans to make love with Andy Williams and Ed Asner sort of comical. I just read Andy Williams' memoirs to see what her has to say about his lust for Cloris, and he says nothing, perhaps for legal reasons?

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