Download or read book One Tough Dame written by Herbie J Pilato and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2024-09-16 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg offers a sweeping portrait of the revered performer’s life and career. Deemed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1994, Diana Rigg (1938–2020) initially found fame as super sleuth Mrs. Emma Peel in the 1960s BBC/ABC-TV espionage series The Avengers. A classically trained and multi-award-winning thespian, Rigg is known for her diverse body of work — from her big-screen debut in 1969 as Countess Teresa di Vincenzo, wife of James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, to her Tony Award–winning, leading role in Medea on Broadway, culminating with her Emmy-nominated portrayal as Lady Olenna Tyrell on the heralded small-screen gem Game of Thrones. This eclectic volume traces Rigg’s career as a renowned star of television, film, and the stage. The author includes insights from rare, archived interviews, encompassing both video dialogues conducted by the University of Kent and Oxford Union. The meticulously curated archival material is further complemented by equally rare photos and retrospections drawn from diverse media sources and hitherto unpublished accounts from the people who knew Rigg best, affording readers an unprecedented, all-encompassing glimpse into her private world. With exclusive commentary from Rupert Macnee (son of Riggs’s Avengers costar and dear friend Patrick Macnee); the show’s stunt coordinator/director Ray Austin; actors Samuel West, Bernie Kopell, Barbara Barrie, Juliet Mills, John Schuck, and Damon Evans; director Bruce Beresford; and documentarian David Naylor, among others, One Tough Dame delivers an in-depth perspective of a beloved, brave, brilliant, and trailblazing actor.
Download or read book One Tough Dame written by Herbie J Pilato and published by . This book was released on 2024-09-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed biography of the esteemed actress, before, during, and after The Avengers
Download or read book Diana Rigg written by Kathleen Tracy and published by BenBella Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recently voted the "sexiest television star of all time" by TV Guide readers, Diana Rigg is best known as the brilliant and seductive British agent, Emma Peel on The Avengers. The Tony and Emmy award-winning actress is famous not only for her acting talent, but for her keen intelligence and strong opinions as well. Diana Rigg biographer Kathleen Tracy reveals the fascinating professional and personal life of this rebellious, outspoken icon of feminism—from her childhood in India and early days with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London to her tenure on The Avengers, her role in the Bond film On Her Maiesty's Secret Service and her distinguished stage career.
Download or read book The Knife Slipped written by Erle Stanley Gardner and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lost for more than 75 years, The Knife Slipped was meant to be the second book in the series, but shelved when Gardner’s publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool’s tendency to “talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” But this tale of adultery and corruption, of double-crosses and triple identities—however shocking for 1939—shines today as a glorious present from the past, a return to the heyday of private eyes and shady dames, of powerful criminals, crooked cops, blazing dialogue, and delicious plot twists. Donald Lam has never been cooler—not even when played by Frank Sinatra on the U.S. Steel Hour of Mystery in 1946. Bertha Cool has never been tougher. And Erle Stanley Gardner has never been better.
Download or read book Twitch Upon a Star written by Herbie J Pilato and published by Taylor Trade Publishing. This book was released on 2012-11-05 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on author Herbie J Pilato’s exclusive interviews with Elizabeth Montgomery prior to her death in 1995, Twitch Upon a Star includes insider material and commentary from several individuals associated with her remarkable life and career before, during, and after Bewitched, including her classic feature films The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955), Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed? (1963), and Johnny Cool (1963). Two of Montgomery’s many popular TV movies, A Case of Rape (which remains one of the highest-rated TV-movies of all time) and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (which will soon be remade as a feature film), were groundbreaking and remain classics. But Twitch Upon a Star also goes behind the scenes to explore Montgomery’s political activism, including her early advocacy for AIDS sufferers and the peace movement; her support for all minorities, including the gay community and the disabled; and her controversial participation as narrator of the1988 feature film documentary Cover-Up and its 1991 Oscar-winning sequel, The Panama Deception (both of which chronicled the Iran/Contra scandal of the 1980s). The book also explores Montgomery's tumultuous relationships with her father, screen legend Robert Montgomery (she was a liberal; he was a staunch conservative), and her four husbands (including actor Gig Young, who later died in a murder/suicide). Through it all—and to family and friends such as fellow performers Ronny Cox, Sally Kemp, and Florence Henderson—she was just Lizzie: down-to-earth and unaffected, just like Samantha, the "witch-with-a-twitch" Stephens, her most famous role.
Download or read book Tis Herself written by Maureen O'Hara and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-10-25 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A first-ever revealing and candid look at the life and career of one of Hollywood’s brightest and most beloved stars, Maureen O’Hara. In an acting career of more than seventy years, Hollywood legend Maureen O’Hara came to be known as “the queen of Technicolor” for her fiery red hair and piercing green eyes. She had a reputation as a fiercely independent thinker and champion of causes, particularly those of her beloved homeland, Ireland. In ‘Tis Herself, O’Hara recounts her extraordinary life and proves to be just as strong, sharp, and captivating as any character she played on-screen. O’Hara was brought to Hollywood as a teenager in 1939 by the great Charles Laughton, to whom she was under contract, to costar with him in the classic film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She has appeared in many other classics, including How Green Was My Valley, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, and Miracle on 34th Street. She recalls intimate memories of working with the actors and directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Laughton, Alfred Hitchcock, Tyrone Power, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Candy. With characteristic frankness, she describes her tense relationship with the mercurial director John Ford, with whom she made five films, and her close lifelong friendship with her frequent costar John Wayne. Successful in her career, O’Hara was less lucky in love until she met aviation pioneer Brigadier General Charles F. Blair, the great love of her life, who died in a mysterious plane crash ten years after their marriage. Candid and revealing, ‘Tis Herself is an autobiography as witty and spirited as its author.
Download or read book The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame written by Joanna Kafarowski and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2017-11-04 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive biography of Louise Arner Boyd — the intrepid American socialite who reinvented herself as the leading female polar explorer of the twentieth century. Born in the late 1880s to a gritty mining magnate who made his millions in the California gold rush and a well-bred mother descended from one of New York’s distinguished families, society beauty Louise Arner Boyd was raised during a glittering era. After inheriting a staggering family fortune, she began leading a double life. She fell under the spell of the north in the late 1920s after a sailing excursion to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next three decades, she achieved international notoriety as a rugged and audacious polar explorer while maintaining her flamboyant lifestyle as a leading society woman. Yet despite organizing, financing, and directing seven daring Arctic expeditions between 1926 and 1955, she is virtually unknown today.
Download or read book A Life of Barbara Stanwyck written by Victoria Wilson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 1056 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “860 glittering pages” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times): The first volume of the full-scale astonishing life of one of our greatest screen actresses—her work, her world, her Hollywood through an American century. Frank Capra called her, “The greatest emotional actress the screen has yet known.” Now Victoria Wilson gives us the first volume of the rich, complex life of Barbara Stanwyck, an actress whose career in pictures spanned four decades beginning with the coming of sound (eighty-eight motion pictures) and lasted in television from its infancy in the 1950s through the 1980s. Here is Stanwyck, revealed as the quintessential Brooklyn girl whose family was in fact of old New England stock; her years in New York as a dancer and Broadway star; her fraught marriage to Frank Fay, Broadway genius; the adoption of a son, embattled from the outset; her partnership with Zeppo Marx (the “unfunny Marx brother”) who altered the course of Stanwyck’s movie career and with her created one of the finest horse breeding farms in the west; and her fairytale romance and marriage to the younger Robert Taylor, America’s most sought-after male star. Here is the shaping of her career through 1940 with many of Hollywood's most important directors, among them Frank Capra, “Wild Bill” William Wellman, George Stevens, John Ford, King Vidor, Cecil B. Demille, Preston Sturges, set against the times—the Depression, the New Deal, the rise of the unions, the advent of World War II, and a fast-changing, coming-of-age motion picture industry. And at the heart of the book, Stanwyck herself—her strengths, her fears, her frailties, losses, and desires—how she made use of the darkness in her soul, transforming herself from shunned outsider into one of Hollywood’s most revered screen actresses. Fifteen years in the making—and written with full access to Stanwyck’s family, friends, colleagues and never-before-seen letters, journals, and photographs. Wilson’s one-of-a-kind biography—“large, thrilling, and sensitive” (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Town & Country)—is an “epic Hollywood narrative” (USA TODAY), “so readable, and as direct as its subject” (The New York Times). With 274 photographs, many published for the first time.
Download or read book Killer Tomatoes written by Ray Hagen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No delicate ingenues, these. In the middle of the twentieth century, the Mary Pickfords of the movie world were replaced by a different sort of woman--drop-dead gorgeous, witty, not afraid to speak their minds, they could slay you with a look--and if that didn't work, look out for the pistol in the garter. These ground-breaking actresses helped change the course of movie history, charting a path for generations to come. These profiles of fifteen leading ladies--Lucille Ball, Lynn Bari, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen, Adele Jergens, Ida Lupino, Marilyn Maxwell, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Russell, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Claire Trevor and Marie Windsor--include overviews of their lives and careers, and excerpts from interviews. Five photos supplement each profile. Jane Russell (one of the actresses profiled) provides a foreword.
Download or read book Elizabeth Taylor written by Darwin Porter and published by Blood Moon Productions. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before she died, Elizabeth Taylor claimed that previous biographers had revealed "only half of my story, but I can't tell the other half because I'd get sued." In response to that challenge, Blood Moon presents history's most comprehensive compilation of the unpublished--until now--secrets of Dame Elizabeth. With photos, this meaty and startling book offers a juicy feast of till-now untold tales about the 20th century's most deadlinegenerating actress, relayed with empathy and brutal candor.
Download or read book Ethics and the Problem of Evil written by Marilyn McCord Adams and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-27 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provocative essays that seek “to turn the attention of analytic philosophy of religion on the problem of evil . . . towards advances in ethical theory” (Reading Religion). The contributors to this book—Marilyn McCord Adams, John Hare, Linda Zagzebski, Laura Garcia, Bruce Russell, Stephen Wykstra, and Stephen Maitzen—attended two University of Notre Dame conferences in which they addressed the thesis that there are yet untapped resources in ethical theory for affecting a more adequate solution to the problem of evil. The problem of evil has been an extremely active area of study in the philosophy of religion for many years. Until now, most sources have focused on logical, metaphysical, and epistemological issues, leaving moral questions as open territory. With the resources of ethical theory firmly in hand, this volume provides lively insight into this ageless philosophical issue. “These essays—and others—will be of primary interest to scholars working in analytic philosophy of religion from a self-consciously Christian standpoint, but its audience is not limited to such persons. The book offers illustrative examples of how scholars in philosophy of religion understand their aims and how they go about making their arguments . . . hopefully more work will follow this volume’s lead.”—Reading Religion “Recommended.”—Choice
Download or read book Ida Lupino written by William Donati and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2013-07-24 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: British-born actress, singer, director, and producer Ida Lupino (1918-1995) cut one of the most alluring profiles of any Hollywood persona during the forties and fifties. The star of classic films such as They Drive by Night (1940), High Sierra (1941), and Road House (1948), she was a stalwart of the screen throughout her early career and frequently received top billing ahead of stars such as Humphrey Bogart. While her talent was undeniable, her insistence on taking only roles she felt would challenge her professionally often put her at odds with the demands of studio executives. It was in those periods of frustration and suspension as an actor that Lupino fostered a talent for the filmmaking process. In a bold decision for a woman of the era, she founded her own independent production company where she became widely regarded as one of the most prolific filmmakers working at the height of the Hollywood studio system. She has been described by fellow directors such as Martin Scorsese as "resilient, with a remarkable empathy for the fragile and heartbroken." William Donati's Ida Lupino: A Biography chronicles the dramatic life of one of Hollywood's most substantive and innovative artists who lived her life unapologetically both behind and in front of the camera.
Download or read book Tough Without a Gun written by Stefan Kanfer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humphrey Bogart: it’s hard to think of anyone who’s had the same lasting impact on the culture of movies. Though he died at the young age of fifty-seven more than half a century ago, his influence among actors and filmmakers, and his enduring appeal for film lovers around the world, remains as strong as ever. What is it about Bogart, with his unconventional looks and noticeable speech impediment, that has captured our collective imagination for so long? In this definitive biography, Stefan Kanfer answers that question, along the way illuminating the private man Bogart was and shining the spotlight on some of the greatest performances ever captured on celluloid. Bogart fell into show business almost by accident and worked for nearly twenty years before becoming the star we know today. Born into a life of wealth and privilege in turn-of-the-century New York, Bogart was a troublemaker throughout his youth, getting kicked out of prep school and running away to join the navy at the age of nineteen. After a short, undistinguished stint at sea, Bogart spent his early twenties drifting aimlessly from one ill-fitting career to another, until, through a childhood friend, he got his first theater job. Working first as a stagehand and then, reluctantly, as a bit-part player, Bogart cut his teeth in one forgettable role after another. But it was here he began to develop a work ethic; deciding that there were “two kinds of men: professionals and bums,” Bogart, for the first time in his life, wanted to be the former. After the Crash of ’29, Bogart headed west to try his luck in Hollywood. That luck was scarce, and he slogged through more than thirty B-movie roles before his drinking buddy John Huston wrote him a part that would change everything; with High Sierra, Bogart finally broke through at the age of forty—being a pro had paid off. What followed was a string of movies we have come to know as the most beloved classics of American cinema: The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The African Queen . . . the list goes on and on. Kanfer appraises each of the films with an unfailing critical eye, weaving in lively accounts of behind-the-scenes fun and friendships, including, of course, the great love story of Bogart and Bacall. What emerges in these pages is the portrait of a great Hollywood life, and the final word on why there can only ever be one Bogie.
Download or read book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier Clay with bonus content written by Michael Chabon and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic, beloved novel of two boy geniuses dreaming up superheroes in New York’s Golden Age of comics, now with special bonus material by the author “It's absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal—smart, funny, and a continual pleasure to read.”—The Washington Post Book World One of The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Books of the Decade • Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939. A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink. Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age. Winner of the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award and the New York Society Library Book Award
Download or read book Tough Love written by Susan Rice and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recalling pivotal moments from her dynamic career on the front lines of American diplomacy and foreign policy, Susan E. Rice—National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama and US Ambassador to the United Nations—reveals her surprising story with unflinching candor in this New York Times bestseller. Mother, wife, scholar, diplomat, and fierce champion of American interests and values, Susan Rice powerfully connects the personal and the professional. Taught early, with tough love, how to compete and excel as an African American woman in settings where people of color are few, Susan now shares the wisdom she learned along the way. Laying bare the family struggles that shaped her early life in Washington, DC, she also examines the ancestral legacies that influenced her. Rice’s elders—immigrants on one side and descendants of slaves on the other—had high expectations that each generation would rise. And rise they did, but not without paying it forward—in uniform and in the pulpit, as educators, community leaders, and public servants. Susan too rose rapidly. She served throughout the Clinton administration, becoming one of the nation’s youngest assistant secretaries of state and, later, one of President Obama’s most trusted advisors. Rice provides an insider’s account of some of the most complex issues confronting the United States over three decades, ranging from “Black Hawk Down” in Somalia to the genocide in Rwanda and the East Africa embassy bombings in the late 1990s, and from conflicts in Libya and Syria to the Ebola epidemic, a secret channel to Iran, and the opening to Cuba during the Obama years. With unmatched insight and characteristic bluntness, she reveals previously untold stories behind recent national security challenges, including confrontations with Russia and China, the war against ISIS, the struggle to contain the fallout from Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, the U.S. response to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the surreal transition to the Trump administration. Although you might think you know Susan Rice—whose name became synonymous with Benghazi following her Sunday news show appearances after the deadly 2012 terrorist attacks in Libya—now, through these pages, you truly will know her for the first time. Often mischaracterized by both political opponents and champions, Rice emerges as neither a villain nor a victim, but a strong, resilient, compassionate leader. Intimate, sometimes humorous, but always candid, Tough Love makes an urgent appeal to the American public to bridge our dangerous domestic divides in order to preserve our democracy and sustain our global leadership.
Download or read book Shark Girl written by Kelly Bingham and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A teenager struggles through physical loss to the start of acceptance in an absorbing, artful novel at once honest and insightful, wrenching and redemptive. (Age 12 and up) On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything -- absolutely everything -- changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, "That’s her -- that’s Shark Girl," as she passes. In the meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life? In this striking first novel, Kelly Bingham uses poems, letters, telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it’s like to lose part of yourself - and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again.
Download or read book Colin Powell written by Jeffrey J. Matthews and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating biography of the late Colin Powell brings to light his towering achievements and errors in judgment during a lifetime devoted to public service. Until he passed away in 2021, Colin Powell was revered as one of America’s most trusted and admired leaders. This biography demonstrates that Powell’s decades-long development as an exemplary subordinate is crucial to understanding his astonishing rise from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to the highest echelons of military and political power, including his roles as the country’s first Black national security advisor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and secretary of state. Once an aimless, ambitionless teenager who barely graduated from college, Powell became an extraordinarily effective and staunchly loyal subordinate to many powerful superiors who, in turn, helped to advance his career. By the time Powell became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he had developed into the consummate follower—motivated, competent, composed, honorable, and independent. The quality of Powell's followership faltered at times, however, while in Vietnam, during the Iran-Contra scandal, and after he became George W. Bush's secretary of state. Powell proved a fallible patriot, and in the course of a long and distinguished career he made some grave and consequential errors in judgment. While those blunders do not erase the significance of his commendable achievements amid decades of public service, we can learn much from his good and bad leadership.
