Performing Arts category: 25753 books

Dermot O'Leary is the man with the dreamy good looks, the relaxed, natural charm and the real-life X-Factor. He's in every top ten of the sexiest men on TV, he's long been called 'head boy in the cool school of British broadcasting' and he's now jostling for the position of star of live, prime time...

Jonathan Ross has a larger than life personality that has captivated radio and TV audiences both young and old. With a cheeky sense of humour and a witty repertoire Jonathan is definitely the nation's treasure.Beginning his media career as a Channel 4 researcher it was not long before Jonathan had...

After watching pioneer filmmaker Thomas Ince film one of his famous Westerns on Ballona Creek, city founder Harry Culver saw the economic base for his city. Culver announced plans for the city in 1913 and attracted three major movie studios to Culver City, along with smaller production companies. �The...

You’ve heard Mr. Skin on The Howard Stern Show. You’ve seen his website in the blockbuster comedy Knocked Up. Maybe you’ve spent some time poking around on MrSkin.com, the world’s #1 resource for celebrity nudity. Now, Jim McBride—“Mr. Skin” himself—tells his story in uproarious, SKINtastic...

A unique perspective on the director of such film classics as Dr. Strangelove, 2001, and Full Metal Jacket, from his personal assistant and confidante. “As good an insider's view of middle- to late-period Kubrick as there is…funny and casual throughout.”—Kirkus Reviews Stanley...

Authorised and fully illustrated insight into the life and career of the award-winning director, from his childhood film projects up to King Kong, together with Jackson's revealing personal account of his six-year quest to film The Lord of the Rings. Once, Peter Jackson was a name unknown to all but...

A pioneer of the New Queer Cinema, Todd Haynes (b. 1961) is a leading American independent filmmaker. Whether working with talking dolls in a homemade short (Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story) or with Oscar-winning performers in an HBO miniseries (Mildred Pierce), Haynes has garnered numerous awards...

Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes is the first major biography of the effervescent, scene-stealing actress (1906-1979) who conquered motion pictures, vaudeville, Broadway, summer stock, television, and radio. Born the child of vaudevillians, she was on stage by age three. With her casual sex appeal,...

Married and working as a civil servant in a job centre, Sarah Millican's life couldn't have been more ordinary just over a decade ago. However, after the sudden break-up of her marriage, she decided to try something new and sign up for a writing workshop. It was to mark the beginning one of comedy's...

"Ingrid Bergman was far more than just a sweet, virtuous, ‘natural' Swedish girl—she was a dark sensualist over whom many men might go mad. Her very gaze delivered a climate of adult romantic expectation." Adored by millions for her luminous beauty and elegance, at the height...

When Harry Carey, Sr., died in 1947, director John Ford cast Carey's twenty-six-year-old son, Harry, Jr., in the role of The Abilene Kid in 3 Godfathers. Ford and the elder Carey had filmed an earlier version of the story, and Ford dedicated the Technicolor remake to his memory. Company of...

" 'Antony Sher's insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a great actor at work – modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless – a genius capable of transporting us backstage' Craig Raine, The Spectator (Books of the Year) Year of the Fat Knight is Antony Sher's account...

“This is the best autobiography I’ve read by a prominent American in I don’t know how many years. It is endlessly absorbing and I believe this is because it concerns a man who is looking to find a coherent philosophy that will be tough enough to contain all that is ugly in his person and his...

Bela Lugosi won immediate fame for his portrayal of the immortal count in the 1931 film Dracula. After a decade of trying vainly to broaden his range and secure parts to challenge his acting abilities, Lugosi resigned himself to a career as the world's most recognizable vampire. His last years were...