Funny yet down-to-earth, honest yet full of exaggeration, actor Walter Matthau (1920-2000) will always occupy a place in America's heart as one of the great comic talents of his generation. Born Walter Matuschanskayasky into Jewish tenements on New York's Lower East Side, he was a child actor in New York Yiddish theater, and later a World War II Air Force radioman-gunner. He paid dues for ten years on Broadway, in summer stock, and on television before landing his film debut The Kentuckian in 1955. By the time of his 1968 casting as cantankerous but lovable slob Oscar Madison in the film version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, Matthau had won major Hollywood stardom. Based on dozens of interviews and extensive research, this book covers the breadth of his often-complicated personal life and multi-faceted career, including his unforgettable performances in such films as The Fortune Cookie, A Guide for the Married Man, Plaza Suite, Charley Varrick, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Sunshine Boys, The Bad News Bears, California Suite, and Grumpy Old Men.

Matthau: A Life

Edelman, Rob

Kupferberg, Audrey

Humor & Entertainment

Taylor Trade Publishing

Meet the Mertzes is an expansive dual biography chronicling the lives of two of America's most popular situation-comedy actors, William Frawley and Vivian Vance, who portrayed Fred and Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy. This meticulously researched book contains interviews with Frawley's and Vance's colleagues, friends, and relatives, and explores their personal and professional lives before, during, and after I Love Lucy. With a complete filmography and videography of each, Meet the Mertzes finally sets the record straight on the lives and legacies of these compelling stars who detested one another.
You'll learn about:
-Vance's successful Broadway career prior to I Love Lucy -Frawley's vaudevillian roots and his passion for baseball -Vance's nervous breakdown after the collapse of her first marriage -Frawley's drinking and carousing -Lucille Ball's caustic relationship with both of her costars -Vance's hatred of being known to the world as Ethel Mertz

Meet the Mertzes: The Life Stories of I Love Lucy's Other Couple

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Renaissance Books

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Books by Kupferberg, Audrey