Marco Perella is a very successful actor. Which is not to say that he is a famous actor. The co-star in some made-for-TV movies, a bit player in major Hollywood productions, guest star on a late night cable TV series-Marco has seen every aspect of what is, by anyone's account, an absurd business. Whether he has been hired to float down the Guadalupe River dressed in a Jester's suit, recruited to teach Kevin Costner how to dance, or paid $250 to stand in front of a plate glass window while a runaway convertible hurtles through it, screeching to a halt only inches from his body, Marco Perella has met his acting challenges head on. In Adventures of a No Name Actor, he recounts his experiences with a storyteller's eye for detail and a Texan's light touch, proving that you don't have to be famous to be funny.

Born and raised in Brooklyn with a street fighter's instinct and sharp Jewish wit, Mickey Knox leaves the army for the bright lights of Hollywood. But when the rise of McCarthyism puts an abrupt end to his hopes of working in American films, Knox debarks to France and Italy to work in European cinema. It turns out to be the best move of his life. This book—where every major film actor and writer of the last century appears—is a wonderful, gossipy history of European cinema as seen through the observant eye of Knox. From arguing with John Wayne, teaching Anna Magnani to articulate English, to fending off Zsa Zsa Gabor's advances and getting lost in Italy with a hungry Orson Welles, Knox was in the midst of it all, watching with a dry smile and a witty comeback. Of the colorful cast of characters who have passed through his life—Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Anthony Quinn, Henry Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Sam Fuller, Elvis Presley, Gore Vidal—one lasting friendship runs throughout the text. That friend—Norman Mailer—writes a preface to "a rare warrior of that rarely heroic world of stage and screen." Black-and-white photographs are included.

Craig Chester's witty and wry observations on his life and those who have occupied it come together to create this funny, sentimental, yet irreverent collection of essays. From the backroads of Texas to the boardrooms of Hollywood, Craig Chester is unabashedly honest about the pain and the unique rewards of remaining an outsider in an insider's world. While his family prepares to watch the apocalypse from their rooftop with a bucket of KFC, Craig is trying to climb the social ladder at school by saving his neighbors from their sinful ways and speaking in tongues (with not-so-successful results). Along the way Craig experiences gender confusion at grade-school summer camp and has massive reconstructive surgery to correct his deformed teenage face, only to emerge and realize that Hollywood success isn't always measured in externals, but also in the machinations of the heart and how much you don't show. All along he expertly captures the feeling of what it's like to not always fit in—and have that be okay—with a comic timing that's tuned in to the heart and soul of trying to get by day to day. His tales of life, from growing up in the Bible Belt to starring in nine films, prove that the average American life is anything but normal.

Stanislavski’s ‘system’ has dominated actor-training in the West since his writings were first translated into English in the 1920s and 30s. His systematic attempt to outline a psycho-physical technique for acting single-handedly revolutionized standards of acting in the theatre. Until now, readers and students have had to contend with inaccurate, misleading and difficult-to-read English-language versions. Some of the mistranslations have resulted in profound distortions in the way his system has been interpreted and taught. At last, Jean Benedetti has succeeded in translating Stanislavski’s huge manual into a lively, fascinating and accurate text in English. He has remained faithful to the author's original intentions, putting the two books previously known as An Actor Prepares and Building A Character back together into one volume, and in a colloquial and readable style for today's actors. The result is a major contribution to the theatre, and a service to one of the great innovators of the twentieth century. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by the director Richard Eyre.

Two of the top casting directors in the business offer an insider's tour of their crucial craft--spotting stars in the making--in this lively memoir, full of the kind of backroom detail loved by movie fans and aspiring actors alike.