American Actor

Access Accents bring the highly sought-after voice techniques of top voice coach Penny Dyer to the actor's audio device. They offer a unique opportunity to prepare for auditions at short notice.

Join Greg Laurie as he takes a cross-country drive in his 1968 Highland Green Ford Mustang 390 GT through the canyons of Malibu, the alleys of Hollywood, the wide and open roads of the Midwest, the streets of New York, as he traces the wooly geography of actor Steve McQueen's life, relationships, career, and spiritual journey.

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. His body of work is arguably the most morally significant in cinematic history, and the power and influence of that work are indicative of the character of the man behind the many storied roles. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure: as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Joan Crawford's remarkable forty-five-year motion picture career is one of the industry's longest. Signing her first contract in 1925, she was crowned an MGM star four years later and by the mid-1930s was the most popular actress in America. In the early 1940s, Crawford's risky decision to move to Warner Bros. was rewarded with an Oscar for Mildred Pierce. This triumph launched a series of film noir classics. She teamed with rival Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, proving that Crawford, whose career had begun by defining big-screen glamor, had matured into a dramatic actress.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees?

In this timely memoir, Valderrama looks back on his journey from a tiny pueblo in Venezuela to the big city of Los Angeles—how he discovered his calling as an actor and later as a USO Global Ambassador, found work in Hollywood as an unproven Latino actor, and used his determination and success to build a new life for himself, his family, and many others.

In 1994, the American Film Institute gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to Jack Nicholson, who became one of the youngest actors to ever receive the award. Such tributes typically come as a capstone to a star's career, not when the actor is still in his 50s. In fact, Nicholson would go on to win the Oscar for Best Actor just a few years after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award as a result of As Good As It Gets (1997), and he would earn another Academy Award nomination for About Schmidt (2002). Those two would give him 12 Academy Award nominations, more than any other man in history, and make him one of just two actors to be nominated in every decade between 1960 and 2010.

Like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin is an American legend for his longevity and success across a garden variety of different platforms. Martin began as a nightclub singer, performed in a comedy act, starred in films, recorded hit albums, and capped his career by serving as a television host. In fact, there may be no star who was better able to transcend the different avenues of entertainment.

When Robert Redford first entered the national spotlight in the early 1960s, he was hardly viewed as a serious actor, and with his red hair, blond complexion, and athletic build, he was seen more as a handsome man than a skilled one. On top of that, he came at a time in which most Hollywood stars were tall, dark, and slender - like one of his most famous costars, Paul Newman - and by comparison, Redford looked more like a surfer.

Though Chris and Taya Kyle's marriage had its difficult moments, it was always a love story. Together they'd endured military service, a best-selling book, unexpected fame, and a film deal starring a hot Hollywood actor. But just when Taya thought that she and Chris were finally going to live their dream together, her husband was murdered. In the wake of his death, a grieving Taya was left to raise her two young children and handle the many things Chris left behind.

Dolly Parton is best known for her musical prowess, but there is so much more to her character than people realize. Nowadays, she is the epitome of old Hollywood glamor. She is pretty well known for getting a lot of cosmetic surgery over the years in order to keep up the gaudy, glamorous image we’ve come to know and love. Even through all this she’s still modest. What people may not realize is that her early life was anything but glamorous.

This book is a one-of-a-kind collection showcasing the wise, witty, and deeply personal speeches Sidney Poitier gave at awards ceremonies, family events, memorials, and more. His salutes to artists such as Dorothy Dandridge, Spencer Tracy, Stanley Kramer, and Denzel Washington offer fresh insight on icons of our time. Poitier's unforgettable cadence and voice are clear as day. Compiled by his wife, Joanna Poitier, this collection captures all that was remarkable about the man through his own words.

Despite the enormous esteem he has garnered from virtually every corner of the music world, Jerry Garcia has continued to elude both fans and music historians as they attempt to determine his origins and categorize his art and influence on American music. Part of their difficulty lies in the fact that his work as the frontman for the Grateful Dead, "one of the most prolific and iconic guitarists of the twentieth century", tended toward a blending of the traditional with the experimental.

As he did in his bestselling biographies of Jimmy Stewart and Clint Eastwood, acclaimed Hollywood biographer Marc Eliot digs deep beneath the myth in this revealing look at the most legendary Western film hero of all time; the man with the distinctive voice, walk, and demeanor who was an inspiration to many and a symbol of American masculinity, power, and patriotism.

Walter Matthau is probably best-remembered for his films with Jack Lemmon, but he was clearly an established actor in Hollywood by the time they appeared in their first film together. Before his movies with Lemmon, Matthau most often played shady criminals in dramatic films, and his character in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957) offers one of the best examples.

A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees?

Narrating his riveting memoir, beloved actor Dick Van Patten reflects on his prolific career, vibrant life, and the people who shaped both. From growing up during the Great Depression when poverty and racially biased ideologies dominated America, to witnessing the advent of television and its subsequent influence on culture, Dick Van Patten's life is a rich record of change and progress in America and Hollywood.

Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905-1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood's most famous Chinese American actress, a screen siren who captivated global audiences and signed her publicity photos—with a touch of defiance—"Orientally yours." Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong's tragic life story, retracing her journey from Chinatown to silent-era Hollywood, and from Weimar Berlin to decadent, prewar Shanghai, and capturing American television in its infancy.

Mae West will always be remembered as one of Hollywood's biggest icons, and the American Film Institute named her the 15th greatest actress of the 20th century in its Top 100 list, but she also transcended the entertainment industry and became a critical part of Americana itself. Over the course of 7 decades, Mae redefined the boundaries of sexuality in ways that made more conservative Americans of the early 20th century uncomfortable, and for good measure she did so boldly and in people's faces.

Throughout the history of Hollywood, perhaps no actor has a reputation as unique as Johnny Depp. Depp began his career in a very traditional manner by being a teen heartthrob on shows like 21 Jump Street, but as he once admitted, "As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too."