Cloris: My Autobiography

by Cloris Leachman

Book Overview

Film and television darling Leachman tells her life story through the challenges of her stellar career all while raising five children. She also discusses her many famous friends in the entertainment industry as well as in the political arena.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0758229631
• ISBN13: 9780758229632
• Release Date: March 2009
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Filled with enjoyable anecdotes from her career

I read a lot of autobiographies and this one was different. I've enjoyed Cloris' characters she's played, so I wanted to know more about her as a person. It is not really all that in depth about her growing up or her personal life. It's not in chronological order and is a bit scattered. It's like she's part of a group of people sitting in your living room chatting. Some of it is a bit gossipy. She tells stories from her career and gives advice about show business. She makes you laugh! It's a perfect read for someone in her industry.

Great Actress, Great Autobiog Book

Cloris did a great job with her Autobiograhy. Enjoyed hearing how this determined woman did so many things better than other actors. She was in my Roosevelt High School Class. I've watched her perform all of these years, and she never fails to deliver.

Great lady, great book!

This book was a good read. I was never bored reading it. It made me really appreciate even more than I already did a woman who is not only beautiful, but loving and funny. I can't anyone not enjoying this book.

Chutzpah - Over and Over!

I was lucky enough to meet Cloris Leachman at a book signing in San Francisco. Cloris Leachman had always been from the `Mary Tyler Moore" show or "Young Frankenstein" or "High Anxiety". I never knew much about this patron of the arts until I read this autobiography. It is delightful. I walked into Cloris Leachman's house and we just started to chat. That is the atmosphere you experience when reading her autobiography. It is linear in style, but she manages to inflect an interesting back-story here and there, making the read all that more interesting. It is literally a walk through time in this woman's life where she reveals unbelievably funny, bizarre and sad situations she had dealt with. This stands out as more personal than most autobiographies from celebrities and no doubt, she was assuredly helped by her partner George Englund. She begins with (of course) her childhood and how much her mother encouraged to do what she wanted in piano or acting. All of this in a household where the father was less than available. I was surprised to know that in Des Moine, Iowa, she saw a play starring Katherine Hepburn and was so struck with the theater, she immersed herself into it, eventually later landing a part on a Broadway stage in New York opposite Katherine Hepburn! Cloris Leachman is clearly a down to earth and a talented woman who never lost sight of her family or her place in the theatrical world. She's not humble, but simply matter-of-fact. She has no fear of productions on stage and explains several very interesting experience with famous and not famous co-stars that make you laugh or cringe. But she is never judgmental and at first you'll wonder whether she is a workaholic or just loves theater so much, she can't turn anything down. In fact, she loves performance so much, she'll take any job, at one point taking on understudies for seven roles simultaneously for two plays in New York, 1947. In 1948, she began a spot on radio for Kraft TV, mesmerizing the audience, particularly in a time when women were not to out-do men. She just takes it all in stride. She explains her method of acting, what props are most available and what plays she had been in. She also tells of times where she just happens to meet people that are famous, but in a neighborhood sort of way. I did not know that her husband (Producer George Englund) and Marlon Brando were very close friends, nor that Judy Garland was Cloris's neighbor and confidant, where Cloris would make lunches for Judy's family when Judy was troubled. Accidentally finding herself in a room with Jackie Kennedy (awkward) after being invited to the Kennedy Hyannisport compound, she explains how easily one can be intimidated by "USA royalty". She meets the entire family and it is explained as if you were there, frantically trying to say what is proper and be a good guest. There are some very funny moments. Cloris speaks of stating that Ronald Reagan would run for the Presidency sim

SINGULAR CLORIS

When I was a little boy, I used to watch the Mary Tyler Moore Show because Mary looked like my Mom and my mother was a female professional, at a time when that was hardly common, that is where I got my first taste of the iconic Cloris Leachman as the hilarious narcassist Phyliss, I have loved her ever since. This book is sooo Cloris, it's funny, touching and very positive; this is not a woman to feel sorry for herself. Ms. Leachman has done so much, but most remember her for her turns in Mel Brooks films, but I think the quenticential Cloris Leachman performance, one for which she was awarded an Academy Award, was not one of comedy, but of heartbreak, she was riviting as the older conquest of a much younger man, in The Last Picture Show, her performance was raw and powerful, and the character couldnt have been more different than the vapid nacassist Phyliss. Recently, I watch her on dancing with the stars, and though nobody would accuse Ms. Leachman as being Ginger Roger's in her prime, she was hilarious none the less, who doesnt love Cloris, I mean, right? In this book, she does not shy away from personal, albeit funny, stories, like the one about she and Ed Adsner, frankly, I think i could picture Lou and Sue Anne, before I could Lou and Phyliss, but it does make for a very funny story. If you have any interest in Ms. Leachman in the least then I cant imagine you not enjoying this funny, sometimes touching, biography of a show business legend.

straight forward, delightful

This long time hollywood icon and survivor lays out all manner of personal information, from back when to her on tv recently. All the stars of legend are shown as just folks, and the lessons of life layed out without pretense. Witty, entertaining, open and honest, the book has a charm about it that matches the author.