Overview

""Nothing short of riveting...an engrossing first-person account by one of our finest actors"" (Huffington Post)--both a coming-of-age story and a meditation on creativity, devotion, and craft--Bryan Cranston, beloved and acclaimed star of one of history's most successful TV shows, Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston began his acting career at the age of seven, when his father, a struggling actor and sometime director, cast him in a commercial for United Way. By fifth grade he was starring in the school play, spending hours at the local movie theater, and re-enacting favorite scenes with his brother in their living room. Cranston seemed destined to be an actor. But then his father left. And his family fell apart. Troubled by his father's missteps, Cranston abandoned his acting aspirations and resolved to pursue a steadier career in law enforcement. Then, on a two-year cross-country motorcycle journey, Cranston re-discovered his talent for acting and found his mission and his calling. In this ""must-read memoir"" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Cranston traces the many roles he inhabited throughout his remarkable life, both on and off screen. For the first time he shares the story of his early years as an actor on the soap opera Loving, his recurring spots on Seinfeld, and his time as bumbling father Hal on Malcolm in the Middle, to his tour-de-force, Tony-winning performance as Lyndon Baines Johnson in Broadway's All the Way, to his most iconic role of all: Breaking Bad's Walter White. ""An illuminating window into the actor's psyche"" (People), Cranston has much to say about creativity, devotion, and craft, as well as innate talent and its challenges and benefits and proper maintenance. ""By turns gritty, funny, and sad"" (Entertainment Weekly), ultimately A Life in Parts is a story about the joy, the necessity, and the transformative power of simple hard work.

Full Product Details

9781476793870

Table of Contents

Reviews

Cranston delivers crisp stories about his onscreen performances in everything from daytime soaps to Malcolm in the Middle to his 2014 Tony-winning portrayal of President Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way. But he also offers many chapters in which the part is his real-life experience as a farmhand, hypnotist, dating consultant or even a murder suspect. --Kansas City Star

Fascinating...The candor and self-introspection of this book are reminiscent of another unflinchingly honest memoir, the late Katharine Graham's magnificent 'Personal History.' --<b><i>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</i></b>

Fascinating...The candor and self-introspection of this book are reminiscent of another unflinchingly honest memoir, the late Katharine Graham's magnificent 'Personal History.'---Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Author Information

Bryan Cranston won four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Walter White in AMC's Breaking Bad. He holds the honor of being the first actor in a cable series, and the second lead actor in the history of the Emmy Awards, to receive three consecutive wins. In 2014 he won a Tony Award for his role as Lyndon Johnson in the bio-play All the Way. In film, Cranston received an Academy Award nomination for his leading role in Trumbo. Among his numerous television and film appearances, he was nominated for a Golden Globe and three Emmys for his portrayal of Hal in FOX's Malcolm in the Middle. He is the author of A Life in Parts.

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