Overview

Richard Burton once said that his ambition was simply ""to be a millionaire"". David Niven was expelled from public school for stealing. A young Charlie Chaplin worked as a glass blower to keep his family from poverty. Alfred Hitchcock appreciated good food. Eric Morecambe wrote a book on fishing, appropriately titled ""Eric Morecambe on Fishing"". At nine years old Diana Dors declared, ""I am going to be a film star, with a swimming pool and a cream telephone"". The public has always been interested in the lives of those who choose entertainment as a career. We seem constantly thirsty to find out what makes these people tick and we envy their lifestyles. For this collection, Michael Billington, writer, presenter and drama critic, has selected from the ""Dictionary of National Biography"" around 100 such lives from 100 years of the world of entertainment.

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9780198606444

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Reviews

This series from OUP is proving absolutely invaluable. This volume is a collection of pithy and informative essays on some of the most gifted directors, actors, writers and comedians of the 20th century, and much of the pleasure in these entries is the individual perspective given by the author of the essay, usually as distinguished in the field as the subject. John Gielgud, for instance, is the perfect guide to the marvellous comic talents of Margaret Rutherford, and sounds just the right note in evoking her eccentric persona. Similarly, Alan Bennett's take on the late broadcaster Russell Harty is as revealing about its author as its subject. Some may claim that Harty does not belong in such elevated company as Bernard Shaw and Dame Edith Evans, but who cares when the essay is as entertaining as this? Arthur Marshall's piece on Tony Hancock perfectly captures the difficult brilliance of the comedian without avoiding a discussion of his heavy drinking and sad end, and John Lahr, who provided the definitive biography of the brilliantly gifted playwright Joe Orton, here encapsulates that volume in a perfect two-page essay. No doubt the editor would expect this to be an anthology to be dipped into, but many readers will find themselves unable to resist reading it from cover to cover, so diverting and diverse is the range of entries here. And it's always interesting to note that these massively talented people appear to have lives quite as troubled and problem-laden as the rest of us. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Michael Billington has been Drama Critic for the Guardian since 1971 and of Country Life since 1987. In 1974 he won the IPC Critic of the Year award and in 1993, 1995, and 1997 was voted Critic of the Year by readers of Theatre Record. He broadcasts regularly on radio and television arts programmes including Night Waves and Front Row and has written and presented TV documentaries on Peter Hall, Peggy Ashcroft, and Alan Ayckbourn. He frequently lectures abroad for the British Council, teaches theatre courses in London to students from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University and is the author of several books.

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