Autobiographies that surprised you, how good they were.

I guess this is the andidote to the other thread.%0D\ %0D\ Recently I read Cynthia Lennon''s book about her husband John Lennon.%0D\ %0D\ She''d already written a book in the 70s and for ages I avoided this new one thinking she was just cashing in AGAIN, which I suppose she was, but it was a great read. Fascinating and well told.%0D\ %0D\ She was with him from the very beginning until practically the end of the Beatles era.

• "Yes, I Can"---Sammy Davis, Jr.\ \ "The Autobiography of Malcolm X."

• Bossypants - Tina Fey\ \ I''m Still Here - Ashton Kutcher\ \ Out of Sink - Lance Bass

• Oh, God, SYNC, it''s SYNC!

  Spell it correctly, you dumb shit! Sez Lance.

• Pam Grier''s funny and touching "Foxy: My Life in Three Acts".

• Ditto on the Cynthia Lennon.

• I recently read Barbara Eden''s book "Jeannie out of the Bottle" and it was a fun gossipy and trashy read. She really tells a LOT of stories about as LOT of famous people she has worked with and encountered over the years. She also speaks frankly about her son''s drug addiction and death.

• Rupert Everett''s dreadfully titled but exceptionally written Red Carpets And Banana Skins owns this thread. He''s definitely in the wrong profession.

• This is the story of Johnny Rotten.

  http://www.amazon.com/Rotten-No-Irish-Blacks-Dogs/dp/0312428138/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304899835&sr=1-1

• I agree about the Rupert Everett one. First time I read it I htought it was too long. Needed serious editing. Then I read it again and skipped the draggy bits. Definitely the funniest autobio I''ve ever read.

  OP

• r6 What was Barbara Eden''s take on Lucy when she guest starred on I Love Lucy in its last season?

• R10--she spoke highly of Lucy, but Desi was all over her, and she felt bad for lucy as this was common for Desi. She did not get with Desi and thought he was bit of a slimeball. %0D\ %0D\ The stories she tells about Larry Hagman on the set of I Dream of jeannie are amazing. She also talks about Hayden O''Rourke (Dr. Bellows) being gay and having dinner at his house with his partner. Hayden was a stabilizing figure on the set for Hagman, for he seemed to be the only one that Hagman would listen to.

• For tennis fans: Andre Agassi''s ghostwritten memoir\ \ Portia de Rossi''s "Unbearable Lightness"\ \ Lillian Faderman''s "Naked in the Promised Land"\ \ Simon Napier-Bell''s catty memoir of the 1960s London music industry, "You Don''t Have to Say You Love Me"\ \ Deborah Curtis''s "Touching from a Distance" about her life with Ian Curtis

• [quote]spoke highly of Lucy\ \ She also said while promoting the book that Lucy was incredibly supportive and actually helped hand bead the dress Barbara was to wear on the show. I haven''t read it yet, I''m getting next week but I think that story is in there.

• I loved Barbara Eden as Loco in the 50s TV sitcom of How to Marry a Millionaire which was in perpetual reruns when I was a kid in the early 60s. Does she talk about the show in her bio?

• She does talk about it...she really covers quite a bit. It''s no literary masterpiece, but then again most showbiz autobiographies are not.%0D\ %0D\ I think I read it in three days.

  R6/R11

• Wasn''t Barbara Eden (Mary Tyler Moore too) absentee moms? %0D\ %0D\ What''s the story with Larry Hagman on the Jeannie set R6? Was she implying Larry was crazy? Difficult? Strange? What?

• In light of the recently aired HBO movie "Cinema Verite," I really enjoyed reading Pat Loud''s Book "A Woman''s Story," written in 1974.%0D\ %0D\ One of the things she writes about her son Lance . . .%0D\ %0D\ "I admire his freedom and am frightened by it at the same time. I imagine a lot of other people must feel that way and that''s why they get so indignant about him. In some ways, he''s the future, and we all get a little unglued by that."

• Sophie Tucker''s "Some of These Days"\ \ Ulysses Grants "Personal Memoirs"\ \ T.E. Lawrence''s "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" (no matter how much of it is fable\ \ James Joyce''s "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" (yes, of course it''s a novella, but not really)

• Vanna White''s autobiography

• Wow, thank you guys for adding to my must-read list!

• Boy George, Take It Like A Man. Very well written and intelligent.

• Lauren Bacall''s first bio By Myself is excellent as is Carol Burnett''s first bio.%0D\ %0D\ Both had sequels which were horrible and not much new.

• Vanna White

  Dorothy & Stan''s Russian cousin

• I love how someone names "James Joyce''s "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", and the very next post names "Vanna White''s autobiography".

  DL, I love you

• Margo Howard-Howard''s [italic]I Was a White Slave in Harlem[/italic] is a helluva read, though most everyone now agrees that she made it up out of whole cloth.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36rIvLM5cEQ

• I''ve heard Janet Leigh''s is a short, simple, nice read.

• Tab Hunter''s was better than most celebrity bios.\ \ Also, Mia Farrow''s "What Falls Away."

• An oldie but a goodie....\ \ Eartha Kitt "Thursday''s Child''. Brilliant book. \ \ Mae West "Goodness had nothing to do with it" there are a lot of interesting tidbits in that but I think you need to read it in a library. \ \ Billie Holiday "Lady Sings the Blues'' very candid.

• Lance Loud was a scary egotist, a drug addict with many issues, his mom was right to be scared of him.%0D\ %0D\ Tanya Tucker''s "Nickel Dreams"%0D\ %0D\ Mia Farrow''s "What Falls Away"%0D\ %0D\ %0D

• As someone already said: One More Time by Carol Burnett

• [italic]The Woman I Was Not Meant to Be,[/italic] by Aleshia Brevard -- the memoirs of a boy from rural Tennessee who became a "stealth" transsexual Playboy Bunny, topless dancer, and Hollywood starlet. She was also one of the first MTFs to obtain surgery within the U.S.; because the surgeon would not operate unless she was castrated first, and because she couldn''t find a legitimate doctor to perform that surgery, her best friend did the job at home, using a veterinary textbook on neutering cats as her guide.

  http://vvoice.vo.llnwd.net/e14//trans-mission.1931210.40.jpg

• Jane Fonda''s book is oustanding.

  Not Jane Fonda

• Spencer Bright''s, ''Peter Gabriel: An Authorized Biography'' - the first pressing, the one where he dishes the dirt on Rosanna Arquette

• What''s the dirt on Rosanna?

• Pamela Des Barres'' I''m With the Band is a very entertaining book and I believe every word of it (or want to.)%0D\ %0D

• I loved Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arnigrin (Nellie from Little House) was excellent. Slash''s and Steven Adlers are good too

• r34 - let me see what I can remember - I know he dumped her on her birthday at an amusement park, with at least one of his daughters, present..\ \ And that she gave a magazine interview trashing him and his bedroom skills, unbeknownst to him, THEN tried to fly out and make nice while he was filming/performing, ''Secret World'' - and he fell for it. \ \ The way he found out about said ''trashing'' interview? While the biographer was literally AT Gabriel''s home, she called and left an hysterical, rambling, nearly hour-long rant on his answering machine (calling back, repeatedly), blubbering that she''d done said, ''trashing'' interview because she was upset because her dog had been eaten by a coyote.\ \ That''s all I can remember, now.

• [italic]Knee Deep in Paradise[/italic] by Brett Butler\ \ [italic]The First Time[/italic] by Cher\ \ [italic]Lettin'' It All Hang Out[/italic] by RuPaul\ \ [italic]Hiding My Candy[/italic] by The Lady Chablis\ \ [italic]Still Hungry&emdash;After All These Years[/italic] by Richard Simmons ... seriously. No revelations about his sexuality, natch, but the way he wrote about his parents and growing up in New Orleans was wonderfully evocative.

• Possibly the best auto I have ever read was Jenna Jameson''s "How To Make Love Like A Porn Star".%0D\ %0D\ Extremely entertaining and exceptionly sad.

• Anita Loos'' A Girl Like I%0D\ %0D\ Joan Fontaine''s No Bed of Roses%0D\ %0D\ Betty Comden''s, though I''ve forgotten the name of it.

• Another vote for Boy George''s autobiography--there''s some laugh out loud passages and one-liners, and some really good gossip as well.

• The True Story of Patt Hatt by Patt Hatt

• If you''re interested in Swinging London, Jean Shrimpton''s autobiog was much better than I would have expected from someone who was a model fifty years ago. %0D\ %0D\ Whereas Twiggy''s book was quite good but then she starts to name drop over and over and over.%0D\ It was exhausting, actually.

  http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4119/4773963477_2197250b9c.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/20909064@N05/4773963477/&usg=__6pbA5qTKtvA3aJDDYxAWHUxrqII=&h=330&w=500&sz=95&hl=en&start=27&sig2=vn9ykG3jGhNOqg5o

• Theater%0D\ Moss Hart''s "Act One" which is beautiful, and mandatory reading for any gay man. %0D\ Rock%0D\ Keith Richard''s "A Life": funny, and written with an honesty and shrewdness that makes other rock stars so irrelevant.%0D\ %0D\ Eric Clapton''s book, which is very, very good. %0D\ %0D\ Marianne''s Faithful''s books, which are great reading and full of rock gossip.%0D

• for good gossip you can''t beat Shelley Winters'' autobiography, and if I remember correctly, she wrote a follow-up to the first one. And it sounds just the way you would expect her to sound - maybe she actually wrote it without a ghostwriter. tons of good dish but only if you''re old enough to remember these people.

• My mom is reading bin Laden''s 1st wife''s book. He said she sounds rather delusional and perhaps insane, but it''s a good read. But the son hates his guts.

• [quote]Eric Clapton''s book, which is very, very good. Marianne''s Faithful''s books, which are great reading and full of rock gossip%0D\ %0D\ I didn''t know Eric Clapton had written a book.%0D\ I''ll check that one out.%0D\ %0D\ M. Faithfull''s book was one of the best celeb autobio''s I''ve ever read. She was so indiscreet, I think it got her into a lot of trouble. 20 years later it''s still in print.%0D\ %0D\ Sarh Miles, the actress, wrote three books. The first about childhood is excellent. The second about her long running affair with Olivier drags, unless you''re fascianted by Olivier and yes, she talks about his bisexuality and the third is also very good.%0D\ %0D\ Sharon Osbourne wrote a very good book. Nutty life. Apparently the best selling autobio ever in Britain.%0D\ %0D\ Women tend to write the best autobiographies. (STR8)Men''s books are generally dull. They don''t know how to dish. Polanski wrote a very good book though.

• [quote] STR8)Men''s books are generally dull. \ \ With the exception of David Niven.

• Recently read (and loved) Frank Bruni''s "Born Round"

• Alison Arngrim''s autobiography was very good. I highly recommend it.

• Just finished the new biography of W. Somerset Maugham, and it is absolutely delicious. It pretty much covers everything gay that happened in Europe between 1890 and 1970. The end was sad, but WHAT A LIFE!! He we always be one of my favorite writers, and no one has every written better short stories.

• Louise Brooks, "Lulu in Hollywood"

• Mary Wilson''s "Dreamgirls - My Life As A Supreme"

• Kathy Griffin''s "Official Book Club Selection" was entertaining and very well-written.

• Are you being funny, r54? I can''t tell.

• I was being serious---I had low expectations for Kathy Griffin''s autobiography, but she did a great job.%0D\ %0D\ Her book and Alison Armgrin''s were two of the best autobiographies I''ve read in the past five years.

  R54

• Yes to David Niven! "The Moon''s a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses" are great reading. Witty, intelligent, and full of compassion. The perfect gentleman, and when you read him you realize why he was considered the best dinner guest in Hollywood.

  ranger

• [italic]Enter Talking[/italic] by Joan Rivers\ \ [italic]Enter Whining[/italic] by Fran Drescher

• Chely Wright''s autobiography. I couldn''t put the book down.

• I''m not trying to burst any bubble, but I thought autobiographies were self-serving, and candy coated?%0D\ I thought its harder to believe an autobiography than an unauthorized biography %0D\ Mary Pickford once said that if you want to know the truth of one''s life you find it in an autobiography, but an authorized biography.%0D

• [quote]Mary Pickford once said that if you want to know the truth of one''s life you find it in an autobiography, but an authorized biography.%0D\ %0D\ Oh, no...I want to hear it from the horses mouth. Then it''s up to you to decide whether they are telling the truth about themselves. Whether they are deludued or not. What they seem to focus on and what they seem to hold back about.%0D\ %0D\ The best autobios are definitely full of the truth. They''re full of electricity. The false ones fail. They''re tedious.

  OP

• this one

  http://www.amazon.com/America-Heart-Reflections-Family-Faith/dp/0062010964/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305089167&sr=1-1

• Sarah Silverman''s "The Bedwetter"\ \ \ Tatum O''Neal''s "A Paper Life"\ \ \ Ronie Spector''s "Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, or My Life As a Fabulous Ronette"\ \ \ Betty Mahmoody (with William Hoffer) "Not Without My Daughter"\ \ \ Deborah Layton''s "Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor''s Story of Life and Death in The Peoples Temple"\ \ \ Marc Headley''s "Blown For Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology"

• This is a big oops! %0D\ %0D\ %0D\ Mary Pickford once said that if you want to know the truth of one''s life you find it in an autobiography, but an authorized biography.%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ This is what I meant to say:%0D\ %0D\ Mary Pickford once said that if you want to know the truth of one''s life you will not find it in an autobiography but an unauthorized biography.%0D\ %0D\ %0D\ LOL, so sorry.%0D

• Just read Robert Wagner''s. enjoyable. Spoiled rotten gorgeous kid grows up in Beverly Hills, is chased and caught by girls at 12, becomes a movies star. Except for the wife drowning, he''s had a very charmed life.

• I liked James McGreevey''s The Confession, even though I don''t really like him as a person\ \ Anne Heche''s Call Me Crazy was good in a laugh out loud sort of way\ \ I don''t know if anyone on DL is old enough to remember her but Renee Taylor''s My Life on a Diet is still one of my favorites\ \ Lisa Niemi wrote a beautiful tribute to Patrick Swayze with "The Time of my Life"\ \ Gilda Radner''s It''s Always Something was amazing to read, and so sad\ \ Evan Handler (Charlotte''s husband on SATC) wrote a very good book on living with cancer for five years in Time On Fire. \ \ Carole Pope''s Anti-Diva had good dirt on Dusty Springfield and occasional lesbian Andrea Martin (from SCTV)

  Ireadalotofbooks

• Me: Stories of my Life by Kate Hepburn\ \ Not strictly celebrity auto but interesting nonetheless-\ \ Tabloid Man and the Baffling Chair of Death - interesting and often hilarious stories about tabloid journalism with the National Enquirer\ William Shatner slowly realizing Jeanne Dixon was a fraud being fed predictions when he was interviewing her was laugh out loud funny.\ \ \ \ Take a pass on Prairie Tale by Melissa Gilbert the dish is cold.

• It's the birthday of Broadway playwright Moss Hart, born in a tenement house in Manhattan (1904). He said, "I grew up in an atmosphere of unrelieved poverty." His aunt Kate was as poor as the rest of the family, but she always tried to live beyond her means, and among her indulgences were trips to the theater. She often took her nephew along, and he was dazzled. He had to drop out of high school to work in a factory and help support his family, but he took any theater odd job he could find, including working in a booking office. One summer, he was hired as the social director for an adult summer camp for New Yorkers who wanted to escape to the Catskills. His job description involved "borrowing" material from hit Broadway plays and then reproducing it for the campers. So he would wait outside theaters until intermission, and then nonchalantly mingle in with paying audience members and sneak in for the second half, figuring that most shows saved their best material for the end. He wrote and performed plays, sketches, dances, songs, and monologues. Through his work at the summer camp, he met a young businessman named Joseph Hyman, who was so impressed with Hart's talent that he lent him $200 as an investment in his writing. Hyman also found jobs for Hart's father and brother so that the young man would not have to support them anymore. Hart wrote a comedy about the new era of Broadway, since the arrival of sound; it was all right, but not great, and a producer suggested that he collaborate with established playwright George S. Kaufman. The two men hit it off, and when the play Once in a Lifetime (1930) was produced, it was a success. Hart and Kaufman went on to collaborate on hit plays like You Can't Take It With You (1936) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939). Hart also directed plays — the most famous was the musical My Fair Lady (1956)— and wrote screenplays for films, including Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Hans Christian Andersen (1952). He won a Pulitzer Prize for You Can't Take It With You and was dubbed "the Prince of Broadway." He made enough money to afford an 87-acre estate in Aquetong, Pennsylvania. One of his friends said, "Shows you what God would have done if he'd had the money." In 1959, he published the best-selling memoir Act One (1959), about his own rags-to-riches story. In 1936, he married Southern belle Kitty Carlisle. After his death in 1961, his wife refused to let his diary be published. She died in 2007, and [bold]the diary turns out to be full of nasty comments, the type of comments that were totally absent from his autobiography. He described Dorothy Parker as "looking absolutely terrible [...] bitter and acid," Marlene Dietrich as "faded and a little cheap," Mel Ferrer as "a rather woe-begone Cocker Spaniel," Audrey Hepburn as "absolutely ruthless," and Gene Kelley as "looking like a waiter."[/bold] Moss Hart said: "So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience. Much more likely, if it is worth hearing at all, it will be set down in print where it can be decently enjoyed by dawdling souls, like myself, who lumpishly resist the golden glow of dawn."