The best celebrity autobiographies

I actually loved the first half of his book, covering his time in the Smiths and it gradually soured to miserable bullshit. Much like his career.

I'm with r1. The second half of his book was unbearable. What I did like is that he got David Morrissey to narrate the audiobook.

When I was a teenager I stole I borrowed and never returned I Me Mine by George Harrison from the local library. Naturally I can't find it now.

I have downloaded the ebooks for the Nick Nolte and the Demi Moore autobiographies, will likely get to them over Christmas.

Michael Caine's autobiography is amazing! I was inspired to write to his publisher and ask them to pass on my compliments. And I Never do that......

From long ago, David Niven, Alec Guinness, Elia Kazan, Tennessee Williams.

Seriously?

Another from long ago- Eddie Fisher's "Been There, Done That."

Talk about dishing the dish, mostly on himself but he doesn't spare Taylor, Sinatra, etal. The only exception is that he dances around the topic of whether or not Debbie Reynolds was a lesbian.

But damn, that was a juicy read.

My Life / Isadora Duncan

Apparently she made up a lot of the "facts", but it's still a great read.

1/4 through Flea’s autobiography; it’s great.

I still have Just Kids sitting, unread, on my shelf.

OP, if you're into 1990s/Britpop music memoirs, I would recommend 'Coal Black Mornings' by Brett Anderson from Suede, and Bad Vibes by Luke Haines, formerly of The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder. Both are well written, but Anderson's is more introspective and Haines' more sardonic and humorous.

Another vote for David Niven, both "Bring on the Empty Horses" and "The Moon's a Balloon."

"Yes, I Can"--- Sammy Davis, Jr.

Grace Jones' memoir is really good--"I'll Never Write My Memoirs." And Hedy Lamarr's "Ecstasy and Me" is a classic of the genre. I'm also a fan of Joan Fontaine's "No Bed of Roses."

^^^ Joan Fontaine’s second husband, producer William Dozier, referred to her book as “No Shred of Truth.”

Yes R9 another vote for Luke Haines' books.

Julian Cope's autobiography is very well written. I'm a casual fan of his as best, but Head On is a great read.

[R3], I'm someone who would do that if I was impressed by an autobiography. Can you share why not?

I get yelled at for this every time but.......

Jennifer Lees' biography of her husband Richard Prior is great.

I have no interest in him but it's a real page turner.

The drugs, the rotten children and the "oh so grand" Cosbys are really interesting. Especially what we know about the Cosbys now.

Great read.

please insert "with" between Especially and what.

Thank you.

R16, "Autobiographies."

Boy George's Take It Like A Man is a lot of fun. Love him.

R19 agreed Take It Like A Man is a great read, the follow up, Straight is atrocious though.

@ [R15]. I probably should have phrased it "I've never done that before". I was that impressed. I have no problem with anyone responding positively (or even negatively) to any writing. I think it's a good thing....

What about my autobiography, "Out on a Limb"? Or perhaps my latest, "'I'm Over All That"? I just can't stop writing about myself because I'm so f**king fascinating. Don't you agree?

bump

Mamie Van Doren, ‘Playing the Field.’ She got some Grade A dick.

Alison Arngrim"s "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch" is amazing! The audio book is even better as she reads it.

Bumping. Looking for a really good dishy read. Biographies are fine too.

R16 the bio for Richard Pryor talks about the Cosbys?

Etta James' "Rage to Survive."

In defense of a DL fave punching bag, Shirley's first bio book, "Don't Fall off the Mountain," is pretty good. Written, I reckon, before she got all woke. The Keef book... I read a few pages from 1972 on google books, and just those few pages are riddled with errors.

But what's wiv multiple auto bios of people who are alive? Carly's newest one comes to mind. Did these celebs fuck up their past capital that much that they're going to besmirch whatever cred they still have for an advance?

Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It by Miss Mae West. Loved one chapter heading: Sex, More Sex and the Cooler.

Favorites:

Fun in a Chinese Laundry by Joseph von Sternberg

The Autobiography of Charlie Chaplin

Marlene Dietrich by Maria Riva (her daughter--it's really more of a memoir of living with her mother than a biography of her mother)

The Million Dollar Mermaid by Esther Williams (hilariously juicy)

Prairie Girl by Melissa Gilbert (hilarious despite itself because it is so unnecessarily bitchy about poor Melissa Sue Anderson--whom she STILL resents the hell out of--and about everyone else who has ever annoyed her in any way, from Rob Lowe to Valerie Harper)

David Niven's and Peter Ustinov's are exquisitely written, and they both tell great stories. Many of the stories Niven tells, though, did not really happen to him--he "borrows" them from the lives of his other friends, like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

I thought Carly Simon's autobiography "Boys in the Trees" was very well written and candid.

The only person she spares is James Taylor, but I suspect that is to protect her children.

She really rips her mother a new one for fucking a boy half her age the same house as her husband. Carly even reveals that someone called her mother a "whore" in front of her children for being in the boy's room fucking the night her husband had a heart attack and came to her door for help.

She also reveals that she was sexually abused by an older boy, which makes a lot of sense, given how much she traded in sex as an adult.

I’ll second “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch.”

I wanted her to be my new best friend after that book.

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis was a good read, mostly because of how fucked up his childhood was, RHCP were, etc. I still vividly remember one particular anecdote, where Kiedis describes being ignored by Ione Sky and subsequently cut his lip and left "blood kisses" all over her car to get her attention.

My Last Sigh by Luis Bunuel.

R34 Keidis tells a good Cher story, too.

Shelly Winters is dishy AF. Someone serialized one of her memoirs on DL. Warning: You won't be able to stop once you start.

"Jennifer Lees' biography of her husband Richard Prior is great."

Are you talking about her memoir "Tarnished Angel." That wasn't a biography of Richard Pryor. It was about Jennifer Lee's nasty, sordid, pathetic life; he just happened to be a part of that. Although I'm sure it was unintentional she came across in her memoir as a dimwit, talentless slut.

As if Pryor's life wasn't sordid. He left coke in Pam Grier's vag.

Nobody said Pryor's life wasn't "sordid." He married Jennifer Lee, didn't he? Of all the women in the world for him to marry and he married one of the skankiest skanks ever to skank. He would beat the shit our of her and she kept coming back for more. They finally parted ways but she wormed herself back in his life when he was crippled with MS. Their relationship was truly one made in hell.

I also liked Grace Jones’ autobiography.

Melissa Etheridge’s was awful. Such a selfish whiny little bitch.

R39/r40 I wanna know what she says about the “grand” Cosby’s...

My First Two Thousand Men by Liz Renay (1992,

"And A Voice To Sing With" by Joan Baez. Lots of interesting anecdotes, tastefully juicy in some parts.

Time Bends by Arthur Miller

Act One by Moss Hart

A Life by Elia Kazan

Boys in the Trees by Carly Simon

Tori Amos’s “Piece by Piece” was co-written by Anne Powers and like Tori’s music it’s a love-or-hate affair. I love it and I have read it three times. It’s an unusual narrative tied together with personal essays about her family and her beliefs, as well as profiles of some of her songs. Some people may not like it because it’s so avant garde. Some people love it because it is.

I genuinely love Lucille Ball’s “Love, Lucy.” My copy is a tacky looking little orange paperback with a very 1980s ultra-glam photo, but the stories inside are really wonderful. Her upbringing was surprisingly difficult, and she writes about how an accidental shooting by her brother of a neighbor boy bankrupted their family. She went to model in NYC as a teen and then became suddenly paralyzed by a mysterious sudden-onset illness diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis that made her unable to walk. She took an “experimental horse shot” from a veterinarian and regained her ability to walk. (I wonder if she had Lyme and not RA, since even today rheumatoid arthritis is not curable and at that time antibiotics would have been experimental medication...) She moved out to LA, and then she begins the stories of living and working as a dancer and a contract player, her friendship with Ginger Rogers, her love of Desi (who she never stopped loving). It’s just such a heart-filled story.

I had to read Kathy Griffin’s memoir to interview her about it and I wasn’t expecting much but it was really enjoyable and interesting. What I remember most about it was the stuff about Lisa Kudrow in the Groundlings...

Evidently, I only read memoirs written by redheaded women. I never noticed that before.

Carol Burnett’s One More Time is my favorite celebrity autobiography.

R42 go buy the fucking book you cheap bitch!

R44 yes! Especially her lezzie life.

R8 - apparently Flea left some stuff out of his book . . .

I loved Edna O’Brien’s memoir, Country Girl. The woman is incapable of writing an ugly sentence.

I'm sticking to my guns on this one. Jennifer Lee Pryors' book is a real page turner.

Jennifer was in my bosses' circle back in the day. Funny and self aware.

And again, her take on the evil Cosbys is worth a look. They were awful. Really awful.

I loved Andy Warhols Diaries, By Myself- Lauren Becall, A Life-Biography of Margaret Mead, Nancy Spungeons book about Sid and Nancy (she may not have written this haha because she dies at the end). Have to agree with the above about the Eddie Fischer book. He really goes into the Todd-Taylor relationship. Kitty Kelley- Frank Sinatra, the new WHAM book by Andrew Ridgely, Edie- can't remember who wrote it, Played Out about Jean Seberg

I'm currently reading The Rainbow Comes and Goes - Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. Lovely read and thoughtfully edited.

Yet another vote for Niven's "Bring on the Empty Horses"

Dirk Bogarde's A Memoir series were pretty good, if you don't mind a lot of reading between the lines.

Julia Philips's "You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again"

Loved Boy’s. Also liked Carly’s. Cyndi’s is very honest and funny and touching. She talks about being a stripper and eating squirrel when she was poor.

Would love to read a train wreck one from Courtney.

Of course the ULTIMATE autobiography goes to..... drum roll.... SCOTTY BOWERS!!!! "Full Service" is the most interesting and sexually salacious book you'll ever read about the golden era of Hollywood. I loved it and the documentary.

I believe every word of Scotty Bowers book.

I was in that world at a different time, but I saw stuff that nobody would believe. (as proven here many times)

I'm sure there were exaggerations, but at it's core : true.

Everyone in Hollywood is trash and most come from trash. I always found it funny how "trailer park" everyone is. When you think about it, just because someone has fame and money, it doesn't make them suddenly classy. They're just trash with money. When a redneck wins the lottery, he's not suddenly sipping champs and perusing New Yorker Magazine.

As I Am by Patricia Neal

Limelight and After and Leaving A Doll's House by Claire Bloom

My Way or the Highway, by Helen Lawson.

The stories she told! The men she had!

One summer I read 65 celebrity autobiographies. The best was Pam Grier's "Foxy" and it surprised the shit out of me. I laughed out loud and then it was scary. She had great respect for the people in her exploitation days. It was so good that I read it again as soon as I finished. I got to tell her how much I loved it and she shrieked and gave me a big hug.

BABY DOLL by Carroll Baker.

Lots about James Dean, Liz Taylor, the Actors Studio - etc. And her grimy beginnings in show business (living in a dirt floored basement, doing chorus girl tours with C list singers) really give you a sense of what it’s like to begin a climb like that.

Plus - she comes across as a good actress, so that’s always interesting.

She comes across as a good actress in her book? What does that mean?

R55 I didn't want "You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again" to end. I think she wrote a second one but it wasn't as good.

“AFTER ALL”....Mary Tyler Moore

A bittersweet read, very well written

Some great recommendations. Thanks everyone!

Faithless by Marianne Faithfull

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch - Alison Arngrim.

I LOVED IT.

[quote]R64 She comes across as a good actress in her book? What does that mean?

The choices she made, how she approached a role, etc.

Some stars aren’t really technically accomplished actors, but Baker studied Stanislavsky’s method acting at the Actors Studio, and when she had good roles, all that showed. And she talks about it.

Definitely Alison Arngrim's book, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch; and Kathy Griffin's book, Official Book Club Selection.

Gloria Swanson is a piece of work. She tells every story.

My WIcked, Wicked Ways by Errol Flynn, hardcover edition. His first wife, Lily Damita insisted that anything unsavory about her be edited out for the paperback edition.

[quote]Gloria Swanson is a piece of work. She tells every story.

Well luckily that plane didn't crash back in '75 or that book would have been lost forever!

"As I Am" by Patricia Neal is a good read. She seemed very honest. And she really does lay it on the line when it comes to her horrid husband Roald Dahl, the children's book author. She suffered a series of massive strokes; she basically had to learn how to do everything again, including speaking and walking. He used "tough love" to speed her recovery, although her recovery was a life long process. As she recovered she started acting again. She did commercial and some woman assistant was helping her chose her clothes for her appearances. She considered the woman, Felicity Crosland, a very good friend. She took her home to meet her family and dear Felicity immediately jumped into bed with her horny husband Roald. They conducted an affair right under her nose, all the while Crosland putting on her friend act. Neal found out about the affair, confronted them and they cooled it off for a while. But they started back up again and Neal finally threw in the towel and divorce Dahl. It was all a VERY nasty business and Neal doesn not mince words when discussing it. At one point she describes Dahl, who is roaring with laughter as Neal boards a plane to get away from the whole mess for a while, thus: "he looked like Satan."