Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
New York: Grove Press, 1988. First American edition. Hardcover. Fine in fine dust jacket. First American edition, first printing. Hardcover. 318 pp. with bibliography, index, appendices of Laughton plays, films, and recordings. Illustrated with photographs. Biography of one of the great 20th century actors, Charles Laughton (1899-1962). The actor's career spanned fifty films and forty stage roles; his character creation of The Hunchback, Captain Bligh, and Henry VIII, are iconic. The book spans the actor's early years in England at his parents' seaside hotel, through the West End, Hollywood and Broadway, to his climactic assumption of the role of lear at Stratford. Himself an actor, biographer Callow is able to recreate each of Laughton's performances, however eccentric or mundane, and his empathy with his subject embraces both his professional struggles, his lifelong battle to come to terms with his homosexuality,a nd his marriage to Elsa Lanchester. Fine / fine. Item #E25556
ISBN: 0802110479
Price: $19.95