Book Description

The “frank . . . salty . . . [and] delicious” New York Times–bestselling memoir of the Oscar-winning actress and show business icon (Kirkus Reviews). She received a record-breaking nine Emmy Awards, two of them as the irrepressible Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show; she won an Oscar for her role as a frustrated housewife in The Last Picture Show; she delighted audiences with her hilarious turns in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein and High Anxiety; and she took home more than a dozen other awards in a career that has spanned seventy years and counting. Now, the incomparable Cloris Leachman reflects on her amazing life and illustrious career from her hometown in Des Moines, Iowa, (where she first saw Katharine Hepburn perform on stage, never imagining they would one day do Shakespeare together) to Hollywood, Broadway, and television. Leachman’s journey has been filled with laughter and tears, marriage and motherhood, tragedy and triumph. Along the way, she shares personal anecdotes about Marlon Brando, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, the Kennedy family, and many others. Funny, candid, brilliant, and altogether human, this is the real Cloris Leachman—as you’ve never seen her before. “Charming.” —People “Funny, gimlet-eyed and unpretentious—someone get this woman a talk show.” —Kirkus Reviews “She lives what she preaches.” —Library Journal