actor and producer Ryan Reynolds
Russ Tamblyn’s memoir, Dancing on the Edge, is a thrilling high-wire read about the life of one of the most daring, riveting, and gifted actors and acrobatic dancers of not just our time, but any time.”
award-winning filmmaker and creator of Twin Peaks David Lynch
Everyone wanted to know—who is this fabulous Dr. Jacoby, really? Read this book and put the coffee on!”
Steven Spielberg
Russ Tamblyn’s story is an insightful and entertaining self-examination by a gifted actor whose on- and off-screen experiences offer us an honest look at what it meant to grow up at the end of the Hollywood studio system.”
Quentin Tarantino
There are some lives you have to read to believe they were really lived. Russ Tamblyn lived one of those lives. A killer story about one of our last remaining living legends of the screen. His time as child actor in the forties (in Gun Crazy), his time working and acrobatically dancing his way through MGM’s glorious heyday of the fifties, to being one of the coolest iconoclasts of the sixties, to his days toiling in the world of sleazy seventies exploitation cinema (my favorite part), all written by the man himself.”
artist Ed Ruscha
A rollickin’ good memoir complete with inspiring life changes, personal spice, and the making of art. It’s a Rolodex of loves and a dance card of cartwheels.”
Library Journal
03/01/2024
Best known for his acrobatic dance style in the movie-musical classics Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and West Side Story, along with his unforgettable shovel dance in The Fastest Gun Alive, actor Tamblyn, with the help of former music journalist Sarah Tomlinson (The Last Days of the Midnight Rambler) joyfully reflects on his decades-long career in a fascinating memoir filled with anecdotes about Hollywood royalty. Born into a show business family, Tamblyn seemed destined for the movie roles that soon came fast and furious. He attended school with Elizabeth Taylor, loaned Howard Hughes gas money, and taught some dance moves to Elvis Presley. In the '60s, he developed a passion for creating fine art and 8mm films; he also took solace in lifelong friendships with Neil Young and Dennis Hopper. The book is forthcoming about Tamblyn's substance-use disorder, his first two marriages, and his brief time spent in an unconventional living arrangement with six women. He says he found redemption and love with his third wife and two daughters. VERDICT With his role in the Twin Peaks reboot and his numerous dance numbers finding new life online, Tamblyn, his engaging memoir, and his stories will be of high interest.—Lisa Henry
