My Life as a Mankiewicz: An Insider's Journey through Hollywood

by Tom Mankiewicz, Robert Crane

Overview

The son of famed director and screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve [1950], Guys and Dolls [1955], Cleopatra [1963]) and the nephew of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz was genuine Hollywood royalty. He grew up in Beverly Hills and New York, spent summers on his dad's film sets, had his first drink with Humphrey Bogart, dined with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, went to the theater with Ava Gardner, and traveled the world writing for Brando, Sinatra, and

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813161235
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	02/17/2015
Series:	Screen Classics
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	293,400
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tom Mankiewicz (1942–2010) was a screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures and television series, perhaps best known for his work on the James Bond films, Superman (1978), Superman II (1980), and the television series Hart to Hart (1979–1984). Robert Crane is coauthor of Bruce Dern: Things I've Said, but Probably Shouldn't Have—An Unrepentant Memoir, Jack Nicholson: The Early Years, and SCTV: Behind the Scenes as well as a contributor to Hal Ashby: Interviews. He lives in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Prologue: This Will Never Happen to You 1

1 The Family 3

2 The 1940s: Growing Up 13

3 The 1950s: Developing a Character 25

4 The 1960s: Hollywood Off-Ramp 49

5 The 1960s Gallery 101

6 The 1970s: Arrival 133

7 The 1970s Gallery 237

8 The 1980s: Calling Dr. Mankiewicz 249

9 The 1980s Gallery 301

10 The 1990s: What a Fucking Business 313

11 The Tag: Out of Film 327

Acknowledgments 341

Filmography 343

Index 349

Editorial Reviews

"A primer on the industry from someone who experienced it up close and personal throughout his whole life."—Yahoo! Movies

From the Publisher

You can hear Tom tell these stories—of navigating sexy, alluring Hollywood while burdened with the expectations that came with being the son of Joseph Mankiewicz.—Ben Mankiewicz

The Week - Ben Mankiewicz

Highly entertaining.... I came away from this book with a real appreciation of, and fondness for, how it works— from premise to pitch to scrambling for finance to dealing with ego dilemmas to final screenplay and practical on-the-set problems. [Mankiewicz's] tremendous respect for small and large collaborators, from grips to stars, is contagious.

Clancy Sigal

Mankiewicz details his journey through the inner world of the television and film industries, beginning with his first job as a production assistant on The Comancheros (1961), starring John Wayne.

Turner Classic Movies

My Life as a Mankiewicz is a treasure-trove of observations and anecdotes about Hollywood from the 1960s to the 1980s and the people who made movies back then.

Independence Daily Reporter

One of the few books about the American movie industry that shows, not tells, what is meant by the idea that the business is one of relationships.

Tom Stempel

From first page to last, this book is priceless.

Chicago Tribune

Chock full of fascinating stories from his more than four decades in the Hollywood trenches...for those who enjoy gossipy Hollywood tomes written by intelligent, wryly cynical insiders, Being Mankiewicz is an entertaining and engrossing read.

Hey U Guys

…prime firsthand anecdotes fill this consistently readable and entertaining book…Mankiewicz's snapshot portraits of the famous are primarily positive and generous, without being fawning. Here's Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Gore Vidal, Sophia Loren, each seeming true-to-form yet, thanks to Tom's fresh insights, something more.
—John DiLeo

The Washington Post

Tom Mankiewicz's novel My Life as a Mankiewicz has me enthralled. The movies. The name dropping. The little incidences. — Daily Awareness

Daily Awareness

[P]leasant surprises in [Crane's] frank but affectionate book.

WTBF-AM/FM

Crane is an engrossing, rather cathartic book of a son coming to terms of his famous father's celebrity and his unsolved, tragic death that somehow resulted from that celebrity.

Montreal Times