Author(s): Rob Edelman (Author), Audrey Kupferberg (Author)
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Publication Date: September 4, 2002
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Print length: 368 pages
ISBN-10: 087833274X
ISBN-13: 9780878332748
Book Description
Funny yet down-to-earth, honest yet full of exaggeration, actor Walter Matthau (1920-2000) will always occupy a place in America's heart as one of the great comic talents of his generation. Born Walter Matuschanskayasky into Jewish tenements on New York's Lower East Side, he was a child actor in New York Yiddish theater, and later a World War II Air Force radioman-gunner. He paid dues for ten years on Broadway, in summer stock, and on television before landing his film debut The Kentuckian in 1955. By the time of his 1968 casting as cantankerous but lovable slob Oscar Madison in the film version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, Matthau had won major Hollywood stardom. Based on dozens of interviews and extensive research, this book covers the breadth of his often-complicated personal life and multi-faceted career, including his unforgettable performances in such films as The Fortune Cookie, A Guide for the Married Man, Plaza Suite, Charley Varrick, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Sunshine Boys, The Bad News Bears, California Suite, and Grumpy Old Men.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Matthau: A Life by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg is a telling book at the man behind this well-loved personality and luminary in America's television and film history. From the slums of New York's Lower East Side to the glamour of stardom, Walter Matthau's life story is as rag-to-riches as they come. ― Turner Classic MoviesMatthau: a Life provides a comperhensive and entertaining tribute to the most unlikely movie star ever to grace the big screen. -- Phil Hall ― New York Resident
The authors meticulously relate the story of his acting career, but more absorbing is their retelling of Matthau's obsessive gambling, which he describes as "worse than alcoholism... worse than cancer." ―
Publishers Weekly
The new book also rips the lid off Matthau's darkest secret- his lifelong obsession with gambling. Pals told the authors he would bet on anything- from horses to cockroaches. ―
Globe
Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferburg's
Matthau: A Life is the authorized biography, and it's like sitting around the Hillcrest Country Club listening ro people tell hilarious stories about a very dear human being. -- Scott Eyman ― Iowa TribuneMatthau: A Life is a telling look at the man behind this well-loved personality and luminary in America's television and film histroy. ― The Big Reel
Walter Matthau was one of the greatest comic talents of our generation. In a new book, Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg tell a compelling and comprehensive biography of Matthau. ―
Jewsweek.Com
From the Inside Flap
For most people, he was best known as Oscar Madison, the unkempt, curmudgeonly yin to the yang of his prim and proper housemate, Felix Unger. But that role was just one of many sterling performances from the always outspoken Walter Matthau (1920-200), a great comic actor and on-screen grouch extraordinaire.
Born Walter Matthow in the Jewish tenements of New York's Lower East Side, he was a child actor in New York's Yiddish theater, and later a World War II link-trainer instructor. For ten years he paid his dues on Broadway, in summer stock, and on television before landing his film debut in The Kentuckian in 1955. By the time of his 1968 casting as cantankerous but lovable slob Oscar Madison in the film version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, Matthau had won major Hollywood stardom.
Based on dozens of interviews and extensive research, this biography covers his often-complicated personal life and multifaceted career, including his unforgettable performances in such films as The Fortune Cookie, A Guide for the Married Man, Plaza Suite, Charley Varrick, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Sunshine Boys, The Bad News Bears, California Suite, and Grumpy Old Men.
Matthau also offers unflinching examinations of the legend's impoverished but culturally rich upbringing; his gambling addiction (that he once estimated had cost him $5 million); his repeated health scares (including a tumor, coronary bypass surgery, and a prolonged bout with double pneumonia); and his personal and professional partnership with fellow talent Jack Lemmon. Matthau offers a definitive portrait of the man whose mischievous eyes, loose gait, and droll way with a deadpan line delighted audiences for over fifty years.
About the Author
Rob Edelman and , authors of Meet the Mertzes, Angela Lansbury: A Life on Stage and Screen, and The John Travolta Scrapbook, are both lecturers in film history at the State University of New York-Albany. They live in Amsterdam, New York.
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