A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father (Applause Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)Director Billy Wilder once said in his inimitable style of his favorite actor, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." That may be quite true, but it was indeed grade-A ham whether he was hiking his skirt in "Some Like It Hot" or destroying a greenhouse in a drunken rage in "Days of Wine and Roses" or twirling his moustache in "The Great Race" or looking desperately for his son in "Missing" or begging to make another sale in "Glengarry Glen Ross". He was sometimes excessive with his nervous mannerisms but genuinely likeable, even in rare villainous roles, and always masterful. His son, former actor Chris Lemmon, has written a loving though rather melancholy tribute to his late father that appears consistent with the everyman persona the elder Lemmon most often portrayed onscreen. Not close to the embittered tell-alls from the children of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, this memoir reminds me more of Sean Ferrer's similarly glowing tribute to his mother, Audrey Hepburn.

As a child of divorce, the author chronicles his experiences of shuttling between households, but he admits leading a privileged existence with amicable parents who moved on quickly with their lives (his mother married Cliff Robertson for a short time, his father married actress Felicia Farr). Lemmon's time with his father was limited but precious, and rather than a standard chronological order, he organizes his memories thematically into distinct sections in the book - the annual fishing trips to Alaska, the numerous accidents in which his father basically destroyed his collection of classic cars, and most amusingly, the father-son golf games, in particular, the annual Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament in which the elder Lemmon was desperate to make the cut to the next round. What the author also talks about are the times when an absentee father presented challenges for his own journey toward an independent identity. After all, he followed in his father's footsteps and became an actor but met only limited success.

Chris Lemmon's accounts are not completely rose-colored as he is honest about the remote relationship he has had with his stepmother, a situation that has not changed since his father's death in 2001. There are also hints of tension and misunderstandings between father and son, but the younger Lemmon remains mainly close-lipped about them. While I applaud him for not besmirching his father's legacy unnecessarily, I think he could have probed a little further into the career obsession that marked Jack Lemmon as one of the most acclaimed and awarded actors of his generation. While the breadth of his roles is still startling to comprehend, it is clear it was done with some expense to his family. The author seems quite understanding in hindsight, but I imagine there must have been some impact to his psyche. Regardless, the author knows how well loved his father is and most poignantly, how much of a good father he wanted to be. What comes across clearly is the true bond that occurred between them through their mutual love of music and golf. This is not the most insightful celebrity biography I have read, but it is certainly one of the most sincere.

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Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder, A Personal Biography (Applause Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)There is no one wilder in Hollywood than Billy - Billy Wilder, that is.  And the new bio of him, "Nobody's Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography," is as close to the "perfect" non-critical, fun history of a man and his movies. Written by Charlotte Chandler (whose previous works include "I, Fellini" and "Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends"), the tome is based on interviews she conducted with Wilder and his friends over a period of years. The result is a wonderful kaleidoscope of movies, politicians, actors, geniuses and louses. From Sigmund Freud to Louis B. Mayer, from Richard Strauss to Joan Fontaine, from Prince Yussupov to Walter Matthau --- Wilder knew them all. He is the man who put Marilyn Monroe over a subway grate, Jack Lemmon in a dress and Gloria Swanson in the most famous close-up of them all. The great beacon shining through the entire book is, of course, the wit and humor of the man.  Wilder is certainly one of the great comic directors of all time, and his legacy is astounding. By structuring the book around the subject's work in a strictly chronological manner, Chandler creates a picture of Wilder that is at once true and wildly engrossing. The early stories about journalism in pre-war Berlin are as fascinating as the later tales of success in glittering Hollywood. That the last 20 years of his life, arguably the most creative time in an artist's life, were spent without a single film project is the underlying tragedy of this book, and Chandler doesn't exactly dwell on it, but the painful reality is certainly there. We like to think of him as this way: Billy Wilder, Somebody's Perfect. (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)

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