Sitting Pretty

The Life and Times of Clifton Webb

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by Clifton Webb

Type

Autobiographies

Subject

Actor > Clifton Webb

Keywords

Clifton Webb, actor, 1940s

Publishing date

2016

Publisher

University Press of Mississippi

Collection

Hollywood Legends Serie

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 280 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4968-0798-4

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Book Presentation:
he autobiography of one of the top moneymakers in the history of Twentieth Century-Fox

Description
More than any other male movie star, the refined Clifton Webb (1889-1966) caused the moviegoing public to change its image of a leading man. In a day when leading men were supposed to be strong, virile, and brave, Clifton Webb projected an image of flip, acerbic arrogance. He was able to play everything from a decadent columnist (Laura) to a fertile father (Cheaper by the Dozen and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker), delivering lines in an urbanely clipped, acidly dry manner with impeccable timing.

Long before his film career began, Webb was a child actor and later a suavely effete song-and-dance man in numerous Broadway musicals and revues. The turning point in his career came in 1941 when his good friend Noël Coward cast him in Blithe Spirit. Director Otto Preminger saw Webb's performance and cast him in Laura in 1944.

Webb began to write his autobiography, but he said that he eventually had gotten “bogged down” in the process. However, he did complete six chapters and left a hefty collection of notes that he intended to use in the proposed book. His writing is as witty and sophisticated as his onscreen persona. Those six chapters, information and voluminous notes, and personal research by coauthor David L. Smith provide an intimate view of an amazingly talented man's life and times.

See the publisher website: University Press of Mississippi

See the complete filmography of Clifton Webb on the website: IMDB ...