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A Real American Character
The Life of Walter Brennan
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Book Presentation:
Walter Brennan (1894–1974) was one of the greatest character actors in Hollywood history. He won three Academy Awards and became a national icon starring as Grandpa in The Real McCoys. He appeared in over two hundred motion pictures and became the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting, which celebrated the actor's unique role as the voice of the American Western. His life journey from Swampscott, Massachusetts, to Hollywood, to a twelve thousand-acre cattle ranch in Joseph, Oregon, is one of the great American stories.
In the first biography of this epic figure, Carl Rollyson reveals Brennan's consummate mastery of virtually every kind of role while playing against and often stealing scenes from such stars as Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, and John Wayne. Rollyson fully explores Brennan's work with Hollywood's greatest directors, such as Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Fritz Lang. As a father and grandfather, Brennan instilled generations of his family with an outlook on the American Dream that remains a sustaining feature of their lives today. His conservative politics, which grew out of his New England upbringing and his devout Catholicism, receive meticulous attention and a balanced assessment in A Real American Character.
Written with the full cooperation of the Brennan family and drawing on material in archives from every region of the United States, this new biography presents an artist and family man who lived and breathed an American idealism that made him the Real McCoy.
About the Author:
Carl Rollyson is professor emeritus of journalism at Baruch College, CUNY. He is author of many biographies, including Faulkner On and Off the Page: Essays in Biographical Criticism; The Making of Sylvia Plath; Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volumes 1 & 2; William Faulkner Day by Day; The Last Days of Sylvia Plath; A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan; Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews; and Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated. He is also coauthor (with Lisa Paddock) of Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon, Revised and Updated. His reviews of biographies have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New Criterion. He also writes a column on biography twice a week for the New York Sun.
Press Reviews:
Mr. Rollyson’s biography is well-researched―he had the cooperation of Brennan’s children and grandchildren―and often illuminating. . . . His title is particularly well-chosen, for Walter Brennan was indeed a character, off-screen as well as on. -- Scott Eyman ― The Wall Street Journal
Unvarnished, well researched and documented, [Carl Rollyson] worked closely with Brennan’s family in authoring the comprehensive biography of the iconic actor. . . . Fans of Brennan’s career, as well as students of cinema and television, will learn a lot about film making, and the role World War I veterans played in building a most original American industry, Hollywood, from Rollyson’s excellent biography. -- Stuart Rosebrook ― True West
Much like his past works, Rollyson mines every facet of Brennan’s life―interviewing family, friends, and costars, and always letting Brennan speak for himself through interviews and other published materials. -- Kristen Lopez ― Journeys in Classic Film
Biographer Carl Rollyson explores Brennan’s life and career with a respect for the performer’s talent and his character as a human being. Rollyson does an exhaustive review of most of Brennan’s film and television roles. He also offers quotes from the many actors who worked with Brennan, including his The Real McCoys costars Richard Crenna and Kathleen Nolan, James Garner, and Angie Dickinson. -- Stephen Reginald ― Classic Movie Man
Rollyson . . . is an elegant, balanced writer with no agenda at hand, merely an encyclopedic knowledge of film and the ways they are made, and an appreciation that is fair and razor-sharp about Brennan’s work. . . . This is another estimable contribution to film study by the University Press of Mississippi, which has been publishing some wonderful books, but the triumph is Carl Rollyson’s, who has written a book that will satisfy both those who want a masterly summation of a beloved film actor as well as those who want to dig into its various layers and learn a great deal more. -- James Grissom, author of Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog ― www.jamesgrissom.blogspot.com
Here at last is an impassioned tribute to the Hollywood character actor Walter Brennan. From the counter at Dad Kelly's Corned Beef Parlor, where he hung out as a silent extra, to the sound sets of William Wyler, Frank Capra, and Howard Hawks, the man and actor come vibrantly alive in this thoughtful biography. Meticulously researched and written in Rollyson's always fluent and engaging prose, A Real American Character analyzes the many shades of Brennan's Hollywood persona while giving a clear-eyed view of the actor as both a fanatic anti-communist and family man par excellence. -- Diane Jacobs, author of Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges and, most recently, Dear Abigail, a biography of Abigail Adams and her two sisters
Unsung character actors finally get a long-overdue close-up in A Real American Character, Carl Rollyson's authoritative portrait of Walter Brennan. A real Hollywood success story, Brennan and his extraordinary career, which included winning three Oscars, are presented with great sympathy, sensitivity, and admiration. -- Marion Meade, author of The Unruly Life of Woody Allen and Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase
See the publisher website: University Press of Mississippi
See the complete filmography of Walter Brennan on the website: IMDB ...
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