Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art - Softcover

Wilder, Gene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007208057 ISBN 13: 9780007208050

Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment, 2006

Synopsis

Gene Wilder defined film comedy in the 1970s and '80s. But this is no traditional autobiography, rather it's an intelligent, quirky, humorous account of key events that have affected him in search for love and art. In this very personal, fascinating book, Wilder gives a great insight into the creative process on stage and screen. He discusses his experiences of working with the very best of movie talent, including Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Sidney Poitier and Richard Pryor, and tells how he developed his own unique style from his early days at The Actors' Studio with Lee Strasberg. Amongst other incidents, he describes his time in the UK, which he has great fondness for, studying at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol. During this period he came top of his class at fencing and doorstepped Sir John Geilgud to ask him to explain the use of iambic pentametre. Wilder also talks amusingly about his failed love life off-screen (including 4 marriages) and is candid about much darker times such as the death of his third wife, comedienne Gilda Radner, from cancer. He also reveals his own recent battle with the disease, which he's now come through, and which changed his perspective on life. This isn't a traditional celebrity 'tell all' but an insight into the life and mind of a great comic actor who has a rare ability to write as well as he performs. This paperback book has 272 pages and measures 13 x 1.8 x 19.7cm

About this title

Review:

‘Funny, unusual and completely convincing.’
The Mail on Sunday

'Wilder's prose is as probingly honest as his best performances.’
Sunday Times

'Like it's author, it has great charm and intelligence.'
Daily Mail – Critic's Choice

'Pure Gene Wilder! Uproarishly funny and at times very moving. It made me want to go out and see every Gene Wilder movie again.'
Mel Brooks

From the Back Cover:

"Gene Wilder's frank, charming memoir, KISS ME LIKE A STRANGER, is refreshingly free from the two major sins of show-biz autobiographies: self-aggrandizement and score-settling."--Los Angeles Times

In this unusually personal book from the beloved star of many beloved and classic film comedies--from The Producers to Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory--Gene Wilder writes about a side of his life the public hasn't seen on the screen. Wilder talks about everything from his experiences in psychoanalysis to why he got into acting to the funny, wonderful movies he made with Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, and many others. He writes candidly about the role of women in his life, about the overwhelming experience of marrying comedienne Gilda Radner, and about what ultimately had to happen for him to find true love. KISS ME LIKE A STRANGER is one actor's life in his own words.

"Uproarishly funny and at times very moving. It made me want to go out and see every Gene Wilder movie again."--Mel Brooks

"an intimate, unusual memoir...His book candidly explores his own faults and feelings, as well as those of the people he's loved and lost."--Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0007208057
• ISBN 13: 9780007208050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272