Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them - Tapa dura

"Splendid... As much a memoir as a primer on the vicissitudes of an actor's life, the book is a collage based on real-life situations that offer touching insights into stars like Rita Hayworth, and into the practical magic that informs Langella's signature sensibility." -- The New Yorker "Rarely have I read a book about celebrities that is as insightful, candid, revealing, and as well-written as this one. Frank Langella's memoir is not the usual author's ego trip, but rather his remembrances of the many accomplished men and women that he has come to know." -- Gay Talese, author of A Writer's Life "A delightfully unabashed page-turner about people we wish we had known in the throes of work, love, and growing old." -- A.R. Gurney, award-winning playwright "Engaging...Not just Langella's "famous people I have known," but a heartfelt love letter to the theater and to the days when stars were stars, not merely celebrities." -- Kirkus Reviews "Dropped Names is a sizzling platter of stellar vignettes--pungent, for sure, but poignant too... Mr. Langella is surgically precise, and eloquent... The human condition in most of its vagaries is beautifully rendered between these pages." -- Liz Smith " If Frank Langella's memoir simply did what its title promises, it would be deep-dish gossip. But his memories of the stars he's encountered during a lengthy career on Broadway and in film shed perceptive light on the costs of pursuing and maintaining fame." -- Detroit Free Press "Langella's uncommonly eloquent book is enjoyable for the panoply of great names who turn up... A natural raconteur, he seems to fit precisely Henry James's famous description of the novelist as one 'on whom nothing is lost.'" -- New York Times "Frank Langella's DROPPED NAMES is a different kind of memoir... Not many of his peers could write such an eloquently dishy book." -- Los Angeles Times "The 65 chapters in this satisfyingly scandalous memoir paint Broadway and Hollywood as teeming with vulgar, neurotic and irresistible company, and Langella as relentlessly affable in the face of nonstop groping by celebrities in far-flung locations." -- Paperback Row, New York Times

For more than four decades, Frank Langella has enjoyed a singular life and career. This extremely versatile actor is also a brilliant writer with a perceptive eye and a gift for the telling detail. "Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them" is a collection of illuminating portraits of the people he has met and known as well as deeply revealing memories told with a rare honesty. With sharp wit and a skillful narrative style, Langella affectingly limns portraits of lost friends, enemies, idols and liaisons that are funny, moving, wicked, sometimes shocking and totally addictive. Woven throughout are the threads of his own experiences, from his early years in Bayonne, New Jersey, to his most recent successes. An entertaining and totally compelling read, "Dropped Names" is a mesmerizing performance from a dazzling and original talent. We are taken on an exceptional journey with scores of renowned souls, now lost to us, but Langella's ability to contrast their public personas with their private selves brings them back to vivid life.