Funny yet down-to-earth, honest yet full of exaggeration, actor Walter Matthau (1920-2000) will always occupy a place in America's heart as one of the great comic talents of his generation. Born Walter Matuschanskayasky into Jewish tenements on New York's Lower East Side, he was a child actor in New York Yiddish theater, and later a World War II Air Force radioman-gunner. He paid dues for ten years on Broadway, in summer stock, and on television before landing his film debut The Kentuckian in 1955. By the time of his 1968 casting as cantankerous but lovable slob Oscar Madison in the film version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, Matthau had won major Hollywood stardom. Based on dozens of interviews and extensive research, this book covers the breadth of his often-complicated personal life and multi-faceted career, including his unforgettable performances in such films as The Fortune Cookie, A Guide for the Married Man, Plaza Suite, Charley Varrick, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Sunshine Boys, The Bad News Bears, California Suite, and Grumpy Old Men.

Told more as stories than history lessons, the biographies in American National Biography, Supplement 2 recount the tales of all the different people who shaped America--leaders, composers, entertainers, entrepreneurs, writers, scientists, and outlaws. Each one written by an expert in the field and masterfully woven together to present the most accurate and up-to-date information, the entries bring forth a powerful narrative of America's past and some of the most important figures that went into its formation.As the second in a series, iSupplement 2r includes a fascinating miscellany of 450 lives, ranging from 19th-century eccentric Joshua Abraham Norton who died in 1880, to President Reagan and Rodney Dangerfield, who died in 2004. Supplement 2 includes hundreds of figures of note from the past not included in the original edition of the ANB or Supplement 1.New biographies not in the original set as well as articles first published in the ANB Online are included in the Supplement. The result is hour after absorbing hour spent exploring the literary worlds of Ken Kesey and Eudora Welty, the music of Tito Puente and Perry Como, numerous statesmen and politicians and many, many others.With over 500 new listings, bibliographies after each entry, and a cumulative revised index of occupations and realms of renown, Supplement 2 continues the ANB tradition of bringing the people who have meant so much to this country to the forefront.Visit www.anb.org for more information

A two-volume biographical resource for key individuals of the 1960s. Presents 500 entries describing Americans who defined the decade, including politicians, athletes, entertainers, and artists, among many others.

Contains over two thousand entries, arranged alphabetically within four volumes, that provide information about significant films, actors and actresses, directors, and writers and production artists in North American, British, and West European cinematic history. Includes photographs and indexes.

The author of acclaimed biographical works such as Great Jews in Music celebrates the lives of three hundred great Jewish performers -- including Billy Crystal, Lauren Bacall, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Jerry Seinfeld, Morris Carnovsky, and George Burns. Generously illustrated in black and white, this refreshing look at some of the most popular entertainers of all time will inspire, instruct, and entertain.

This is the first biography of Art Carney, whose meteoric rise began with his role as Ed Norton in The Honeymooners -- one of television's all-time favorites, a perennial fixture on the small screen. But Carney spent years trying to shake the image of Norton, lamenting that he was always identified as Jackie Gleason's goofy pal. And shake it he did, later winning the top awards of stage and screen.