Dimensions
161 x 237 x 32mm
In DROPPED NAMES, renowned actor Frank Langella shares intimate portraits of the extraordinary personalities he's known throughout his illustrious career. Together, these stories reflect some of Langella's most significant experiences and relationships. With sharp wit and skillful storytelling, Langella vividly and affectingly limns moments both poignant and penetrating with candid details about celebrities from Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, Jacqueline Onassis, Grace Kelly, Rita Hayworth, to William Styron, Leonard Bernstein, and Tennessee Williams. Woven throughout are threads of his own incredible life from his early years on Broadway to his most recent successes that give shape to a truly exceptional story.
Included here is the story of a then 24-year-old Langella turning up to a surprise luncheon on Cape Cod with President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy in jeans and a t-shirt and finds himself -- just a young actor from Bayonne, New Jersey -- making small talk with the most famous and powerful man in the world. In another, he joins Rita Hayworth every night for candle-lit dinner while they film a western in Mexico. And in the fall of 1978, while filming Dracula, Frank tries politely to refuse the advances of Sir Laurence Olivier. With such a prolific career spanning over four decades, Langella has much to share -- emotionally resonant rememberances of friends lost and missed; the juicy brief encounters with tabloid favourites; and the often hilarious memories of some of our best-loved celebrities getting themselves into trouble.
Frank Langella is a brilliant writer with a perceptive eye and a gift for the telling detail. These portraits of lost friends, enemies, idols, and lovers are moving, funny, wicked, sometimes shocking, and utterly addictive.
