Mike Myers thinks he was ''a genius'', while John
Cleese regards him as ''a true cultural icon''. He was
an architect of British comedy, paving the way for Monty
Python, and then became a major Hollywood star, forever
remembered as Igor in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. A
writer, director, performer and true pioneer of his art,
he died aged only 48. His name was Marty Feldman, and
here, at last, is the fi rst ever biography. Acclaimed
author Robert Ross has interviewed Marty's friends and
family, including his sister Pamela, Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Michael Palin and Terry Jones, and also draws from
extensive, previously unpublished and often hilarious
interviews with Marty himself, taped in preparation for
the autobiography he never wrote. No one before or since
has had a career quite like Marty's. Beginning in the
dying days of variety theatre, he went from the behind
the scenes scriptwriting triumphs of Round the Horne and
The Frost Report to onscreen stardom in At Last the 1948
Show and his own hit series Marty. That led to
transatlantic success, his work with Mel Brooks, and a
five-picture deal to write and direct his own
movies.From his youth as a tramp on the streets of
London, to the height of his fame in America - where he
encountered everyone from Orson Welles to Kermit the
Frog, before his Hollywood dream became a nightmare -
this is the fascinating story of a key figure in the
history of comedy, fully told for the first time. |
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