Simon Callow My Life in Pieces Book

Simon Callow is best known for his performances in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love as well as his many starring roles in the West End most recently in Waiting for Godot with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. He is the best-selling author of Being An Actor (Penguin) Love is Where it Falls (NHB) and two biographies - of Charles Laughton and Orson Welles. . Drawing on a lifetime of writing about theatre and film Callow takes us behind the curtain and behind the camera to introduce us to the performers and performances that have shaped him as an actor and as a public persona. They include giants like Orson Welles Charles Dickens Tommy Cooper Charles Laughton and Laurence Olivier. The book reconstructs the highlights of his career including his breakthrough roles as the foul-mouthed Mozart in &quotAmadeus&quot and as Reverend Beebe in the film of &quotA Room With a View&quot at the personal insistence of producer Ismail Merchant. The pieces are interspersed with commentaries on pantomime nudity homosexuality and the many other aspects of a rich and varied life both on and off the stage.