Author Description

"The son of Sicilian immigrants, Ben Gazzara began acting at age twelve in New York City's Italian American community. Making the improbable leap to the Actor's Studio in the 1950s, Gazzara learned his craft alongside stars such as Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe and went on open-calls and auditions with the young James Dean. But Elia Kazan launched Gazzara's career in 1955 when he hand-selected him to originate the role of Brick in the landmark Broadway production of Tennessee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." "Gazzara made the jump to Hollywood when Sam Spiegel offered him The Strange One. Otto Preminger's Anatomy of Murder (in which Gazzara costarred with boyhood movie idol Jimmy Stewart) followed, bringing him national stardom. Over the next twenty years, the author worked and played with luminaries such as Laurence Olivier, Shelley Winters, Orson Welles, George C. Scott, Geraldine Page, Anna Magnani, Frank Sinatra, and Anthony Hopkins, among others." "Sadly, Gazzara's troubled marriage to actress Janice Rule could not be assuaged by his work and the accompanying social swirl. In time he became passionately involved with Audrey Hepburn, before meeting and marrying Elke Stuckmann. Additionally In the Moment offers a poignant look at the ups and downs of Gazzara's battle against severe depression, as well as his courageous stand against cancer, which almost ended his career." "Among his many accomplishments, he is most celebrated for the series of innovative movies he made with John Cassavetes - movies that in the 1970s helped launch today's independent film movement. In the Moment for the first time takes readers behind-the-scenes and onto the sets of Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night, revealing how these and other much-loved movies were created through an intense collaboration between actors and their director. Since then Gazzara's more recent films - Happiness, Buffalo 66, The Spanish Prisoner, and Dogville, among them - continue to shape the independent film tradition for new generations."--BOOK JACKET.