Customer Reviews (2)

Mean Spirited
I have been a fan of Laurence Harvey since I was eleven years old.I am now 52.I have heard all the "gay" rumors, all the "he uses women" as well as "he always goes for older, rich, slim women, etc".But this book is a ugly, mean spirited attack on a dead man. I find it odd that the author waited until Harvey's death (in fact many of the quoted people are dead as well).I purchased this book and put it in the trash.I didn't even donate it because it was so hateful.

Unfortunate
This book is nothing like a comprehensive biography of Harvey.The authors don't mention any of his television work, only a few stage plays, and an incomplete list of his films.The text is mostly trivial and anecdotal, and biased against this really wonderful actor. ... Read more

Product Description
This first-ever, personal account of one of film's most controversial stars, clears up the many myths and misconceptions about his life, disclosing for the first time his real name. Packed with personal anecdotes, 23 black and white photographs, a filmography, and a detailed index, this book will fascinate film students, scholars, and enthusiasts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A thick, horrible book about a thick, horrible man
This over-long and tedious book is one of the worst theatrical biographies I have read recently. Over-weighed with tales of the almost-forgotten film star Laurence Harvey's boyhood and youth (with no real reason given to believe them any more than the tales Harvey himself told), when we finally get on to the years of stardom there is virtually no discussion of the work at all. Whilst one doesn't expect a blow-by-blow analysis, it's a bit much when every film is mentioned then dismissed in a page or two. Even The Manchurian Candidate and the West End stage production of Camelot are more or less brushed aside. One gets the feeling that the author hasn't actually seen any of the films, let alone the stage shows. And even if she has, she has no feeling for the world of stage and screen, making her an unlikely choice to write a book about the subject...unless, of course, she's Laurence Harvey's sister-in-law, although this is mentioned on the cover, not in the text.
The book is a bizarre mixture of hagiography and hatchet job, and is riddled with solecisms, mistakes* and poor research (Margaret Leighton died of a "debilitating" disease, we're told. It's taken me two seconds to find out that it was MS - the author didn't bother). The timeline is shot to pieces and the emphasis is all wrong. After endless build-up the high points of the career are rushed through. There is no final chapter describing what Laurence Harvey means today (nothing, which justifies the near-contempt in which he was held by almost everyone) or touching on his daughter's notoriety. I'm fairly easy to please, and will lap up any old rubbish, but even for me this book is too poor to give even a most cursory recommendation to.

*I'm not giving chapter and verse - I didn't go through the wretched book with a marker pen, but on many occasions I thought "That's wrong", and I was right.

Reach for Mediocrity
I'm afraid I will have to agree with moviefan, Grell.This is a perfect example of why one's biography should not be written by a relative.As mentioned, the author oddly fails to mention within the pages that she is Harvey's sister in law.One can only assume that old family grudges or resentments lay behind what seems to be the author's distaste for her subject.

There is precious little information on Harvey's films (barely a page on Darling) and most quotes from his co-stars are lifted from other biographies.

The author would have made a wonderful source of information for a less biased and more talented biographer.I cannot recommend spending anything near full price for this bio, though I could justify a few dollars to read about Harvey's early life.Unfortunately, it is so clear that the author has an ax to grind, that I wasn't even sure her descriptions of Harvey's "Mommy Dearest" mother were accurate or the ultimate revenge against her own mother-in law.

Reach for the Top, the Turbulent Life of Laurence Harvey
This was an excellent biography, written like a novel that covers him from his childhood to his tragic death at forty five.It's beautifully written and reveals him to be a fascinating, self made man.He dreamed a fantasy of himself as a polished, classy individual, a real dandy really, smelling of money like Fitzgerald used to say, and that's what he made himself. But that was only one side of him, the other could still be shockingly coarse, rude and obscene thus adding to the many layers of this complex individual.I also think he was an excellent actor who often rose above his material.Anne Sinai obviously knew him well and painted a rich picture of him.Thanks to her talent, we can all know him now, warts and all, and still be haunted and fascinated by this ultimately tragic actor.

Not Enough Stars
Au contraire, the book is extremely detailed and makes use of all the letters that Lawrence Harvey wrote his family.Anne Sinai reads between the lines and shows us that Harvey was indeed pretended to have been known as "Larushka" as a child, but he dared not sign letters to his family with that endearing diminutive, because he made it all up, God knows why.

His ambition and his sexual predilections made him frantic to be loved, and the early part of the book, where he leaves SA and goes to London to find work is quite moving in its clear-eyed case study of a young man on the make.No wonder he did so well, later on, playing Joe Lapmton in ROOM AT THE TOP.Joe's ambition and lying ways could have been patterned on Harvey's life.He seems to have been attracted to a, cute guys, b, older rich guys, and then c, older women who were fair and severe with him, just as his mother was.His marriage to Margaret Leighton is finally explained in several incisive Sinai chapters here, as well as his long term love affair with the much older soubrette Hermione Baddeley.When he became an international star with ROOM AT THE TOP, he just seemed to live more frantically, perhaps because he was under increased scrutiny and could now only rarely have a "night out with the boys."

James Woolf, the bouyant film producer who took Harvey under his wing and made him a huge success by careful placement, flying him to Hollywood over and over again until Warner took an option, winds up as the hero of the book, the one man who never let his boy down, and whose death spelled the end of Harvey's brief stardom.Sinai tells us innumerable anecdotes about the stars Harvey was involved with, but even more tantalizing are her accounts of the movies he wound up abandoning, including one which would have cast him as the man torn between Lana Turner (!) and Jennifer Jones (!!!!), a hot seat if ever there was one.

Highly recommended even though, once he becomes a star, Sinai rushes through the remainder of his career as though the house was on fire and she had to finish the book quickly to get a pail of water.He was so great--or so bad--that he deserves a slower pace, something more Mediterranean, not this Coney Island roller coaster of a climax.

Love the Actor - Hate the book
I was very happy to see a book about one of my favorite movie actors.

It was maddening that it was written by his siter-in-law, who obviously has an ax-to grind.

You might get the facts, but not the truth from this "Biography"

See his movies instead of paying for this junk, as I have.

Room at the Top, Manchurian Candidate, Summer and Smoke etc.

It is odd that she does not reveal the nature of her relationship to LH in the narritive----

I suggest reading it if you would like to know names dates etc., but do not expect a balanced insightful portrayal of an artist, that this author probably was resentful of. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Long and the Short and the Tall is a 1961 film directed by Leslie Norman and stars Laurence Harvey, Richard Todd, Richard Harris, David McCallum, John Meillon, John Rees and Ronald Fraser. The film takes place in a Burmese jungle in 1942 during the World War II Burma Campaign. During the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942, a seven-strong British sonic warfare patrol beds down in a dilapidated store-hut in the Burmese jungle. Tension rises as Private Sam Whitaker fails to repair the malfunctioning radio, the rest of the men cannot guess whether or when to move on. The plot thickens when a lone Japanese scout stumbles across the hut and his fate becomes the squad's second dilemma. ... Read more

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Chapters: Charlize Theron, Sid James, Laurence Harvey, Arnold Vosloo, Danny K, Alice Krige, Musetta Vander, Kandyse Mcclure, Stelio Savante, Joe Vaz, Janet Suzman, Sharlto Copley, Natalia Da Rocha, Justine Waddell, Sybil Jason, Molly Lamont, Leon Schuster, Glynis Barber, Daphney Hlomuka, Desmond Dube, James Ryan, Stan Schmidt, Brian Murray, Sasha Pieterse, Hazel Brooks, Themsie Times, P. J. Prinsloo, Yvonne Bryceland, Joe Mafela, Jason Cope, Lee-Ann Liebenberg, David Bateson, Nkhensani Manganyi, Dennis Wyndham, Elaine Proctor, Waseem Shaikh, Keren Neumann, Jamie Bartlett, Alfred Ntombela, Jessica Haines, Fana Mokoena, Ivan Botha, Donald Randolph. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 163. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Charlize Theron (pronounced , ; born August 7, 1975) is a South African actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She became an American citizen in 2007. She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate, and The Cider House Rules. She received critical acclaim and an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster, for which she became the first person from any African country to win an Academy Award in a major acting category. She received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country. Theron was born in Benoni, Transvaal Province, South Africa, the only child of Gerda Jacoba Aletta (née Maritz; born January 27, 1953) and Charles Jacobus Theron (died 1990). Her mother is of German descent and her father was of French and Dutch ancestry; Theron is directly descended from early Huguenot settlers, and Boer War figure Daniel Theron was her great-grandfather's brother. "Theron" is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=5132 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! LaurenceHarvey (1 October 1928 - 25 November 1973) wasa Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films. Harvey maintainedthroughout his life that his birth name was LaruschkaMischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh (Hirsh) Skikne. He was the youngest ofthree boys born to Ber "Boris" and Ella Skikne, a Jewish family in the town of Joniškis, Lithuania. Atthe age of five he emigrated with his family to SouthAfrica where he took on the English name of Harry. ... Read more

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Chapters: Sid James, Seymour Papert, Abba Eban, Laurence Harvey, Lemba, Emperor Norton, Nadine Gordimer, Harry Schwarz, Wayne Odesnik, Richard Goldstone, Jody Scheckter, Tomas Scheckter, Daniel Lapin, Ted Grant, Ronald Harwood, Johnny Clegg, Sydney Brenner, Ronnie Kasrils, Jewish Population of South Africa, Thomas Rajna, Sholom Schwartzbard, Joe Slovo, Lee Harris, David Goldblatt, Antony Sher, Tony Leon, Ahrn Palley, Bram Fischer, Dean Furman, Ian Scheckter, Frank Nabarro, Lionel Bernstein, Sammy Marks, Joseph Wolpe, Helen Suzman, Lennie Lee, Sarah Millin, Aaron Klug, Cecil Margo, Philip Blaiberg, Jonathan Kaplan, Okey Geffin, Janet Suzman, Solomon Joel, Phillip V. Tobias, Barney Barnato, Alfred Beit, Lewis Wolpert, Shmuel Katz, Ilana Kloss, Ehud Goldwasser, Dani Behr, Phyllis Spira, Selig Percy Amoils, Ludwig Lachmann, Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, Hymie Kloner, Shaun Tomson, George Albu, Justine Shapiro, Stanley Cohen, Manfred Mann, Caron Bernstein, Gordon Schachat, David Yudelman, Arthur Goldreich, Meyer Fortes, David Lapin, Harold Hanson, Nicky Oppenheimer, Benjamin Pogrund, Taubie Kushlick, Leo Camron, Sydney Jacobson, Baron Jacobson, Joel Stransky, John Cranko, Ruth First, Albie Sachs, Warren Lewis, Roland Levinsky, Harry Frederick Oppenheimer, Lionel Abrahams, Joel Joffe, Baron Joffe, Nathan Sacks, Dan Jacobson, Ernest Oppenheimer, Max Gluckman, Sol Kerzner, Denis Goldberg, Arthur Chaskalson, Robert Krausz, Rachel Zadok, Kara Janx, Harry Bloom, Gillian Slovo, Raymond Ackerman, Louis Washkansky, Olga Kirsch, Joel Family, Adam Bacher, Ali Bacher, Abraham Manie Adelstein, Shireen Sapiro, Laurence Lerner, Sarah Poewe, Isaac Schapera, Afrikaner-Jews, Bernard Oppenheimer, Basil Yamey, Hilda Kuper, Chaim-Dovid Saracik, Shula Marks, Shaun Rubenstein, Adrian Gore, Martin Cohen, Philip Rabinowitz, Stan Medalie, Howard Kerzner, Percy Yutar, Donald Gordon, Larry Cohen, Sydney Cohen, Gustav Imroth, Alan Levin, Benjamin Ginsberg, Shawn ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2890783 ... Read more

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Including The Debate With W. H. Harvey. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Harvey Waterman Hewett-Thayer (1873-? ) was an American Germanist, a fellow in Germanic Languages and Literatures at Columbia University, and was appointed to a preceptorship at Princeton. He was the author of: Laurence Sterne in Germany (1905), The Modern German Novel: A Series of Studies and Appreciations (1924), The Novel of the Great War (1924), Ludwig Tieck and Hebbel’s Tragedy of Beauty (1927), Hoffmann: Author of the Tales (1948) and American Literature as Viewed in Germany, 18l8-1861 (1958). ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Including The Debate With W. H. Harvey. ... Read more