Act a Little Bit

By turns funny and sad, this delightful memoir of author Daniel B. Pollack recounts the story of a young actor in the 1950s navigating the treacherous waters of show business. Pollack’s dream of becoming an actor is cemented from the moment he wanders into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Even though his parents want him to attend college and find a useful profession, Pollack refuses to let his dream languish. After his service in the U.S. Navy, he is offered an apprenticeship at a summer theater in Pennsylvania and officially begins his acting career. Pollack’s early career mistakes lead to his blundering from one lunatic theater job to another. But when he visits Paris in 1957, Pollack quite unexpectedly becomes a working actor and performs alongside such diverse personalities as John Carradine, Jack Lemmon, Tony Randall, Eva Marie Saint, John Huston, and Orson Welles. From his stint in the movie industry, to his return to the New York Theatre scene and the national tour of The Tenth Man, Becoming an Actor in Spite of Myself vividly portrays one man’s life-changing experiences in the world of showbiz.