Magnum Mania!

I found this one by chance while looking for another. Gene LeBell was a Hollywood stuntman who doubled for Eugene LeRoche in 4.16 The Return of Luther Gillis. He wrote his memoir, 'The Godfather of Grappling', in 2003.

litefoot wrote: ↑Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:20 am I found this one by chance while looking for another. Gene LeBell was a Hollywood stuntman who doubled for Eugene LeRoche in 4.16 The Return of Luther Gillis. He wrote his memoir, 'The Godfather of Grappling', in 2003.

And here's another stuntman I missed. Jesse Wayne doubled for John Hillerman in 1.1 Don't Eat The Snow In Hawaii. He wrote 'Confessions of a Hollywood Stunt Man (or It seemed like a good idea at the time!)' in 2019.

I knew about Bruce Forsyth's autobiography before I started this thread but now I've found his second, 'Strictly Bruce: Stories Of My Life' published in 2015 (6.20 A Little Bit of Luck... A Little Bit of Grief).

To most of the forum members, Bruce was just the gameshow host in this episode, but in the UK he was the king of light entertainment for 60 years, considered a national treasure. For the last decade of his life he was still going strong, hosting Strictly Come Dancing until 2015 (better known to you as Dancing With The Stars - a British show we sold to the USA!). He was even knighted in 2011.

On to Season 7. The end's in sight.

Jonathan Goldsmith (7.4 Straight and Narrow) wrote his memoirs, 'Stay Interesting' in 2017.

I'm amazed by how many people write bios/memoirs.

ConchRepublican wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:43 pm I'm amazed by how many people write bios/memoirs.

I am more amazed who hasn't. There are a lot of illustrious names in Magnum, PI. Only a small number of them wrote memoirs.

In 7.13 Autumn Warrior, Hollywood stuntman Bernie Pock was cast in the role of young Higgins for the 1943 flashback scenes. Pock married Debra Jane Lasley in 1992, and both were unaware she had AIDS. She died shortly after. Pock died of it in 1996. In 1997, his mother, actor Nancy Kwan (she played the title role in The World Of Suzie Wong) wrote A Celebration of Life – Memories of My Son, a memoir for him. Kwan is still alive, aged 82.

OK, I have reached 7.18 Laura, which means Frank Sinatra. Like Orson Welles, a ton of books have been written about him. If I listed them all, this post would go on forever, so here's a selection of the best (according to Amazon anyway).

Sinatra, by Robin Douglas-Home, 1961.
Frank Sinatra, by Anthony Scaduto, 1976.
Frank Sinatra, My Father, by Nancy Sinatra, 1985.
His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra, by Kitty Kelley, 1986.
Sinatra! The Song is You: A Singer's Art, by Will Friedwald, 1995.
The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin', by Bill Zehme, 1997.
Why Sinatra Matters, by Pete Hamill, 1998.
My Father's Daughter: A Memoir, by Tina Sinatra, 2000.
Mr.S. : My Life with Frank Sinatra, by George Jacobs, 2003.
Sinatra: The Life, by Anthony Summers, 2005.
Sinatra in Hollywood, by Tom Santopietro, 2008.
Frank: The Voice, by James Kaplan, 2010.
Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank, by Barbara Sinatra, 2011.
Sinatra and Me: The Very Good Years, by Tony Consiglio, 2012.
Sinatra's Century: One Hundred Notes on the Man and His World, by David Lehman, 2015.
Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan, 2015.
Frank & Ava: In Love and War, by John Brady, 2015.
Sinatra: Behind the Legend, J. Randy Taraborrelli, 2015.
The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra, by Eliot Weisman, 2017.
Sinatra and Me: In the Wee Small Hours, by Tony Oppedisano, 2021.

Season 7 done. Only five people for that season, which is surprising. On to Season 8.

Julia Migenes (8.2 Pleasure Principle), Broadway musical actor, wrote her autobiography, 'Mémoires d'un oiseau rebelle', in 2006. But frustratingly it's only in French!

Ray Danton directed two episodes of Magnum PI (8.6 The Love That Lies, and 8.9 The Great Hawaiian Adventure Company), but back in the 1950s and 1960s he was a well known actor. He didn't write a memoir, but a biography was written about him in 2009 - Ray Danton: The Epitome of Cool, by Joseph Fusco - and the same author updated the book ten years later, doubling its length to over 500 pages.

'Stop the World: The Biography of Anthony Newley', by Garth Bardsley, was published in 2003, four years after Newley's death. The well known British actor and singer never wrote his own memoir. (8.10 Legend of the Lost Art).

Finished. So that's about 75 people who have written books or had books published about them. Or remain unpublished, as the case may be.

Considering the huge number of well known people involved in the show, 75 seems a small number!

You can see the full list of books in post 1 of this thread.

I wonder how many of these books feature Magnum PI anecdotes?

Actor Geoffrey Beevers from 6.1/6.2, Deja Vu (the London story) publishes his memoirs next week.