You know him from his breakout role as Hank Kingsley on The Larry
Sanders Show, his outrageous turn as George and Oscar Bluth on
Arrested Development, and his Emmy Award-winning performance as Maura
Pfefferman on Transparent. A Broadway star, a television legend, an
accomplished screen actor whose singular wit and heartrending
performances have been entertaining audiences for more than four
decades, but the question remains: Who the hell is Jeffrey Tambor?
In his illuminating, often hilarious, and always honest memoir, Tambor
looks back at the key moments in his life that taught him about
creativity and play and pain and fear. The son of what you might call
"eccentric" Russian and Hungarian Jewish parents, Tambor grew up in San
Francisco a husy kid with a lisp, who suffered in his "otherness" and
found salvation in the theater.
While he learned his art from the best of the best--Al Pacino, George C.
Scott, Garry Shandling, Mitch Hurwitz, Jill Soloway--he also introduces
his many unexpected teachers, from the nameless man in a Detroit
bookstore who gave him the love of reading, to his young children who
(at this ridiculously late stage in his life) have reintroduced him to
play, bravery, and the simple joy of not giving a shit.
Tambor shares the triumph of landing his first Broadway role, but not
before experiencing the humbling that is commercial work (and how even
saying "my socks don't cling" can prove a challenge). He invites you
behind the scenes of his wildly successful television shows, but he
doesn't leave out the pit stops he made at addiction, Scientology, and
what it feels like to get fourth billing after Sylvia the Seal on *The
Love Boat.
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At last, Tambor answers the question "Are you anybody?" with a promise
that success doesn't mean perfection and failure most definitely is an
option.
