Mike Myers thinks he was "a genius," while John Cleese regards him as "a
true cultural icon." He was an architect of British comedy, paving the
way for Monty Python, and then became a major Hollywood star, forever
remembered as Igor in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. A writer,
director, performer and true pioneer of his art, he died aged only 48.
His name was Marty Feldman, and here, at last, is the first ever
biography. Acclaimed author Robert Ross has interviewed Marty's friends
and family, including his sister Pamela, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Michael
Palin and Terry Jones, and also draws from extensive, previously
unpublished and often hilarious interviews with Marty himself, taped in
preparation for the autobiography he never wrote.
No one before or since has had a career quite like Marty's. Beginning in
the dying days of variety theatre, he went from the behind the scenes
scriptwriting triumphs of "Round the Horne" and "The Frost Report" to
onscreen stardom in "At Last the 1948 Show" and his own hit series
"Marty." That led to transatlantic success, his work with Mel Brooks,
and a five-picture deal to write and direct his own movies.
From his youth as a tramp on the streets of London, to the height of his
fame in America - where he encountered everyone from Orson Welles to
Kermit the Frog, before his Hollywood dream became a nightmare - this is
the fascinating story of a key figure in the history of comedy, fully
told for the first time.
