Film idols Hayden, Lee shine in books

Private lives explored

ruce Lee: A Life’ (Simon & Schuster), by

and “Sterling Hayden’s (University Press of Mississippi), by

Wars”

By Douglass K. Daniel

Martial arts icon Bruce Lee wanted to be known around the world, and he built the perfect platform to do so as an international film star. An accidental actor, Sterling Hayden never felt right about appearing on movie screens anywhere and was more at ease at the wheel of a ship on the high seas.

Both struggled, in different times and places, to achieve their dreams. Hayden grew up poor in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, Lee in middleclass Hong Kong in the ’40s and 1950s. Self-doubt bedeviled Hayden while Lee brimmed with selfconfidence. A trait they shared often hurt those around them: self-indulgence.

New biographies explore with unusual depth the private lives of these unlikely movie stars, whose screen legacies rely on just a handful of films. Lee is best remembered in the US for “Fist of Fury” (1972) and “Enter the Dragon” (1973), released the month he died. Hayden starred in two film-noir classics, “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950) and “The Killing” (1956), and he had prominent supporting roles in the landmark films “Dr Strangelove” (1964) and “The Godfather” (1972).

Filled with recollections from colleagues, friends and family, Matthew Polly’s “Bruce Lee: A Life” is proof that dogged research and sharp insight lie at the foundation of any successful biography. Its 600-plus pages suggest a definitive work to satisfy Lee’s fans and spark curiosity in a new generation.

Lee (1940-1973) was born in the US and appeared in Hong Kong films as a child. A natural charmer even as a youngster, his antics away from the cameras threatened his future as he cultivated a reputation as a street fighter and bully who couldn’t control his temper.

Martial arts became his passion as well as a tool for self-discipline. Sent to Seattle as a teenager after his expulsion from private school and trouble with the law, Lee matured and found a sense of purpose — to revolutionize martial arts. He did so by mixing traditional kung fu with his own superfast, freewheeling fighting style.

On the West Coast he developed a following as a competitor and as a teacher. His Hollywood connections — actors Steve McQueen and James Coburn and screenwriter Stirling Silliphant — were among his students — led to the role of Kato on the short-lived TV series “The Green Hornet” (1966-67).

Lee

Followed

Few roles followed in an American entertainment industry that had little use for Asian actors beyond stereotypes. Stardom in Asia and beyond came via Hong Kong action films like “The Big Boss” (1971). Lee used that surprising success to start calling the shots on his films, though he made only a handful before his death.

In “Sterling Hayden’s Wars,” author Lee Mandel offers far more information about the actor’s turbulent life than his film career, an unusual approach for a biography of a movie star. Clearly, the interests of the author, a retired Navy physician, lie outside the craft of filmmaking. Then again, so did Hayden’s. He saw Hollywood as a place to earn a dollar and held little regard for what he called “the racket,” largely because he was drawn in on his looks — a 6-foot-5 blond Adonis in his teens — rather than actual talent.

Mandel makes the case that Hayden (1916-1986) fought against a dysfunctional childhood, the Nazis, the Hollywood establishment, the communist witch hunt of the 1950s, an ex-wife and, most of all, himself. No matter what he achieved, whether a Silver Star as a Marine or an acting career that spanned 60 or so film credits and several TV roles, Hayden felt like a faker. He could be his own worst enemy, too, such as the time he defied a judge’s order and courted financial ruin to take his four young children on a voyage to Tahiti and back.

“Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons” (Dey Street Books), by

When television’s longest-running cartoon show first hit the airwaves, most of its writers and producers gave it six weeks at best. The one optimist in the crew figured it might last 13 weeks.

That was nearly three decades and some 640 episodes ago. As the first prime-time cartoon show since “The Flintstones,” “The Simpsons” has managed to maintain solid ratings, offer creatively offbeat humor and entertain viewers in dozens of countries across the globe.

Writer Mike Reiss was among those with little hope for the show’s prospects when he signed on in the late 1980s for want of better options to advance his comedy career. But concerns that the fledgling Fox Network might cancel the show vanished after it won effusive praise from critics and fans alike.

Reiss, a four-time Emmy winner who has been with “The Simpsons” for most of his career, gives readers a laugh-out-loud account of how the show came to be, the way episodes are developed, the voices behind the characters and a raft of Simpson trivia that may surprise the show’s most loyal fans.

Reiss, colleague Al Jean and a handful of other writers came to the show with a Harvard education and an immersion in comedy through their work on the “Harvard Lampoon.” While creator Matt Groening got the acclaim for the show’s success, Reiss credits the late Sam Simon for assembling the writers and setting the tone of “The Simpsons.”

Reiss’ book takes readers inside the writers’ room, where about a half-dozen people spend the workday pitching jokes. It’s part of a prolonged process that begins with a 45-page script and goes through the recordings by cast members, animation, editing and musical scoring. Each episode requires nine months and eight full rewrites to complete.(AP)