Looking for Gatsby [Paperback]

Real movie stars bring to the screen a presence that's overwhelming. Faye is the last of that breed. That assessment, by one of her closest friends, is perhaps the clue to understanding the distinctive quality that has made Faye Dunaway such a great and enduring star -- for in an era of intimacy and accessibility, she has remained aloof, a figure of mystery, larger than life. InLooking for Gatsby-- a title which perfectly conveys the haunting pursuit of romance that has always been a part of her life -- Faye Dunaway has written a truly remarkable book. As she probes relentlessly for the truth about herself, she fearlessly confronts her demons, trying to set the record straight about her life, her loves, her work, searching for the events that shaped her, that gave her the drive -- and the blazing need -- to escape from a childhood of poverty and turmoil and to succeed so completely as an actress.

Faye Dunaway writes about her earliest years with fierce pride and a total lack of self-pity, whether about the strong women who shaped her character (her mother and her maternal grandmother), or her father who was never really a father to her (one manifestation of theGatsbyfor which she has always searched). Acting was not just a way out -- it was a passion, the one thing she knew she had to do. She captures brilliantly her hard times in pursuit of that career, attending college on a patchwork of scholarships, as well as working at a variety of jobs to support herself, studying her profession with a painstaking thoroughness and an eye for detail that was to make her legendary, developing that inner sense of the person and the story that later enabled her to portray larger-than-life characters so convincingly.

Faye Dunaway confronts her reputation for being difficult (including struggles with such directors as Otto Preminger and Roman Polanski) and makes us understand not only the fact that she takes her profession seriously, but the way in whichl#S