So Far, So Good: A Memoir

Probably best known for his role as the Penguin in the Batman television series, the 85-year-old Meredith is an actor-director of broad experience and distinction. Discovered by Eva Le Gallienne in the early 1930s, he received his most valuable training in summer stock and was ``amazingly successful'' by the time he was 24, playing the lead in Maxwell Anderson's Broadway hit Winterset . In this delightfully entertaining memoir, Meredith conveys the excitement of early triumphs but glides modestly over the rest of his career, both in film and on stage, preferring to recall his warm friendships with actors Franchot Tone, Charles Laughton and Zero Mostel; writer John Steinbeck; composer Kurt Weil; and director John Huston. Married four times (actress Paulette Goddard was his second wife), he is breathtakingly frank about his rabid pursuit of women in his younger days. Witty, gracefully written, chock-full of memorable anecdotes, Meredith's memoir conjures up lively ghosts from a theater world that no longer exists. Photos. (May)