The Guttenberg Bible: A Memoir

Actor Guttenberg, best known for his roles in Cocoon, Diner, Police Academy, and Three Men and a Baby, looks back on a decade (1977–1987) of his 35-year career. Fiercely ambitious, even in his teens, he spent the summer after high school graduation daily sneaking onto the Paramount lot by claiming to be Michael Eisner’s stepson. With “a phony requisitions form from the Happy Days set” he managed to acquire and furnish an empty office, splicing wires to install a telephone: “Two months in Hollywood and I had my own office.” After that wild opening chapter, it’s impossible to stop reading. Within weeks Guttenberg was cast in a KFC commercial, followed by a walk-on bit in a major film and a supporting role in a TV movie. His career was underway, eventually scoring big with the Police Academy series: “Once you start doing sequels of the sequels, then you get into a series, and a series spawns a franchise.” Guttenberg’s approach is that of a naïve waif adrift in the Hollywood flotsam and jetsam, with celebrity anecdotes and cinematic insights bobbing to the surface as he paints a comedic patina over his past. At times, one questions how much his memories have been embellished. No matter. Guttenberg is a jocular juggernaut with his humor snowballing over the reader, so equally entertaining books are certain to follow. (May 8)