It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business

Grodin was born in 1935 in Pittsburgh, where he was part of a close-knit Jewish family and had good friends, despite his apparently nonstop arguing--with anybody on anything. In this ebullient, often rancorous autobiography, the stage, film and TV actor describes vividly hassles that cost him the plum role in The Graduate and numerous other setbacks before he starred in The Heartbreak Kid. Grodin learned the Hollywood maxim, ``You're as good as your last success,'' when his next picture flopped and he had to start over again, finally making a comeback in Midnight Run. Instructive and entertaining, his story includes tidbits on Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Roman Polanski, Ellen Burstyn, Simon & Garfunkel, and many other luminaries, none more intriguing than the unsinkable Grodin. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)