Book Review: Hollywood Monster – Robert Englund 298 pages
Robert Englund is a horror icon. We know him for playing one of the most famous movie monsters in American history, Freddy Krueger, but in reading his biography, Hollywood Monster, we learn that Robert indeed wears many masks and quite a few will surprise many of his long time fans.
The telling of Robert’s career is a fast and brisk one as we glimpse into early childhood and seeing how a early crush on a classmate led him into joining a semi-professional children’s drama class called the Teenage Drama Workshop where he wholeheartedly the acting bug. While Robert points out he did it as a way to meet girls,soon he finds that people really think he has great talent and away he goes.
Marrying very young, Englund recalls his days in Michigan going to class and acting in several stage plays. He has his moments, but when he sees a movie that several of his old classmates from California are working in Hollywood, he moves back home.
Robert worked very hard, landed some good character actor roles and every year his name got a little more out there. An amusing tidbit is the connection he has with Gary Busey and how their careers crossed many times.
After gaining fame and fans with his role on the hit mini-series and TV series of “V”, Englund talks about landing the role of Freddy and how it changed his life forever.
The one thing you get from reading Robert’s book is how nice and balanced he seems to be. He has nothing but respect for his co-workers, be it the big name stars like Henry Fonda to the lowest man/woman on the production staff, Robert always feels like they all part of a team. It’s what makes this book such a joy to read, that underneath the mask of a cold blooded supernatural killer, lies a man who is happy in his work.
An added bonus for die-hard Freddy fans is Robert’s five favorite Freddy kills and sharing that Johnny Depp perhaps didn’t really die in the first film. As far as actor’s biographies goes, this one is a thriller.
Highly recommended.
While this book came out in 2009, check Amazon.com to see if they have any copies.
