LEE GRANT: I SAID YES TO EVERYTHING

I SAID YES TO EVERYTHING. Lee Grant. Blue Rider Press/Penguin; 2014.

Actress Lee Grant was blacklisted early in her career, but as she says, was young enough to bounce back when her name was finally removed from the list. Grant managed to get work in the theater, but she was fired from Search for Tomorrow when they found out she was a "red." Grant makes the point that people shouldn't have been persecuted for their beliefs, even if they were communists. She made her film debut in Detective Story (she had played the same role in the stage production), then went on to many more movies and TV shows until reinventing herself as a respected documentarian. Along the way she had two husbands and a daughter, actress Dinah Manoff, and Grant can be forgiven for dropping a few names now and then, such as that of the difficult Shelley Winters. Grant doesn't mention every movie or episode she appeared in, but unlike other actors, she doesn't shy away from talking about a few of the stink bombs she was cast in, such as The Swarm. [She makes no mention of The Mafu Cage, however.] Despite some dated comments now and then, Grant's book is often painfully honest about her vanity as she grows older, relationships with stepchildren (one of whom's life ended tragically), and other aspects of her life and career.

Verdict: Absorbing and quite well done. ***1/2.