The Last Days of Dead Celebrities - Hardcover

Fink, Mitchell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1401351980 ISBN 13: 9781401351984

Publisher: Miramax, 2006

Synopsis

Former New York Daily News gossip columnist and bestselling author Mitchell Fink made his livelihood reporting on celebrities lives. Now, he reports on their deaths. John Lennon, Ted Williams, Lucille Ball, John Ritter, Warren Zevon: these are just a few of the fifteen larger-than-life celebrities whose final days are detailed here.

No one is better qualified than Fink to tell these stories. Working with an extraordinary level of access -- and the cooperation of the stars families and friends, all on the record -- he has unearthed exclusive and moving material. He portrays here the broad range of emotions these very sympathetic icons experienced.

Our cultural obsession with celebrities verges on the macabre. Now Fink answers that obsession literally, telling of his subjects physical, emotional, and spiritual journeys to the end of life. He talked to Yoko Ono about the optimism of John Lennon's final week; Dan Aykroyd and Judy Belushi about the frenzy of John Belushi's debauched ending; David Bloom's NBC colleagues about the acceptance, even peace, he found in the chaos of war in the desert.

Describing John Ritter's last few days on the set of his hit television show, Fink focuses on the camaraderie and warmth that Ritter created -- as remembered by pals Henry Winkler and Peter Bogdanovich, who happened to be guest stars that week. Fink's tender profile of Warren Zevon chronicles the bittersweet year during which the musician faced his mortality in his iconoclastic fashion, embracing a sex-drugs-rock-&-roll attitude, before greeting his death completely on his own terms. Mitchell Fink has captured the intimate moments and sets the record straight on these very human, very vulnerable public figures.

About this title

About the Author:

Mitchell Fink is an internationally recognized journalist. He has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, People, and the New York Daily News, and he has appeared regularly on television for Fox News, CNN, and CBS. His previous book Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001, was a New York Times bestseller.

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite his book's coarse title, journalist Fink (Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001) treats his subjects with considerable grace in this intriguing collection accounting for a handful of celebrities' final days. Fink covers his subjects chronologically-beginning with the 1980 death of John Lennon-and occasionally references how the death of one personality affected another (as in the case of a mournful Yoko Ono). A veteran journalist for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, People magazine and the New York Daily News, Fink avoids the tabloid treatment and goes out of his way to attribute his quotes and gather background information from those who were there. The diversity of his choices gives weight to the book as well; larger-than-life personalities such as John Lennon and John Belushi commingle with football player Lyle Alzado, news correspondent David Bloom and musician Warren Zevon. Some, like legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg, had premonitions of their deaths, while others, like Belushi, were taken by surprise and all too soon. The result is a thoughtful and sobering account of how our culture views and treats celebrities, as well as a poignant look at some very public people's most private moments.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Miramax
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1401351980
• ISBN 13: 9781401351984
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288