Charles Zigman

Born in Los Angeles, CA on July 4th, Charles Zigman is the author of two books - or three books, depending on how you look at it. (One of the two books is a two-volume book; hence, Charles doesn't know if that counts as one book or two books. He thinks it's just one, but he's not entirely sure. One thing is for sure, though: he is far too lazy to find out.)

His newest book, THE BELLY BUTTON THAT ESCAPED (Allenwood Press, July 16, 2013), is a laugh-packed children's book, illustrated by the amazing Janice Phelps Williams. Recalling the style of Roald Dahl and the glory days of Mad Magazine, it's appeal, hopefully, is not just to kids, but to adults, too: If you look at the front cover, it's a children's book. Spin it around to the back cover, it's a groovy coffee table book in some imaginary hipster's imaginary apartment. The website for this book is www.thebellybuttonthatescaped.com, and it includes fun printable games and coloring sheets for kids of all ages.

Charles's previous book, WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR (Allenwood Press, July 4, 2008) (www.jeangabinbook.com) is a fun/mostly non-pretentious two-volume biography and filmography of the legendary French acting giant Jean Gabin, who made ninety-five movies, but who is mostly known to American audience on the strength of a handful of great movies he made in the 1930s - "Grand Illusion," "Pepe Le Moko," "La Bete Humaine," and Le Jour se leve." Leonard Maltin declared this book to be one of his Best Film Books of 2009. Brigitte Bardot wrote an original foreword for the book and David Mamet, a huge Gabin fan, penned an appreciation for its back cover). Charles even hosted/introduced weekend-long Jean Gabin Film Festivals at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles (September 2008; Helen Mirren attended that one!) and at the Sacramento French Film Festival (June 2010 and June 2013).

Charles maintains his own blog (http://chuckzigmanoverdrive.blogspot.com) which he updates once or twice a year, at the very most. He used to update it quite a bit, before he realized that everybody in the world now writes for the internet; he is now so daunted by the whole process of blogging that he has, essentially, stopped for the time being, because he has become overwhelmed by the white noise of the internet. But you never can tell when he might start blogging again. It could happen.

Charles is also a journalist and, occasionally, a professional editor and ghostwriter of "other people's books" and magazine articles (www.chucktheghostwriter.com). He used to write screenplays, too, but not one, but two, of the screenplays he wrote were plagiarized by unsavory/sociopathic Hollywood producers and, as a result, he wants nothing to do with entertainment business people for the rest of his life. "If entertainment business people were on fire," Charles Zigman has been known to say, "I would not put them out with my water."

Charles is a graduate of UCLA's undergraduate Television and Film Department and Columbia University's Graduate Department of Film. (At Columbia, he directed a twenty-five minute short film, "Heavy Put-Away," from a script that he co-authored with his writing teacher and thesis advisor, the late legend Terry Southern, who co-wrote "Dr. Strangelove," "Easy Rider," "Candy," "The Magic Christian," and lots of other mindblowing counterculture; indeed Charles's film, which was shown at a number of festivals, represented Southern's first produced film in more than twenty-six years.) Charles has taught film and television courses at Augusta State University, Georgia as well as at the New York Film Academy's summer program in Los Angeles. Currently, he is an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. (It's not what he went to film school for but, as Frank Norris put it, quite aptly, in his well-regarded 1899 novel, "Such is life for McTeague...")

He enjoys writing about himself in the third person -- in fact, you just might say that he wrote this very entry.

To schedule Charles for a visit to your classroom or organization (he can talk about his children's book or classic French cinema), please contact

publisher@allenwoodpress.com.