How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am

by Charles Grodin

In his candid and engaging new book HOW I GOT TO BE WHOEVER IT IS I AM, successful actor, author, and activist, Charles Grodin, looks back at the major events and private moments that have shaped his life. And, since Grodin is one of the best storytellers around, he can't help but entertain while offering insight gained from a wealth of experience.

The combination of being impeached as class president by his fifth grade teacher (and then winning many school elections thereafter) with being thrown out of Hebrew School for asking too many questions (only to find a much better teacher as a result) informed Grodin's view of himself and made him adept at dealing with rejection--an important skill for an actor. Grodin's success in plays in high school and adventures in college theater led him to a career in acting, studying with the great teachers like Uta Hagen and Lee Strasberg.

Grodin shares behind-the-scenes tales of working on plays like Same Time Next Year and movies like The Heartbreak Kid and Midnight Run --even how close he came to playing the lead in The Graduate. His stories feature the many actors, directors, writers, and producers, with whom he's worked, such as Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Carson, Orson Welles, Warren Beatty, and other colorful characters.

Grodin's greatest work isn't limited to stage and screen, however. He has been an award winning talk show host and commentator on Sixty Minutes II , and he reveals insights about the political and personal side of journalism and some of the larger-than-life characters he's interviewed.

Still, it is the personal aspects of Grodin's life that are truly revealing and funny. He shares intimate anecdotes of humorous dating experiences during the carefree 70s along with stories of what it was like to be a young actor then with friends and colleagues like Robert Redford, Gene Wilder, and Dustin Hoffman.

But it is Grodin's tales of the lives he's helped save with his relentless advocacy work that make you realize what a great guy Charles Grodin really is. We are lucky that the nice guy his friends call, "Chuck" brings us along to share a little of his journey of how he got to be who he really is!

The author is donating 100 percent of his royalties from sales of this book to Mentoring USA, a New York City based nonprofit that forges powerful, transformative connections for young people through the advocacy and involvement of mentors.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir

253 pages, Hardcover

First published April 8, 2009

About the author

Charles Grodin is an Emmy Award-winning American actor, comedian, author and former cable talk show host.

Reviews

[Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll have to agree with most people giving this book a medium rating. It started off with a few interesting bits about Charles and some fellow acotors but around 2/3s along I realized he was not naming anyone in his stories. So afraid he would offend someone he was paralyzed and barely able to tell anything. His chapters got less and less interesting and next I know he is writing about his son’s basketball team and all the small-town happenings almost no one would care to read. I skimmed the last 40 pages or so and was happy to stop reading this.

[Argott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in effort to find out about Mr. Grodin because I thought he might be my biological father.

When I was 14 my mother gave me a list of people who might be my Dad. The guy who raised me (my father) wasn't real happy about this, but he admitted that it was a possibility that I didn't carry any of his genes. So from time to time, I read a biography to try to gain insights about being a father.

So I read the book. He's not my Dad. I learned this when I reached Grodin's chapter, "That Lying Bitch." Grodin describes how my mother sued him, and made him submit to a paternity test. The whole story is pretty ugly, and I encourage you to read it!

All in all, Charles Grodin would have been a great Dad. He seems like a really nice guy.

I need to call my Mom.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, amusing, fascinating at times. It's good to read about a man who has a strong moral character. He does seem to hold a few grudges, but then don't we all?--whether we will admit to it or not.

[Stevie · Rating 1 out of 5]

In this book you will learn how highly Charles Grodin regards himself.

[Fresh · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, rest in peace, Charles Grodin. Second of all, this is not a very good book. His latest autobiography (and there's at least three of them) seems like it was some contractual obligation rather an earnest attempt at a memoir. He dips in and out of his Hollywood career, but he devotes pages and pages to short chapters on celebrities he met once. Grodin, when writing about the many different ways he makes people angry, truly seems like an old curmudgeon resting on his laurels. Who cares about your son's basketball team, and more important, why are you getting into it with people there? He also devotes some of his pictures in the middle to showcasing his work with innocent people in prison...yet never mentions it in his book.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seemed really disorganized and jumped through time with really strange instances brought up solely to provide an Introduction to praise which I'm sure the author would be mortified to hear but it comes off as kinda a obligatory exercise in narcissism

[Jameson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more freewheeling than Grodin’s previous memoirs, but just as breezy and engaging, and filled with thoughtful advice.

[Cindy Poli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was just OK. I thought he would write more about his childhood and family growing up in Pittsburgh.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rambling memoir that's a joy to read. Charles Grodin was such a Mensch.

[Aerin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Line: “My first memory of something having a powerful, lasting effect on me came when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.”

I saw an interview once with Cameron Crowe in which he said that his movie “Almost Famous” was like blowing a kiss his early years as a roadie/music reporter and the people who’d been part of those experiences. I think, in a similar way, How I Got to Be is Charles Grodin’s kiss-blowing to his own past, both his boyhood and his journey from theatre to film to journalism. And it’s a sweet kiss.

Grodin’s newest book includes behind-the-scenes tales that feature actors, directors, writers, producers, journalists and politicians with whom he’s worked. It’s best to think of this book as a collection of essays. Other than Grodin himself, there’s no cohesive thread throughout. There’s a chapter about Dustin Hoffman and the movie The Graduate, a chapter about Grodin’s perspective on doctors and modern medicine, a chapter about Grodin’s work in Washington, D.C.

I had not known that Charles Grodin was such a political activist. In fact, he’s received the William Kuntsler Award for Racial Justice and has been honored by Habitat for Humanity for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the homeless. One of my favorite anecdotes in How I Got to Be was the one in which Grodin describes his experience making a documentary with Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. The three created a primetime special with actual footage from Vietnam, to explain how and why Simon & Garfunkel were writing anti-war music.

Your Father’s Day shopping begins and ends here. As I was reading this book, I made a mental note just about every other page that this would be a great gift for my dad or either of my grandfathers. Despite the fact these three men wouldn’t agree with Grodin’s politics, I doubt they could resist the wry humor and honest appraisal of a life well-lived that Grodin offers in How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am.

[Dale Stonehouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book by a complex individual who has spent a lifetime trying to understand, in this order 1) other people; 2) himself, and largely ending up ambivalent. This may seem inconsistent, but in fact it is a much more accurate reflection of the real world than most collections of observations. Grodin, on screen and in writing, has an uncanny ability to be simultaneously soothing and grating. For those who think in black and white this may be off-putting. For those for whom black and white thinking is much too simplistic, it is merely interesting. Throughout, he details perceived slights and human foibles and immediately follows with a softer comment that is more forgiving if not explanatory. This can be endearing or maddening, depending on one's perspective. Overall, his approach seems to be to assume people try to be honest and forthright (his approach) and being mystified when they are not.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me admire Mr. Grodin's value system. He is a nice guy who tries to be a man of his word and kind to people which is unusual in the world, especially in the world he works in. The book, in telling his stories, often time did not name the people and that was disappointing. He just wasn't quite willing to share it all so it made the book a little shallow for me ... not that I wanted a "tell all" but if you are going to tell the story, tell who was involved. Being the private person he is maybe that is all he could give the reader and I can respect that... but would I read another of his books? - probably not.

[Daniel Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 2.5 stars if they had that rating.

This was an easy read, as I read the whole thing in 2 sittings.

As for Charles, well... when you come off in your own book as a bit cantankerous, you probably are, and that's how he comes off to me in this book.

Far from a tell-all, he uses almost no names, so few it really dulls the aim of alot of the stories.

At the end of it, I really wasn't sure why I read it. I learned alot about Charles. So?

NEXT!

[Ellie Revert · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice guy--Charles Grodin

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice insight on people he met, a little naive about his own personality.

[Sherry Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.