Damn Glad To Meet You: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches

Actor and director Matheson (Animal House; The West Wing) shares his fascinating life story and experience of “film school boot camp” in this entertaining memoir. While overcoming a challenging childhood with divorced parents who struggled with alcohol and poverty, Matheson escaped into film and television, obsessively reading about the actors and directors he admired most. Acting classes and constant auditioning led to minor roles in television, and ultimately, he became the voice of Jonny Quest and costarred in 1968’s Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. For the next seven decades, Matheson poured his heart into his craft, always doing his homework, from riding with the wranglers and police he would portray, to shadowing doctors and even newscaster Brian Williams, fighting for the roles he felt he was suitable for and reinventing himself when things got stale. His story is peppered with lively tales about being beaten up every night on stage by a ruthless Daniel Stern, dating supermodel Twiggy, failing as a Hollywood mogul in the 1980s, and discovering a passion for directing television.