By STEVE GUTTENBERG (Thomas Dunne Books; 2012)
To those of us who came of age in the 1980s actor Steve Guttenberg is a familiar and perhaps even beloved figure. An engaging and likeable presence in high profilers like DINER, COCOON, SHORT CIRCUIT, THREE MEN AND A BABY and the first four POLICE ACADEMY movies, Guttenberg was ubiquitous in the Reagan era despite a somewhat limited acting range. It’s hardly surprising that in this shallow but enjoyable 2011 memoir he writes very little about his craft (about the auditioning process he reveals only that he made sure to smile a lot), concentrating instead on the business aspects of the profession.
Guttenberg’s commercial instincts are further demonstrated by the book’s timeline: it covers only the late 1970s, when he was making his start in the business, and 80s, when he hit the big time. Hence, the childhood nostalgia and wages-of-success portions of its subject’s life have been left out of THE GUTTENBERG BIBLE. This isn’t an entirely good thing, as some ink about Guttenberg’s career downturn in the 1990s and 00s, in which he was reduced to appearing in straight to video crap and TV movies, would have been welcome.
It begins in 1976, with the eighteen year old Guttenberg travelling from his New York area home to LA in hopes of making it as an actor. Luck, as it would in his later years, played a huge part in his fortunes: he had upwardly mobile parents who were willing to finance his LA adventure and a rich family friend who allowed Guttenberg to stay in his Mulholland Drive mansion.
In short order Guttenberg snuck onto the Paramount lot (by pretending to be the son of then-chairman Michael Eisner) and commandeered an empty office. This enabled a direct access to powerful talent agents, and led to his first acting gig: a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken starring the Colonel himself. This was followed by a walk-on part in the flick ROLLERCOASTER, whose star Richard Widmark took Guttenberg under his wing, and the lead role in the teen comedy THE CHICKEN CHRONICLES.
Stardom followed pretty quickly, in the form of CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC, which was not a success but did serve as a potent stepping stone. Despite a few missteps (including 1983’s THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE, whose title Guttenberg doesn’t mention in these pages, as well as 1984’s THE FERRET, which isn’t brought up at all) Guttenberg managed to headline an impressive roster of hit movies. He also admits to having immersed himself rather heavily in the Hollywood party scene, with stories of stalkers, casual hook-ups and a wild night during the filming of COCOON that ended with Guttenberg and co-star Brian Dennehy arrested (with Guttenberg naturally pinning all the blame on the latter).
The book concludes with the production of 1987’s THREE MEN AND A BABY, which according to Guttenberg was a joyous experience. Of the completed film he has nothing to say (although he does acknowledge earlier in the book that it was one of the biggest hits Disney ever had), which was probably the correct decision, as about that movie there is, frankly, very little worth saying. The same is true of most of Steve Guttenberg’s filmography, financially lucrative though it may have been, which explains why his winning streak didn’t last past the eighties.