The 12 Best Memoirs From Actors You Need To Read

As much as we love to see the fictional characters that actors portray, it's just as entertaining to hear about the real lives of the actors themselves. This is why so many legendary actors deserve biopics, and why some have actually gotten one. But a fictionalized version of an actor's life still tends to gloss over the rough edges, and as we know all too well, true story movies even outright lie sometimes. 

That's where memoirs come in. Not only do they promise to tell an authentic and unfiltered view of an actor's life and career, but that view comes directly from the actors themselves. Biographies can certainly be informative, and many are done with the blessing and/or cooperation of their subject. Still, nothing beats a memoir, where an actor is telling their own story, in their own words. 

Some memoirs attempt to cover an entire life. Others focus primarily on the actor's career. And others still narrow that focus even tighter, zeroing in on the story behind a very specific period. These recommendations cover that entire span. What unites them all is that they are some of the best actor memoirs out there, from a golden age Hollywood legend to an actor who didn't enter the industry until the new millennium. 

Though his most iconic characters are no doubt Walter White and Hal Wilkerson, Bryan Cranston has amassed a number of memorable roles over his long career. And given that he didn't land "Breaking Bad" until he was 50 years old, and much of his acclaimed work has come since, there were certainly some not-so-memorable roles along the way. Those roles, the known and the unknown, serve as the crux for his 2016 memoir, "A Life in Parts."

In the book, Cranston discusses not only the years he spent as a working actor just happy to earn enough to pay his bills, but his pre-Hollywood life where he had a succession of brutal manual labor jobs. His childhood was a rough one, with him and his brothers having to work from an early age thanks to an absent father and an alcoholic mother. Make no mistake though — this isn't one of those memoirs where the author blames his issues on everyone else, or doesn't own up to his flaws and mistakes. Cranston is quite candid about being an imperfect person, which makes this memoir as compelling as do all of the behind-the-scenes stories he shares about his various projects.

Given how multifaceted his career has been, it's nearly impossible for someone to not be aware of Alan Cumming. From his acclaimed Broadway work, to films as widely ranging as "GoldenEye," "Burlesque," "X2," and "Spy Kids," and even reality television with his "The Traitors" hosting gig, Cumming has made sure to be seen. And his 2015 memoir, "Not My Father's Son," Cumming also ensures that we know why he so needs to be seen.

The title is a indictment of the physical and mental abuse Cumming received at the hands of his dad, abuse that would haunt him well into his adult life. But for every moment of tragedy and pain, Cumming also gives readers an equally hopeful — if not outright hilarious — story or observation. 

It's this balance that makes "Not My Father's Son" impossible to put down, and impossible not to read in his distinctive Scottish brogue. As Damian Burr so perfectly put it in his review of the memoir for The Guardian, "Cumming recalls pain without self-pity." 

If the title, "I'm Glad My Mom Died," didn't grab you, the book's accompanying cover photo — Jennette McCurdy smirking as she holds a confetti-filled urn — definitely achieves that goal. But given the tragic story of her life and career, McCurdy has more than earned the right to not only celebrate the passing of her mother, but to be joyful about it in the title and cover photo of her memoir.

McCurdy was a Nickelodeon child star during the era where these young actors allegedly faced horrific, ongoing harassment and abuse from the various adults who worked on the network's sitcoms. That alone would've been enough to cause her to grow up bitter and angry about her time in the industry. But it's made all the worse by the fact that McCurdy never even really wanted to be an actor to begin with, but was forced into it by her mother — a mother who didn't treat McCurdy that much better than the people at Nickelodeon did. Maybe you've never had someone in your life where you were happy when they died, but after reading McCurdy's book, it's easy to understand how some people can. 

The two things that Matthew Perry was most known for were his role as Chandler Bing on "Friends" and his very public struggles with addiction. While he initially tried to keep those struggles under wraps, he soon began to open up about them and was never afraid to be candid about that area of his life. And all of that comes through in Perry's 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing." 

There was always a sense that Perry brought a lot of himself to the Chandler character, and that especially comes through in the way Perry uses his natural charm and quick wit to tell stories about his career and his life — never going more than a minute or two without making sure to humble himself with hilarious self deprecation. Thanks to "Friends," Perry was about as famous as actors can get, and so he got to not only rub elbows with but also date some of the biggest names in Hollywood. 

Those stories are hilarious and fun to read, of course, and there are plenty of them here. But it also needs to be said that the book contains a lot of dark and uncomfortable stories about a man who already had mental health struggles before becoming one of the biggest stars on the planet. That led to many painful battles that Perry didn't always win. His death a little less than a year after the release of the book makes that sad fact all too clear. 

With over 150 screen acting credits to her name — to say nothing of her many live theater roles  — Jenifer Lewis has been prolific indeed. Those numbers are especially impressive when you consider that her first movie role wasn't until 1988, and it took another two years before she made her television debut. But after that, it didn't take long before Lewis began racking up recurring roles on shows like "A Different World," "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," and "Black-ish," and movies that include "Sister Act," "Poetic Justice," and "The Princess and the Frog."

One thing that many of Lewis's roles have in common is that she plays a character who is either a mother, or otherwise a motherly figure of some kind. That is how she earned the nickname "The Mother of Black Hollywood," which she naturally used as the title of her 2017 memoir. It tells of how she landed her first acting gig, a Broadway role, before she even graduated college. Theater would be her focus in the beginning of her acting career, before she moved over to the screen and made just as big of a mark there. But this isn't a story of uninterrupted success lacking in any adversity, as a breakdown stemming from previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder nearly derailed it all. 

Al Pacino has never been a huge fan of interviews, and has a very low number of talk show appearances in proportion to how long he's been a massively famous actor. So there were plenty of reasons to be excited when he released his memoir, "Sonny Boy," in 2024. If you pick up the book hoping for behind the scenes stories of legendary films like "The Godfather" and "Scarface," you will definitely get lots of that. And hearing about those productions from his point of view for the first time ever is certainly something to be embraced. But honestly, that's not even when "Sonny Boy" is at its best.

While Pacino's formative years are similar to many of his peers — divorced parents, a poverty-stricken childhood, academic failure, and so on — those chapters of "Sonny Boy" are anything but by the numbers. Pacino tells the story of his early life, a life that could've gone very badly if he hadn't found his way to acting, in a way that only Pacino can. You can tell that he's kept all these stories and memories — and the feelings and traumas associated with them — bottled up for half a century, and that there was real catharsis in his finally feeling comfortable enough to let them all out. 

As the headline to the New York Times write-up of the Sharon Stone memoir, "The Beauty of Living Twice," puts it, "Sharon Stone is telling her side of the story." As much as women in Hollywood still struggle to have their voices heard and to be taken as seriously as men, it was that much harder when Stone was a movie star in the 1980s and '90s. The fact that she dared to star in erotic thrillers and films of that nature only further added to the industry — and at times, the public — dismissing her and her talent.

Once Stone accepted that she was no longer an A-list movie star, she found that she didn't miss the industry that shunned her. While the book definitely discusses her time in Hollywood, her biggest films, and what it was like to be a huge celebrity, it's just as much about her finding her way back to herself after all of that went away. After licking her wounds for a bit, she decided to focus on the things that truly mattered and that actually fulfilled her. And in doing so, she found the life she truly wanted, even if that life no longer involved multi-million dollar paydays, red carpet premieres, and fancy cocktail parties with big stars. Stone refused to play by the rules when she was in Hollywood — she certainly isn't going to start now. 

The story of how Trejo went from inmate to action star is certainly a compelling one, and deserves to be a movie — if not an entire miniseries. But now that he's written a memoir about those experiences, "Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood," there is source material for such projects. Before any of that, though, everyone should read the memoir itself, which is even more wild than you're possibly imagining it to be.

As silly as this might be to say, we don't want to spoil too much of Trejo's book. The concept of spoilers in regards to a memoir would indeed be ridiculous under ordinary circumstances. But the less you know about Trejo's life, from his days as a young drug addict to the years he spent in the most dangerous prisons in the country, the better. In fact, for maximum effect, it would be best to not know that he ended up not only becoming an actor, but a beloved celebrity who does everything from brutal crime dramas to silly family comedies. Because that's the biggest twist of all, and not something anyone would've seen coming had they checked in with Trejo at any point in his life prior to his first big breakthrough roles.

Carrie Fisher arguably had a more prolific, and certainly more acclaimed, career as a writer than she ever did as an actor. However, one doesn't really exist without the other. That is to say, as entertaining as her memoirs have always been, we likely wouldn't have paid attention to them had she not been a famous actor. Or, at least, the daughter of a famous actor. Not to mention how much her memoirs tend to focus heavily on her life as a celebrity in a celebrity family. 

There really is no wrong choice when deciding which of Fisher's memoirs to read. Both "Wishful Drinking" and "Shopaholic" come highly recommended, focusing on her substance abuse struggles and her mental health, respectively. But we focused on "The Princess Diarist" here for two reasons. One, it's the Fisher memoir that is more specifically about her acting career — her time making the original "Star Wars" trilogy in particular. And two, it was her final book, released mere weeks before she died on December 27, 2016. 

Definitely read all three, not only because they're all great, but because they cover a wide breadth of Fisher's life, career, and struggles regarding both. However, if pressed, we say read "Princess Diarist" since it has the tightest focus, discusses acting the most, and also doubles as yet another view of the still-fascinating story behind the making of the first three "Star Wars" films. 

Few celebrities have ever, or will ever, have the kind of career longevity of Betty White. Not only the total length of her career, but the fact that she did such an incredible job of remaining in the mainstream consciousness for so much of it. Her acting career started not long after television itself did, and she was still starring in hit sitcoms and appearing in major Hollywood films into the '80s, '90s, and beyond. Remarkably, White remained in the limelight and even continued acting almost right up until her devastating death just shy of her 100th birthday.

All of that put White in a position to write a memoir like nobody else could. In 2011, she released "If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't)," with the unique perspective of roughly 70 years in the entertainment business and a mind still sharp enough to entertainingly recall it. It leans more towards her more recent life and career up to that point, specifically the '90s and 2000s, but there is still plenty of looking back before that. Like White herself, the book is as candid as it is funny, and illustrates exactly why she was that rare celebrity who could be cherished and beloved by every living generation all at once. 

Rob Lowe is that rare breed who started as a child actor and successfully transitioned all the way to adult roles without slipping from the public consciousness. From his Brat Pack days, to proving his comedy chops with "Wayne's World" and "Tommy Boy," to later finding success on television with "The West Wing" and "Parks and Recreation," Lowe has skillfully stayed relevant through multiple eras — during which time the majority of his teen idol peers have completely fallen off the pop culture radar.

In his 2011 memoir, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends," Lowe details his long and fascinating career. He follows it from its childhood beginnings up through his television renaissance in the 2000s. Lowe also addresses a bit about his partaking in the wild celebrity excesses of the '80s, without ever taking things too far or seeming like he's just trying to impress and/or shock readers. Especially since those stories, and that era, only served to make Lowe realize what was most important to him — and it wasn't fame or parties or any of that. 

Even so, Lowe has more than his fair share of the kind of celebrity stories that people want to hear from someone who has been in the industry as long as he has, and has worked with many massively famous actors along the way — and he tells those stories with the easy charm that made Lowe a star to begin with.

Elliot Page has had a more unique journey through not only his acting career, but his life, than many others have had. Having to deal with gender identity issues is hard enough for a non-famous person. But going through that in the public eye, having to take roles that are of a gender you don't identify with and having to publicly portray Hollywood's often very old-fashioned view of said gender, is a challenge all of its own. 

But after first coming out as a lesbian in 2014, then as a trans man in 2020, Page knew he had a long, hard road ahead, both personally and professionally. His memoir, "Pageboy," details that struggle, both before and after he fully accepted who he was. It's never been an easy road for Page, nor will it ever be. But books like "Pageboy" go a long way in helping other people like him feel less alone in their own struggles, as well as educate readers about what trans people have to deal with in ways that they wouldn't necessarily understand otherwise.