A Maverick Life - The Jack Kelly Story (Hardback) (Hardcover)

This is the hardback version. In real life, Jack Kelly was a child performer, son of New York model, Nan Kelly, brother of actress, Nancy Kelly, brother-in-law of actor Edmond O'Brien and cinematographer Fred Jackman, Jr. On TV, from 1957 until 1962, he was James Garner's brother on the show, Maverick. Truth is, he was on the show longer than James Garner ... and women would often say he was the reason they kept coming back for more. In fact, they still say that, even though the show's been in re-runs for decades, ever since it left the air. Oh yeah ... he was also a child star in the late 1930s, drove A Crooked Road with Mickey Rooney in 1954, went to Hell and Back with Audie Murphy in 1955, and took a trip to the Forbidden Planet in 1956 with Leslie Nielsen. In the late 1960s, he was on the cutting edge of Sale of The Century as the host, was able to Get Christie Love in 1975, and helped babysit the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew in 1977. Between the late 1950s and early 1970s, he played on virtually every episodic TV show that ever aired. All of this before he pseudo-retired from the small and large screen and served as a city councilman, and then the two-term mayor, of Huntington Beach, California. He was also a newspaper publisher. He loved some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, became a husband, and would probably tell everyone that his greatest joy was in being a father. Jack Kelly really LIVED. "If you yearned for the inside story of what Warner Bros. did--and didn't do--for the "Maverick" brothers (Bret and Bart) in James Garner's autobiography, and didn't get it, you'll certainly find it in A MAVERICK LIFE: THE JACK KELLY STORY, a richly researched accounting by Linda Alexander of the "Maverick" years that deals not only with Kelly's "younger brother Bart" situation, but also of the strict WB contracts, James Garner's lawsuit and eventual exit, salary disputes, the writer's strike, the suffered promotional abuse, references to Clint Walker, Ty Hardin, producer Roy Huggins, Roger Moore and Robert Colbert, among others. Also presented is Jack's very personal life, his struggling younger years, his relationship to sister Nancy Kelly, his marriages to May Wynn (they hated the name) and Jo Kelly, Jack's daughter Nicole, his politics--and, sadly, his likely self-destruction from booze. As for books on "Maverick," this time kid brother Bart trumps big brother Bret. Jack's biography is a Royal Flush " - Western Clippings