Actors & Performers

There's a sense in which all of life is acting. We have roles—and just as we deem a performer's work good or bad, we are capable of fulfilling those roles poorly or well. Of course, there's more at stake in real life than onstage or on-screen, but the Bard wasn't just being clever when he said life's a stage and we're actors on it.

Among Christians, the performing arts have often been condemned as unrighteous, too worldly, unfit for God's people. In very many instances, those are reasonable conclusions. Plays, circuses, parades, movies, exhibitions: these have all been forums for widespread immorality. But they can also each be used as expressions of the human condition, and in this capacity they can do much good.

A good play or movie is no more than a kinetic representation of life as we know it, along with any insights the scriptwriter includes. The characters act our their own life stories,biographies that could belong to any of us in the audience; we watch, we reflect, we respond, and if the actors have done their job well, we are moved or changed.

So maybe we should watch more plays or better movies, you might say, but why should we read biographies of actors or performers? who cares about what they're like off-stage? To know what constantly putting on another's face can do to a person. Because, while we're acting everyday, we are still essentially the same person, whereas an actor becomes any number of people, sometimes multiple personalities in a single evening.

This is the great irony: that, while watching a play or movie can be very constructive and helpful for the viewers, a lifetime dedicated to the work of portrayal can often lead to a profound loss of identity and a faceless carnality. Not all actors do this—some manage to remain upright (even Christian) throughout long careers, and these we hold as heroes; the rest, merely as examples to avoid.

Not allperformers are worth reading about, either. Those who've made significant strides or contributions to their fields are probably going to have more interesting and enlightening stories than a pretty summer blockbuster face, or the hunk who's always wrestling robots and shooting big guns. Our selection is consequently limited, though (we believe) it is sufficient.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.

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29 Items found Print
Annie Oakley: Young Marksman
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Ellen Wilson
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
$7.99
Buffalo Bill
by Helen Cody Wetmore
from University of Nebraska
Biography for 6th-9th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show
Landmark #73
by Walter Havighurst, illustrated by John C. Wonsetler
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Buffalo Bill: Boy of the Plains
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Augusta Stevenson
from Bobbs-Merril Co
for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
Buffalo Bill: Frontier Daredevil
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Meryl Stevenson
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
$7.99
Christopher Reeve: Young Actor
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Kathleen V. Kudlinski
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
DK Biography: Annie Oakley
by Charles Wills
from DK Children
for 4th-7th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
First Lady of the Theatre: Sarah Siddons
by Molly Costain Haycraft
from Kingston House
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Harry Houdini: Master of Magic
by Robert Kraske
from Scholastic Inc.
for 2nd-5th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Harry Houdini: Young Magician
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Kathryn Kilby Borland
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
$7.99
Have You Seen Tom Thumb?
by Mabel Leigh Hunt, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 6th-10th grade
1943 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
King of Song
by Ruth & Paul Hume, illustrated by Irene Murray
from Hawthorn Books, Inc.
for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Little Annie Oakley and Other Rugged People
by Stewart H. Holbrook
First Ediition from Macmillan
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Lotta Crabtree
by Lois V. Harris
from Pelican Publishing Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Maria
by Maria von Trapp
from Creation House
for 7th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Real Book about Buffalo Bill
by Adolph Regli, illustrated by Robert J. Lee
from Garden City Books
for 4th-7th grade
in Real Books series (Location: VIN-RBA)
Ronald Reagan: Young Leader
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Montrew Dunham
from Aladdin Paperbacks
for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
$7.99
Sir Charlie
by Paul Fleishman
from Greenwillow Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sitting Bull: Dakota Boy
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Augusta Stevenson
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Childhood of Famous Americans (Location: BIO-COFA)
Story of Annie Oakley
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #37
by Edmund Collier, illustrated by Leon Gregori
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Buffalo Bill
Signature Books #1
by Edmund Collier, illustrated by Nicholas Eggenhofer
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Tall American
by Richard Gehman, illustrated by Albert Micale
from Hawthorn Books, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Wallenda
by Ron Morris
from Sagarin Press
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$19.00 (1 in stock)
Who Was Harry Houdini?
Who Was?...Series
by Tui Sutherland
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-6th grade
in Who Was? biographies (Location: BIO-WHO)
Who Was Louis Armstrong?
Who Was?...Series
by Yona Zeldis McDonough
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Who Was? biographies (Location: BIO-WHO)
$5.99
Who Was Walt Disney?
Who Was?...Series
by Whitney Stewart
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Who Was? biographies (Location: BIO-WHO)
Wild West
from Amon Carter Museum of Western Art
for 5th-Adult
in Western Expansion (1800-1898) (Location: HISA-19WES)
Will Rogers
by P. J. O'Brien
Biography for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Will Rogers
by Cathareen L. Bennett
from Lerner Publishing Group
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)