ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY's Mary Louise Wilson Releases New Memoir Today

Mary Louise Wilson has been a luminary force in the theatre world for nearly five decades. The veteran actor's performances have ranged from a Tony Award-winning portrayal of Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens to a Drama Desk Award-winning role as legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop, which she co-authored with Mark Hampton. But she hasn't limited her talents to the stage. Wilson's astonishing résumé also features roles on Louis C.K.'s award-winning television show Louie, Amazon's recent hit Mozart in the Jungle, and the Academy Award nominated film Nebraska.

The biting wit and brutal honesty that Wilson brings to her many outstanding performances is once again illuminated in her forthcoming memoir MY FIRST HUNDRED YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS (Published by The Overlook Press / Hardcover / $28.95 / ISBN: 978-1-4683-1085-6 / Publication Date: TODAY, July 13, 2015).

Raised in New Orleans with a social climbing, alcoholic mother, Wilson moved to New York City in the late 1950s; lived with her gay brother in the Village; entered the nightclub scene in a legendary review; and rubbed shoulders with every famous person of that era and since. Chronicling her journey through commercials and regional theatre, the mayhem in between the Broadway shows, and all the startling behind the scenes secrets, MY FIRST HUNDRED YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS covers every aspect of Mary Louise Wilson's life and career on stage and off.

Yet as delicious as the anecdotes are, the heart of this book is in its unblinkingly honest depiction of the life of a working actor. Beneath Mary Louise Wilson's mordantly funny stories is a thoughtful consideration of ageism in the theatre industry and an examination of the sacrifices it takes to become a star in the competitive world of acting. In her wry and admirably unsentimental voice, Wilson has crafted a work that is at once a teeming social history of the New York theatre scene and a thoroughly revealing, superbly entertaining memoir of the life of an extraordinary woman and actor. MY FIRST HUNDRED YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS is a sharp and brazenly authentic meditation on the elusiveness of fame and the determination one needs to "just charge ahead" amidst the uncertainty of making it in show business.

Mary Louise Wilson is currently starring in in a new Broadway production of the classic musical On the Twentieth Century with Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher. The documentary, She's the Best Thing In It, which follows Wilson as she teaches acting to a new generation of actors, is directed by Academy Award-winner Ron Nyswaner and features interviews with Frances McDormand, Melissa Leo, Tyne Daly, Estelle Parsons, Valerie Harper, and Doug Wright; it premiered in March 2015 at South by Southwest.

Mary Louise Wilson has acted on and off Broadway and in films and television for nearly fifty years. Roles include Letitia Primrose in On the Twentieth Century on Broadway with Peter Gallagher and Kristin Chenoweth in Spring 2015, Vera Joseph in 4000 Miles at Lincoln Center (Obie Award), Big Edie in Grey Gardens (Tony Award), Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret (Tony nomination), and Diana Vreeland in Full Gallop (Drama Desk Award). Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and she teaches acting at Tulane. In 2015, a documentary about her, She's the Best Thing In It, directed by Oscar winner Ron Nyswaner had its world premiere at South by Southwest. She lives in upstate New York.