Richard Skipper Interviews Peggy Pope and Barnes & Noble Tonight, 5/11

Richard Skipper interviews the actress Peggy Pope at a talk and book signing at the Barnes & Noble at 86th Street and Lexington tonight May 11 at 7pm.

The free event celebrates the Obie-winning actress’s new acting memoir, “atta girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business,” which was published last year. In it Pope "details an eventful career spanning over five decades, in which she flirted with stardom, transitioned from ingénue roles to comic supporting roles, followed by a string of film and television character roles."

Among the numerous stars who make cameos in “atta girl” are Jimmy Stewart and Helen Hayes (Pope appeared with them in the Broadway premiere of “Harvey,” which is being revived by the Roundabout in May; she took over Miss Hayes’s role on tour), Joseph Papp, Gian Carlo Menotti, Billy Crystal and Ann Miller among many others.

She won an Obie in 1968 for playing a hooker in John Guare’s “Muzeeka.” After migrating to the West Coast in the 1970’s, she appeared in numerous network television shows, in recurring and guest roles. Among the standouts are memorable appearances on Bewitched (her son turns into a bulldog); on Soap in which she’s the mother of the woman Billy Crystal’s gay character plans to marry, and on an Emmy-winning episode of Barney Miller starring Hal Linden, in which she takes the police station hostage. In the ‘80s she made her memorable turn as an office lush in “9 to 5,” and she also stood out as a foul-mouthed librarian in “The Substitute.”

For more information on the book or the event, visit www.barnesandnoble.com.