Showing results by publisher "Oasis Audio" in Entertainment & Celebrities

Hattie McDaniel is best known for her performance as Mammy, the sassy foil to Scarlett O’Hara in the movie classic Gone with the Wind. Her powerful performance won her an Oscar® and bolstered the hopes of Black Hollywood that the entertainment industry was finally ready to write more multidimensional, fully realized roles for Blacks. But despite this victory, and pleas by organizations such as the NAACP and SAG, roles for Blacks continued to denigrate the African American experience.

Millions of people around the world know Chuck Norris as the star of more than 20 motion pictures, including Delta Force, Missing in Action, and Return of the Dragon. Millions more know him as a martial arts expert, the only man in the Western Hemisphere to hold an 8th degree Black Belt Grand Master in Tae Kwon Do. And then there are others who know him from his eight seasons on CBS's longest running series, Walker, Texas Ranger.

"Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae West invited and promptly captured the imagination of generations. Even today, years after her death, the actress and author is still regarded as the pop archetype of sexual wantonness and ribald humor. But who was this saucy starlet, a woman who was controversial enough to be jailed, pursued by film censors, and banned from the airwaves for the revolutionary content of her work, and yet would ascend to the status of film legend?

A captivating biography of the eccentric author, filmmaker, and innovator, L. Frank Baum. Enchanting generations of fans, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, first published in 1900, was written by a man whose life was nearly as adventurous as his heroine Dorothy's legendary trip. Ambitious and always drawn to the unconventional, L. Frank Baum was not just the author of more than sixty books; he was at the forefront of moving picture technology and championed women's rights.

The first full-length biography of Fred Rogers, The Good Neighbor tells the story of this utterly unique and enduring American icon. Drawing on original interviews, oral histories, and archival documents, Maxwell King traces Rogers’s personal, professional, and artistic life through decades of work, including a surprising decision to walk away from the show to make television for adults, only to return to the neighborhood with increasingly sophisticated episodes, written in collaboration with experts on childhood development.

In this frank and funny memoir, the Tony Award-winning star of stage and screen shares her journey from small-town Oklahoma to big-time Broadway, vamping on what it takes to stand firmly on a foundation of family and faith while wearing a hot pair of Jimmy Choo platform sling-backs.

Here is the Whitney only family would know.... Somewhere outside the glare of the concert spotlights...behind the tawdry entertainment news headlines...beyond the crush of the scandal-seeking paparazzi...lies the truth about Whitney Houston. And few individuals are better qualified to show us that complicated, funny, generous, troubled, extremely loyal Whitney than the friend she called "brother", Bebe Winans.

This eclectic volume traces Rigg’s career as a renowned star of television, film, and the stage. The author includes insights from rare, archived interviews, encompassing both video dialogues conducted by the University of Kent and Oxford Union.

One of the most original and unsettling filmmakers of all time—the creator of the horror classics Dracula and Freaks, among others—Tod Browning is also one of the most enigmatic directors who ever worked in Hollywood. A complicated, troubled, and fiercely private man, he confounded would-be biographers hoping to penetrate his secret, obsessive world—both during his lifetime and afterward. Now, film historians David J. Skal and Elias Savada join forces for the first full-length biography of the man who earned a reputation as "the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema."

The actress recalls her long, rich, and varied career in Hollywood, on the stage, and as a political activist.

On television, as the star of the popular Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Kevin Sorbo portrayed an invincible demi god. He relished living the part—putting in 14-hour days on set, doing his own stunts, and relentlessly working out at the gym. Until one day it all came to an abrupt end. Now, for the first time, Sorbo shares what viewers didn’t know: he suffered three strokes from an aneurysm in his shoulder and was left partially blind and entirely incapacitated at just 38 years old.

At the top of her career in the Christian music industry, Jennifer Knapp quit. A few years later, she publicly revealed she is gay. A media frenzy ensued, and many of her former fans were angry with what they saw as turning her back on God. But through it all, she held on to the truth that had guided her from the beginning. In this memoir, she finally tells her story: of her troubled childhood, the love of music that pulled her through, her dramatic conversion to Christianity, her rise to stardom, her abrupt departure from Christian contemporary music....

Sandi Patty, the most awarded female vocalist in contemporary Christian music, saw her stellar career go into a tailspin. Now she tells the story of her long road to restoration. From the agony of divorce nearly 10 years ago, Sandi has moved from center stage to the back row of the church balcony and back into the spotlight.

Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus examines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments.

Third Day guitarist Mark Lee is no stranger to heartache and hopes deferred; the road to success is never traveled without missteps along the way. Life is messy and uncertain and full of surprises. And one of the best things he's ever done is let go of his expectations about how life should be in order to embrace life as it is: a moment-by-moment walk with God. Hurt Road is the engaging true story of a man who, as a teen, found in music a refuge from the uncertainties of life.

Ashley Cleveland grew up in a Southern family fractured by alcoholism, homosexuality, and the collapse of her parents' marriage. She knew from the start that she was the "good-for-nothing" black sheep of her divided home, and she quickly learned to play the part. Yet in her destructive days of drugs, alcohol, and sex, she encountered a forgiving God who was relentlessly faithful. Change did not come quickly. The brokenness did not disappear. But Ashley allowed God to heal her, to transform her desires, to bring courage to others through her journey.

Nigel James, road pastor for Third Day, gives insight into the touring life of one of the top Christian rock bands--the excitement, the homesickness, the relentless schedule, the challenge to stay committed to God's purpose while on the road. Nigel gives a real look at some of the trials that they face. Just because they're members of a rock band on the road doesn't make them exempt from the realities of life.

Michael Reagan's life is much more than just an interesting story. It is a testimony of how Christ allowed him to find healing from many of the issues that confront our culture today, such as sexual abuse, divorce, loneliness, the feeling of rejection, and the belief that God does not care about us. Michael Reagan's first adoption gave him an identity, but he did not find his true identity until he found Christ.