"Andy Kaufman, best known for his portrayal of sweet-natured Latka on Taxi, was one of the most ingenious and controversial entertainers of his time. ". "Now, for the first time, Andy's closest friend, writer, and coconspirator, Bob Zmuda, breaks his twenty-year silence about the truth behind the headlines. He paints an illuminating portrait of a complex, often misunderstood loner who seldom ventured out of his room unless it was to jar millions of television viewers with his calculated lunacy or to satisfy his myriad sexual fetishes. Zmuda describes how Andy made his living straddling the thin line between genius and insanity and how he influenced the likes of such comic luminaries as Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, David Letterman, Lily Tomlin, and John Belushi. Zmuda finally confesses what really happened between wrestler Jerry Lawler and Andy to cause Kaufman's hospitalization for a life-threatening neck injury and elucidates the notorious confrontation that followed on Late Night with David Letterman. In a great testimonial to the appeal of the antihero, he also relates the origin and rise of Tony Clifton, an obnoxious lounge lizard whom Andy metamorphosed into when his dark side felt playful. ". "Zmuda offers rare and intimate perspectives and compelling behind-the-scenes stories about Elvis Presley, Andy Warhol, Richard Burton, the cast of Taxi, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Gilda Radner, among many others. And through deeply personal diary entries, Zmuda chronicles Andy Kaufman's disturbing last days, his heroic struggle to cheat terminal cancer, and the public hysteria that continues to this day over the possibility that Andy faked his death. "--BOOK JACKET.
