Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine » (Special Value)

Patricia Heaton graduated from Ohio State University and made her Broadway debut in the gospel musical Don’t Get God Started. She has appeared in numerous television films and series, and in feature films including Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Beethoven, The New Age, and Space Jam. For her role in Everybody Loves Raymond, she won the Emmy for Leading Actress in a Comedy Series in 2000 and again in 2001. She lives with her husband and four sons in Los Angeles.

The really important things in life are your family and friends. And what will people say about you at your funeral that you won an Emmy once, or that you were a good person, kind and generous? Well, as for me, I hope it's the latter.

Book Magazine

Now a two-time Emmy Award winner, Heaton, co-star of the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, is enjoying the perks that accompany life in what she wryly calls "Fairyland." Her new memoir recounts a pleasant but unremarkable childhood followed by years spent working a series of "survival jobs" and commingling with other wanna-be actors. The self-described "cynical broad" portrays herself as a Hollywood outsider, a churchgoing mother of four whose job just happens to be in prime-time TV. The funniest sections of the book concern Heaton's eleven-year marriage. "You need to have a bit of contempt for the person you are about to marry," she argues, " 'cause it's gonna show up sooner or later." Heaton's sincerity and the strength of her convictions lend this memoir a surprising resonance.