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The Good, the Bad, and the Dolce Vita

The Adventures of an Actor in Hollywood, Paris, and Rome

Mickey Knox
April 2004     ISBN: 1560255757

Who is Mickey Knox? To a small group of afficianados, he is the genius behind the unforgettable English dialogue in Sergio Leone's cult classics The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But for many years, living in semi-exile in Italy, this hardboiled actor was known as the unofficial "Mayor of Rome"--a friend and confidant to Norman Mailer, Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn, Burt Lancaster, Sergio Leone and many others.

Now Mickey Knox has put his own remarkable life story to paper and The Good the Bad and the Dolce Vita is the sparkling result. With a wry smile and an eye for the incidental detail, Knox details the fables and foibles of the stars, directors, writers and producers whom he works with over the next four decades. From arguing over politics with John Wayne and Clark Gable, trying to teach Luciano Pavarotti to articulate English, driving cross-country with Norman Mailer and getting lost in Spain with a very hungry Orson Welles, The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita is an intimate and compelling portrait of one man's extraordinary life.

What readers are saying

"Mickey Knox has a wonderful story to tell in this page-turner of a memoir. A young war veteran goes to Hollywood, has a chance to grab the brass ring of celluloid fame, and then is knocked down by the blacklist. The tale seems over before it has begun. Then he gets up. And goes on to create his own masterpiece: his life. We move with him through Hollywood and the New York stage, across Europe (from his base in Rome) in the great days of post-war cinema, seeing the actors and directors and writers close up. There are beautiful women here, and wives, and various wounds, along with great meals in the best of company in most of the capitals of the world. A splendid life, a splendid tale."

--Pete Hamill

"I knew Mickey Knox or, as it turns out, a bit of him, enough though to confirm this astonishing racconto that was his life. The sumptuous years careen by in these pages. It's as if this little car drives up. Get in, he simply says. It's a glorious ride."

--James Salter

About the Authors

Mickey Knox has appeared in numerous films including The City Across the River, White Heat, I Walk Alone, Killer McCoy, Any Number Can Play, Knock on Any Door, The Tenth Victim and G.I. Blues. Knox also worked as a screenwriter, most famously writing the English adaptation of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. Mickey Knox lives in Los Angeles.

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