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Bill Zehme

Biography

Bill Zehme

Bill Zehme was the author of the New York Times bestseller THE WAY YOU WEAR YOUR HAT: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin’ and LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman. He coauthored memoirs by Jay Leno and Regis Philbin, served as a longtime writer at large for Esquire, and contributed to other publications, including Rolling Stone, Playboy and Vanity Fair. A native and lifelong resident of Chicago, he died in 2023.

Bill Zehme

Books by Bill Zehme

Carson the Magnificent
by Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas - Biography, Nonfiction

In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson. Shortly after Carson’s death in 2005, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history. In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, “Be yourself and tell the truth.” Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.