Harvard, Hollywood, Hitmen, and Holy Men

Paul W. Williams is a gifted and highly educated writer, filmmaker, actor, and friend. Harvard, Hollywood, Hitmen, and Holy Men is the story of his life and times from the conclusion of World War II until now. It's funny. It's sad. It's exciting. It's sexy. And it's frightening—sometimes startlingly so—but it's authentic and true with a great cast of characters, all real people. If you're interested in exploring new dimensions and perspectives of creativity, pick it up and get on board.

~Elliott Gould

Finally the world will know the extraordinary and hallucinogenic story of Paul Williams—the unsung hero of the 'Easy Rider, Raging Bulls' filmmaking era. Whether he's swallowing peyote with David Carradine or playing 3-on-3 basketball with teammates Francis Ford Coppola and Terrence Malick against Fidel Castro or directing a forgotten masterpiece about Harvard dope dealers—every tale that Williams spins is a jaw dropper.

~Larry Karaszewski, co-writer of Ed Wood, Man on the Moon, and The People v OJ Simpson, Vice President of History and Preservation of the Academy, MPAAS

Visiting Cuba in 1975, Francis Coppola and Terrence Malick find themselves playing basketball against Fidel Castro, who cheats! When called out on his unsporting behaviour, Castro insists, 'This is my country. I can do whatever I want here'. This may sound like a scene from a Tom Stoppard play, but it's actually one of the many jaw-dropping yet genuine events recounted in Paul W. Williams' Harvard, Hollywood, Hitmen, and Holy Men; among the most striking Hollywood (or perhaps anti-Hollywood) memoirs to come along in many years. Those of us who have been flying the flag for Williams' work—a slim oeuvre which has slipped through the cracks of various corporate-controlled distribution systems—will welcome the opportunity to hear the details of this turbulent career from the horse's mouth. One hopes that this book will be not only appreciated as a valuable text in its own right, but also function as a tool to make these neglected films (particularly the remarkable The November Men) widely available. In any case, it provides a much-needed reminder of an era in which American cinema supplied something other than an endless series of superhero fantasies; a time when the line between commercial filmmaking and radical politics was in constant danger of being erased.

~Brad Stevens, film critic

Williams is a human being amid this very strange space known as show business. Paul is a producer, a notable New Hollywood director, a savage, a gentleman, a scholar, a mind. He has written his memoir and the book is brilliant and hysterically funny. It's likely to become an important reference about the behavior of celebrities in film, politics, shamanism, revolutions.... you name it. Cliff notes: they all have dirty minds, many lovers, and they enjoy Cuban cigars.

~Sylvain Despretz, director-screenwriter and illustrator

An inherently fascinating, impressively informative, exceptionally well written, and amazingly candid memoir that will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in Cinematic History/Criticism and Movie Director/Actor Biographies/Memoirs, Harvard, Hollywood, Hitmen, and Holy Men: A Memoir is a welcome and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library American Biography and American Cinematic History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

~Midwest Book Review