Bryan Cranston To Help Narrate Doris Kearns Goodwin’s ‘An Unfinished Love Story’

Peter White
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Bryan Cranston is adding a little vocal help to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s next book.

Kearns Goodwin is releasing An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s on April 16 and the Breaking Bad star is providing some narration for the audiobook version.

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Cranston will read the letters that Doris’s late husband Richard “Dick” Goodwin, a writer and presidential advisor, wrote to family and friends when he was in his twenties.

The book weaves together biography, memoir, and history. It will also feature historic archival recordings from speeches from JFK, LBJ, and Robert Kennedy.

The couple got to know Cranston when he was preparing to star as LBJ in Robert Schenkkan’s play All the Way. They also appeared together on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2018.

Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years. Dick named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. The book is out via Simon & Schuster, which is also behind the audiobook version.

Cranston said, “The collective experience that Dick and Doris had with the highest level of U.S. politicians is unparalleled. Not just with the policies of the powerful, but with insight on their personal lives and sensibilities of how they framed the second half of the twentieth century. Doris really helps you navigate through the fascinating politics of the time, but with an emotional touch that lets you invest in Dick’s journey… it’s a love story, to a country and a partner.”

Goodwin added, “Dick and I had the pleasure of getting to know Bryan Cranston, one of the finest actors of our time, as he prepared for the role of LBJ in Robert Schenkkan’s play, All the Way. We so admired the dedication and talent that went into Bryan’s searing portrayal of LBJ during those chaotic, urgent and heady years of the Civil Rights Movement and his presidency. It was that personal connection to us and that era that brought Bryan to mind instantly as I thought about who might read excerpts from the scores of letters Dick, while still in his twenties, had written to his best college friend and his parents. How lucky for me—and for our listeners—that Bryan so graciously agreed to bring Dick’s words to life in a resonant and poignant performance that shows the young, idealistic, emotional, self-mocking, and reflective Dick Goodwin.”

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