You may not know 81-year-old actor Allan Rich by his name or credits, which began accruing during TV’s golden age. But there’s no doubt this fine character actor has done a remarkable job penning A Leap From the Method: An Organic Approach to Acting. It is not only a highly readable accounting of the acting techniques Rich has utilized and taught for decades, but an often hilarious, engaging memoir that details his circuitous route to the ranks of consistently working actors.

Born Benjamin Norman Schultz, Rich walks us through his own artistic growth from theory to practice—and shows how easy it is to get it all wrong. His “leap from the Method” largely refers to his leap from Stanislavsky’s teachings, which have confused and vexed acting students for generations. While he sympathizes with Stanislavsky’s oft stated frustration in trying to create a clearly delineated approach to acting, Rich ultimately adopted his own method—one that’s simple, direct, and teachable.

Rich eschews the obtuseness and complexity of many acting theories, focusing instead on using text and imagination to get to the character. He explains how to find the essence of a character’s behavior, how an actor can use his or her own fantasies to understand how a character might behave in any given moment. And he uses his own life and challenges, offstage and on, to make his points. Politely, Rich dismisses “private movements in public” as having nothing to do with real acting—as psychotherapy inappropriately delivered by an acting teacher—as well as those ubiquitous classroom “repetition” exercises. Ditto affective memory exercises, which he feels disconnects actors from their ability to create a true, believable reality.

Rich chronicles how, early in his career, he found himself on “the wrong path,” believing he was following the Method when, in the name of realism, he nearly suffocated a fellow actor with a pillow in a scene. Rather than applaud Rich’s brilliant technique, the other actor slapped him. It’s one of many moments and recollections in the book that hit home.

My only quarrel, a minor one, comes near the end, when Rich invites friends and former students to offer their views of his work as an acting coach. This is unnecessary. Everything that precedes it suggests you’re in the capable hands of a master.