James Franco and 7 other actors turned novelists - The Week Magazine

Franco's first collection of short stories has received mixed reviews. But critics have only rarely been kind to literary thespians POSTED ON OCTOBER 25, 2010, AT 9:00 AM Critic Michael Lindgren calls Franco's first novel "amateurish" but adds the collection of stories has a "well-balanced symmetry." There is a new writer in Hollywood — actor James Franco, star of Spiderman and Pineapple Express, published his first book of short stories last week. His collection, Palo Alto, has received decidedly mixed reviews — The Washington Post's Michael Lindgren calls it "a thin, hackneyed affair" — but Franco might find comfort in knowing that critics have sharpened their knives for a long list of actors who have tried their hands at writing literary fiction. Here are seven thespian authors who got the critics talking, in ways both bad and good

Check the full list out here (includes Gene Hackman title, Marlon Brando, etc.)