With an appealing combination of simple honesty and slight irreverence, longtime actor Tim Matheson's "Damn Glad to Meet You: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches" is the celebrity autobiography you didn't quite realize you needed in 2024.

Matheson, perhaps destined to always be best known for his role as Otter in comedy classic "Animal House," hasn't necessarily crafted the "best" autobiography of the year (whatever that means). Instead, it's simply a truly engaging and fun to read autobiography that's refreshingly honest and devoid of the usual self-glorification one typically finds when a Hollywood figure waxes eloquently about their own life.

The now 76-year-old Matheson had already been acting for over 15 years when "Animal House" made him a household name, though his mid-60s work as the voice of Jonny Quest on television had given strong indication he'd likely have a lengthy Hollywood career. It wouldn't be until his portrayal of Vice President John Hoynes on television's "The West Wing" that Matheson would come close to matching the fame of his "Animal House" days. "The West Wing" would also grant him the long desired critical acclaim with two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in a role that was considered regular but never quite part of the actual ensemble for the series.

With "Damn Glad to Meet You," a reference to one of Matheson's most memorable "Animal House" lines, Matheson captures that sense of what it is like to have been a steady working actor in seven decades while also being considered sort of a "that guy" in Hollywood. Even at 76, Matheson is instantly recognizable and you can't help but smile when you see him.

"Damn Glad to Meet You" reminds me most of Henry Winkler's autobiography from 2023, though Matheson is perhaps a little more willing to name names and acknowledge truths whether talking about the abundant cocaine usage in Hollywood during the 70s and 80s or his string of failed flicks that threatened to derail his career in that same late 70s and early 80s.

For the most part, "Damn Glad to Meet You" is an affectionate book, Matheson's winning charm radiating throughout the pages even when he's talking about personality conflicts and films that didn't quite work. Matheson takes us through the "should've been a hit" films like Spielberg's "1941," Mel Brooks's "To Be or Not To Be," and his brief period as owner of National Lampoon from 1989-1991.

Matheson has, indeed, always been a part of the Hollywood trenches as a regularly working actor who has still had to be conscious of "needing to work." More a memoir centered on his Hollywood experience, "Damn Glad to Meet You" still takes us briefly through Matheson's childhood, his military experience, and his three marriages including current wife Elizabeth Marighetto whom he married in 2018.

"Damn Glad to Meet You" is more likely a 4-star experience if I were reviewing solely through the critical lens, however, I can't deny that I genuinely enjoyed this reading experience from beginning to end and immersed myself in Matheson's refreshing candor that possesses both wit and bite in equal amounts. So, in the end, "Damn Glad to Meet You" is the autobiography I didn't know I needed and I'm damn glad to have gotten to know Tim Matheson an awful lot more.

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic