Sharon Rich is a Bestselling Author, Film Historian, and Lecturer.
She won a national writing award at age 10 for a short story about her family cat, and wrote her first book at 19. Published shortly after her 20th birthday, it was selected by the Entertainment Book Club—making her the youngest author ever to receive that honor.
Sharon Rich has written, edited, annotated, or ghostwritten dozens of books; contributed Hollywood articles to various magazines; and served as contributing editor for an opera publication. She has lectured on writing and film history at movie screenings, festivals, theme cruises, libraries, high schools, senior centers, and fan groups across the U.S., Canada, and U.K.
To date, she has authored over 80 magazines on 1930s singing stars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, compiling extensive research, documentation, interviews, and source material. A lifelong passion fueled by her close friendship with MacDonald’s sister—actress Blossom Rock (“Grandmama” on The Addams Family)—led to Rock authorizing a candid biography of her sister’s tragic affair with Eddy. Despite Rock’s warning—“My generation can’t talk about this. Yours doesn’t care”—Rich’s bestselling Sweethearts shattered Hollywood’s PR myth of their “blissful” marriages.
Above: from right to left: Sharon, Woody Van Dyke III (son of the movie director), Sharon’s daughter Juliet and Woody’s granddaughter.
In addition to interviewing hundreds of individuals from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Sharon Rich gained access to an extraordinary range of archival material: private love letters, unpublished memoirs, Nelson Eddy’s personal scrapbooks and diary entries, hundreds of pages of contemporary eyewitness accounts from fans, FBI files, and Jeanette MacDonald’s unpublished autobiography, along with other private letters and diaries.
Widely regarded as the world’s leading authority on MacDonald and Eddy, Rich has helped preserve their legacy for new generations. Thanks to Turner Classic Movies, young audiences continue to discover the duo’s enduring appeal. The late, beloved TCM host Robert Osborne praised Rich’s book Sweethearts, noting that it “offers considerable proof they may have been secret lovers for years.”
In 1994 Rich was a guest speaker at the American Film Institute in Washington, D.C. AFI also sponsored the launch party for Sweethearts and reviewed the book in their Preview magazine: “That rarity among star bios, an absorbingly written, exhaustively researched, and fully sourced work.” Rich also introduced some of the MacDonald/Eddy films screened in conjunction with the book release.
In 1995 Rich was awarded a Dame of Merit by the Knights of Malta for her contribution to History and Literature.
The hardcover edition of Sweethearts was also a selection of the Entertainment Book Club; the first softcover edition in 2001 was an online #1 Best Seller for four weeks at Amazon.com’s Booksurge bookstore. The updated 2014 20th Anniversary Edition was #14 on Amazon’s Best Seller list in June 2014. Over the years, it continues to visit the Best Seller list, usually at least once a month. The book now has a dedicated website.
Sweethearts received a major update and revision in 2014. Since then, newly surfaced letters and diaries have further verified the book’s revelations—including this prophetic 1935 note from Nelson Eddy to Jeanette MacDonald during their “break.” He thanked her for a “beautiful” Christmas gift (likely her oil portrait, noted in a letter years later as still hanging in his study) and professed: “Dearest Jeanette… I love you and will always be devoted to you.”
Jeanette MacDonald’s 1963 diary page reveals her strained marriage to Gene Raymond amid desperate illness in her final years. As recently as 2025, further verification emerged: Blossom Rock’s audio from an event six months before her death; Jeanette’s secretary’s handwritten letter detailing Nelson Eddy’s devastation and near-collapse at her funeral—including private time alone at her open casket; and new sources discussing familial events, shedding light on why she married Raymond.
About 60 pages were added to the 2014 edition, which is the most current and is the recommended version to read. For those readers who are fans of the Sweethearts book, Rich also keeps up a running blog of additional and new documentation, related news, photos, and interviews, updated frequently at this Sweethearts documentation link.
Some of her other books have been best sellers as well, including Nelson Eddy: The Opera Years. In 2025, both this book and Sweethearts were on Best Seller lists at the same time.
Rich’s most recent book, Tesla: Manhattan Dove to Queens Seagull, was co-authored with D.D. Vujic, based on their movie script, and upon release was a best seller both in the US and Brazil. At their first Barnes & Noble book signing in 2025, all books sold out within a half hour! The book now also has its own Tesla website.
Rich was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. She now lives in Florida. A feature film based on Sweethearts was postponed due to the pandemic in 2020 but is newly being scheduled for production, likely in 2026. Jason Connery is director, and Rich co-wrote the script with Michael Radford of Il Postino, 1984 and The Merchant of Venice fame. More details are available at the film website.
