Relying on over 150 interviews as well as Marilyn's letters and diaries, this work by best-selling biographer Spoto casts new light on every aspect of the actress's tempestuous life.
This authoritative biography of film icon James Dean offers a clear-eyed look at the actor who crossed America's cinematic landscape with the brilliance and brevity of a meteor.
While her name is synonymous with elegance, style and grace, this poignant, funny and deeply moving biography, reveals the private Audrey Hepburn and invites readers to fall in love with her all over again. Over the course of her extraordinary life and career, Audrey captured hearts around the world and created a public image that stands as one of the most recognizable and beloved in recent memory. But despite her international fame and her tireless efforts on behalf of UNICEF, Audrey was also known for her intense privacy. With unprecedented access to studio archives, friends and colleagues who knew and loved Audrey, bestselling author Donald Spoto provides an intimate and moving account of this beautiful, elusive and talented woman. Tracing her astonishing rise to stardom, from her harrowing childhood in Nazi-controlled Holland during World War II to her years as a struggling ballet dancer in London and her Tony Award–winning Broadway debut in Gigi, Spoto illuminates the origins of Audrey’s tenacious spirit and fiercely passionate nature. She would go on to star in some of the most popular movies of the twentieth century, including Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Funny Face, The Nun’s Story, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady. A friend and inspiration to renowned designer Hubert de Givenchy, Audrey also emerged as a fashion icon and her influence on women’s fashion virtually unparalleled to this day. Behind the glamorous public persona, Audrey was a different and deeper person and a woman who craved love and affection. Donald Spoto offers remarkable insights into her professional and personal relationships with her two husbands, and with celebrities such as Gregory Peck, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Robert Anderson, Cary Grant, Peter O’Toole, Albert Finney and Ben Gazzara. The turbulent romances of her youth, her profound sympathy for the plight of hungry children, and the thrills and terrors of motherhood prepared Audrey for the final chapter in her life, as she devoted herself entirely to the charity efforts of an organization that had once come to her rescue at the end of the war: UNICEF.
Acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto strips away the legends from the life of Francis of Assisi to reveal the true story of a man who has too often been obscured by pious iconography. Drawing on unprecedented access to unexplored archives, plus Francis's own letters, Spoto places Francis within the context of the multifaceted ecclesiastical, political, and social forces of medieval Italy, casting new light on Francis and showing how his emphasis on charity as the heart of the Gospel's message helped him pioneer a new social movement. This nuanced portrait reveals the multifaceted character of a man who can genuinely be said to have changed the course of history.
The dramatic and revealing account of five generations of the Redgrave family, one of the greatest theatrical and Hollywood movie dynasties of all time, includes Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, and Natasha Richardson.
Drawing on his unprecedented access to Grace Kelly, bestselling biographer Donald Spoto at last offers an intimate, honest, and authoritative portrait of one of Hollywood’s legendary actresses. In just seven years–from 1950 through 1956–Grace Kelly embarked on a whirlwind career that included roles in eleven movies. From the principled Amy Fowler Kane in High Noon to the thrill-seeking Frances Stevens of To Catch a Thief, Grace established herself as one of Hollywood’s most talented actresses and iconic beauties. Her astonishing career lasted until her retirement at age twenty-six, when she withdrew from stage and screen to marry a European monarch and became a modern, working princess and mother. Based on never-before-published or quoted interviews with Grace and those conducted over many years with her friends and colleagues–from costars James Stewart and Cary Grant to director Alfred Hitchcock–as well as many documents disclosed by her children for the first time, acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto explores the transformation of a convent schoolgirl to New York model, successful television actress, Oscar-winning movie star, and beloved royal. As the princess requested, Spoto waited twenty-five years after her death to write this biography. Now, with honesty and insight, High Society reveals the truth of Grace Kelly’s personal life, the men she loved, the men she didn’t, and what lay behind the façade of her fairy-tale life.
This is the first complete, critical biography of Tennessee Williams (1911–1983), one of America's finest playwrights and the author of (among many important works) The Glass Menagerie, Summer and Smoke, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, and The Night of the Iguana. Award-winning biographer Donald Spoto gives us not only a full and accurate account of Williams's life, he also reveals the intimate connections between the playwright's personal dramas and his remarkably autobiographical art. From his birth into a genteel Southern family, through his success, celebrity, and wealth, to his drug addictions, promiscuity, and creative struggles, Tennessee Williams lived a life as gripping as his plays. The Kindness of Strangers, based on Williams's own papers, his mother's diaries, and interviews with scores of friends, lovers, and professional associates, is, in the author's words, a portrait of "a man more disturbing, more dramatic, richer and more wonderful than any character he created.
This definitive illustrated survey of all of Alfred Hitchcock's films is a book no movie buff or Hitchcock fan can afford to be without. The monumental scope of Alfred Hitchcock's work remains unsurpassed by any other movie director, past or present. So many of his movies have achieved classic status that even a partial list—Psycho, The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo, Spellbound—brings a flood of memories. In this essential text, reissued on the occasion of Hitchcock's centennial, internationally renowned Hitchcock authority Donald Spoto describes and analyzes every movie made by this master filmmaker. Illustrated throughout with shots from each film, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock also includes a storyboard section, a complete filmography, and “A Hitchcock Album” (sixteen pages of photos) as an added celebration of his life.
Biography of the Royal Family of Great Britain from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II that reveals new information about many family members and examines the difficulties that celebrity status has brought to the family.
Fascinating . . . probes an even darker side of Hitchcock." –Newsday It is remarkable how infrequently, over a period of more than fifty years, Alfred Hitchcock spoke about the legendary actresses he directed–including Ingrid Bergman, Kim Novak, and Grace Kelly. But his leading ladies greatly enriched his films, and many of them achieved international stardom precisely because of their work for Hitchcock. Rich with new material, anecdotes, and never-before-told personal observations, this explosive portrait details Hitchcock’s outbursts of cruelty, the shocking humor, and the odd amalgam of adoration and contempt that characterized Hitchcock’s obsessive relationships with women–and that also, paradoxically, fed his genius. Spellbound by Beauty offers important insights into the life of a brilliant and tortured artist, and pays tribute to the memorable actresses who gave so much to his films. "[Spoto] informs Spellbound by Beauty with his profound knowledge of his subject, years of sound reporting, highly polished prose, and sensible analysis." —Richmond Times-Dispatch "Expert insights into Hitchcock’s films." —Oregonian (Portland) "You will never look at a Hitchcock movie the same." —Tampa Tribune
Lotte Lenya, the extraordinary singer/actress of international acclaim whose career spanned six decades, is best remembered for her brilliant performances on stage in Cabaret, in films such as From Russia With Love, and as the foremost interpreter of the songs and musical dramas of Bertolt Brecht and her husband, Kurt Weill, including her unsurpassed portrayal of Jenny in the 1954 revival of The Three Penny Opera. -Book jacket
A rich, definitive biography of Laurence Olivier, the most famous actor of the century. Bestselling biographer Donald Spoto brings together the many strands of the legend--both onstage and off--resulting in a penetrating look at the enigmatic man and his extraordinary work. 16-page photo insert.
The definitive biography of a remarkable woman and true legend of film Joan Crawford was one of the most incandescent film stars of all time, yet she may have also been one of the most misunderstood. In this brilliantly researched, thoughtful, and intimate biography, bestselling author Donald Spoto goes beyond the popular caricature—the abusive, unstable mother portrayed in her adopted daughter Christina Crawford’s memoir, Mommie Dearest—to give us a three-dimensional portrait of the real woman behind the actress, her dazzling career, and her extraordinary life and times. Based on new archival information and exclusive interviews, Possessed traces Crawford’s fifty years of memorable performances in such film classics as Rain, The Women, Mildred Pierce, and Sudden Fear, which are as startling and vivid today as when they were first released. Spoto goes behind the myths to examine the rise and fall of the studio system; Crawford’s four marriages; her passionate, thirty-year on-and-off affair with Clark Gable; her friendships and rivalries with other stars; the truth behind the scathing stories in her daughter’s memoir; and more.
[This book] is a challenging reminder about why we must pray. [In the book, the author] takes us into an understanding of prayer that enables us to live in the capacious light of God's presence.-Dust jacket.
This account of the final year of Diana, Princes of Wales, also provides information about her childhood and unhappy marriage. Discusses her hectic schedule of social and charitable events, her relationship with the Royal family, with the British public and with Dodi al-Fayed. Includes a bibliography and an index. The author's other publications include 'The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor', 'Marilyn Monroe: The Biography' and ' 'Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich'.
The actress Teresa Wright (1918–2005) lived a rich, complex, magnificent life against the backdrop of Golden Age Hollywood, Broadway and television. There was no indication, from her astonishingly difficult—indeed, horrifying—childhood, of the success that would follow, nor of the universal acclaim and admiration that accompanied her everywhere. Her two marriages—to the writers Niven Busch (The Postman Always Rings Twice; Duel in the Sun) and Robert Anderson (Tea and Sympathy; I Never Sang for My Father)—provide a good deal of the drama, warmth, poignancy and heartbreak of her life story. “I never wanted to be a star,” she told the noted biographer Donald Spoto at dinner in 1978. “I wanted only to be an actress.” She began acting on the stage in summer stock and repertory at the age of eighteen. When Thornton Wilder and Jed Harris saw her in an ingénue role, she was chosen to understudy the part of Emily in the original production of Our Town (1938), which she then played in touring productions. Samuel Goldwyn saw her first starring role on Broadway—in the historic production of Life with Father—and at once he offered her a long contract. She was the only actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for her first three pictures (The Little Foxes; The Pride of the Yankees; and Mrs. Miniver), and she won for the third film. Movie fans and scholars to this day admire her performance in the classics Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years of Our Lives. The circumstances of her tenure at Goldwyn, and the drama of her breaking that contract, forever changed the treatment of stars. Wright's family and heirs appointed Spoto as her authorized biographer and offered him exclusive access to her letters and papers. Major supporting players in this story include Robert Anderson, Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, Karl Malden, Elia Kazan, Jean Simmons, Dorothy McGuire, Bette Davis, George Cukor, Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, the artist Al Hirschfeld, Stella Adler, and more.
This biography draws on a series of unpublished interviews and offers a startling and intitmate portrait of one of the most glamourous icons of the 20th century. In just seven years (from 1950 through 1956), Grace Kelly made eleven feature films. They established her as one of the screen's iconic beauties, and as a performer of rare intelligence and wit. Donald Spoto, a personal friend of Kelly's in whom she confided, is in a unique position to tell the story of her transformation from convent girl from Philadelphia to last star of Hollywood's Golden Age to European princess. In this revelatory biography, Spoto draws on interviews with those who knew her - from James Stewart and Cary Grant to Fred Zimmerman - as well as a series of taped interviews with Kelly which have never before been published. A film of Grace Kelly's life, Grace of Monaco, starring Nicole Kidman and Tim Roth will be released in 2014.
The first full biography of Jackie Onassis since her death offers revelations about her life and the life of JFK, chronicling her work as a mother, editor, and spiritual seeker.
The life of Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) is as compelling as that of any of the women she portrayed in dozens of unforgettable movies and plays—a list that includes Casablanca, Intermezzo, Gaslight, The Bells of St. Mary's, Notorious, Anastasia, and Hedda Gabler. Hers is a story that begins with a tragic childhood in Sweden, then moves on to the nightmare of Germany under the Nazis and later to Hollywood in its golden age. From her position as America's most beautiful, admired, and loved actress, she was plunged into national disgrace and branded "an apostle of degradation" for her adulterous love affair with Roberto Rosellini in the late 1940s. But her independent spirit triumphed in the end, winning her honors and accolades even as she fought an eight-year battle with cancer. Donald Spoto, who knew Ingrid Bergman and had unprecedented access to her husbands, friends, lovers, directors, and costars, as well as to her papers, letters, and diaries, has written a biography that the San Francisco Chronicle called "mesmerizing" and "deeply moving"—the definitive account of a consummate actress who dared to live the truth.
Elizabeth Taylor has been called the last great star of Hollywood's Golden Age. Her legendary beauty and luminous performances continue to enthral movie fans nearly seventy years after she made her screen debut, aged only ten. From the wide-eyed MGM ingénue she became both a respected, double Oscar-winning actress and a larger-than-life, million-dollar movie star; a scandalous tabloid favourite and a dedicated activist. She was a wife, a widow, a lover and a mother; as multi-faceted as the diamonds she adored. Elizabeth Taylor's life - and loves - never failed to capture the imagination of the world. With comprehensive and perceptive insights into her iconic movie career and her fascinating relationships, including her passionate romance with Richard Burton, Donald Spoto's peerless biography offers a captivating portrait of a much-loved, and much-missed, Hollywood legend.
Born in England to socially ambitious parents, Elizabeth Taylor was catapulted into child stardom and molded by MGM into the great violet-eyed beauty of postwar America. Along the way, without training or counsel, she became an award-winning actress, dazzling audiences everywhere with spectacular performances. Spoto explores the gripping story of her brutalizing six-month marriage to compulsive gambler and hotel heir Nicky Hilton, her romances with top Hollywood directors, and her marriage to the ailing Michael Wilding. Four years later, she would be swept off her feet by showman Mike Todd into an alternately violent and loving marriage that would end with Todd's death in a plane crash, leaving Taylor a twice-divorced widow with three children at the age of twenty-six. And here are Taylor's years with Eddie Fisher, Republican Senator John Warner, and Richard Burton, with whom she would share a hedonistic, brash lifestyle that would virtually define the 1960s' jet set.
Celebrates and chronicles, in text and photographs, the illustrious career of Marlene Dietrich, her life, the qualities that made her a star and an enigma, and her impact on the image of femininity
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