Nicholas Ray
The Glorious Failure of an American Director
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Book Presentation:
Award-winningfilm historian Patrick McGilligan follows hisacclaimed biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Oscar Micheauxwith a revelatory look at the life of Nicholas Ray, the troubled director of Ina Lonely Place, We Can’t GoHome Again, and Rebel Without a Cause. McGilligancharts the cerebral struggles, astonishing adventures, and artistic triumphsthat defined Ray’s life, including his Hollywood collaborations with HumphreyBogart, Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, and James Dean;his love affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, ZsaZsa Gabor, and Gloria Grahame; his partnerships withactivist Abbie Hoffman, pornography starlet MarilynChambers, photographer Wim Wenders;and more. Celebrating, contextualizing, and examining Ray’s life and work, McGilligandelivers a milestone of film history and offers a captivating look at one ofclassic cinema’s most colorful figures.
About the Author:
Patrick McGilligan is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; George Cukor: A Double Life; the life stories of the directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman, and Oscar Micheaux; and the biographies of the actors James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. He also edited the five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters and (with Paul Buhle) Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Press Reviews:
"[A] portrait of a filmmaker who managed over time to upstage the movies that made him celebrated." — Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"A clear and balanced portrait of a most complex man." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] fascinating, formidable account of a director whose life was as fraught with complications and melodrama as were his movies.…Meticulously researched and gratifying, a biographical page-turner." — Library Journal (starred review)
"McGilligan limns the tragic trajectory of Ray’s career with insight and compassion." — Booklist
See the publisher website: It Books
See the complete filmography of Nicholas Ray on the website: IMDB ...
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