Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director

(Paperback)

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Description

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.

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

Author Bio

Patrick McGilligans biographies include the acclaimed Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only; the Edgar-nominated Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; and George Cukor: A Double Life. The author of several New York Times Notable Books, he has also penned biographies of Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Robert Altman, and James Cagney, along with the oral history Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (with Paul Buhle). McGilligan lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.