UNITED STATES AUTHOR · BIOGRAPHY · MOTION PICTURE ACTORS AND ACTRESSES
Donald Spoto
Gladys Pearl Monroe (May 27, 1902 – March 11, 1984), also known as Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Mortensen Eley, was the mother of American actress Marilyn Monroe. Born in Mexico, Baker grew up in the Los Angeles metro area. Her father died in 1909 after suffering from mental illness and alcoholism. Gladys was married three times and divorced twice. She was married for the first time at age 14 to Jasper Newton Baker.
I'm ten years old, my whole life you've called me Vanya.
— from Enchantment
Most acclaimed
A passion for life
"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, she also became an award-winning actress, without training or theory, without teachers or counsel, ultimately dazzling audiences everywhere with spectacular performances. Elizabeth Taylor has lived nothing less than an extraordinarily remarkable life.". "With an abundance of new information, internationally acclaimed biographer Donald 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 after a year with Todd's death in a plane crash, leaving Taylor, at the age of twenty-six, a twice-divorced widow with three children. 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. These years are at last fully and richly explored with mines of fresh material, some of it shocking, some of it funny, all of it shedding new light on the complexities of the most beguiling star in movie history.". "Spoto candidly explores all the highs and lows of Taylor's exploits both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Throughout the course of her tumultuous marriages, Taylor never stopped making movies, and from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to Cleopatra to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Taylor dazzled audiences with performances that won her two Academy Awards. The cast of supporting players in her life is unparalleled and never less than fascinating: here are Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner, Montgomery Clift and James Dean, Tennessee Williams and Franco Zeffirelli, Malcolm Forbes and Michael Jackson. Here, too, is a stream of hilarious and often poignant anecdotes about the making of some of the most famous movies in history.". "Outspoken, mercurial, Elizabeth Taylor is a passionate lover of life and pleasure, a devoted friend, an advocate to the needy and ill. Generous and compassionate, self-absorbed and egocentric, few stars have achieved as much, and no one was more determined or more wounded. Based on a wealth of new sources including interviews, studio diaries, production files, letters and personal journals, A Passion for Life is the ultimate biography of a living legend."--BOOK JACKET.
High society
1992
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 facade of her fairy-tale life.From the Hardcover edition.
DIANA
"Fifteen-year-old John Leigh is living with his aunt and uncle in a small Devon village when he meets the girl fated to change his life. From the moment he first sees Diana Gayelorde-Sutton astride a horse, looking as poised and regal as a queen, he falls irrevocably in love. But they are worlds apart: He is a poor Cockney orphan and she is the pampered only daughter of a powerful businessman. They become inseparable, though, and friendship deepens into love. As the 1920s segue into the 1930s, John becomes a small-town newspaperman while Diana travels the world. Yet they always return to each other, until one earth-shattering day. And soon World War II will cast its long shadow over the world, testing their relationship in ways they never imagined. "--Back cover.