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Title details for Star by Peter Biskind - Available

Star

How Warren Beatty Seduced America

by Peter Biskind
David Drummond
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
Famously a playboy, Warren Beatty has also been one of the most ambitious and successful stars in Hollywood. Several Beatty films have passed the test of time, from Bonnie and Clyde (which confirmed for him the importance of controlling the projects he was involved in) to Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds (for which he won the best director Oscar), Bugsy, and Bulworth. Few filmgoers realize that along with Orson Welles, Beatty is the only person ever nominated for four Academy Awards for a single film—and unlike Welles, Beatty did it twice, with Heaven Can Wait and Reds. Peter Biskind shows how Beatty used star power, commercial success, savvy, and charm to bend Hollywood moguls to his will, establishing an unprecedented level of independence while still working within the studio system.


Beatty's private life has been the subject of gossip for decades, and Star confirms his status as Hollywood's leading man in the bedroom, describing his affairs with Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, Leslie Caron, Julie Christie, Michelle Phillips, Diane Keaton, and Madonna, among many others.


Throughout his career, Beatty has demonstrated a fascination for politics. He was influential in the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns of Gary Hart. It was said of Hart and Beatty that each wanted to be the other, and Biskind shows that there was considerable truth in that wry observation. As recently as a few years ago, Beatty was speaking out about California politics and contemplating a run for governor.


Biskind explains how Beatty exercised unique control, often hiring screenwriters out of his own pocket (and frequently collaborating with them), producing, directing, and acting in his own films, becoming an auteur before anyone in Hollywood knew what the word meant. He was arguably one of the most successful and creative figures in Hollywood during the second half of the twentieth century, and in this fascinating biography, Warren Beatty comes to life—complete with excesses and achievements—as never before.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 15, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400195749
      • File size: 689488 KB
      • Duration: 23:56:25

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Forget his childhood, education, and the fact that he's Shirley MacLaine's half-brother. This biography concentrates on Beatty's films (he's an actor, director, and producer), womanizing (with Madonna, Diane Keaton, Julie Christie, to name just a few), and politics (he once toyed with the idea of running for president). You might call it an extended gossip column, and David Drummond narrates it just that way. It's lively, well paced, and clear. Conversations are animated; quotations are set apart. The author brings out Beatty's faults--obsessive-compulsiveness, lack of follow-through--as well as his intelligence and loyalty to friends. This neutral stance is reflected in Drummond's tone. Those under 40 may not remember the star of hits like BONNIE AND CLYDE and flops such as ISHTAR, but those with stamina and curiosity will enjoy this. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 23, 2009
      In his refreshing biography, Biskind (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
      ) examines Beatty's dual—and often dueling—status as Hollywood legend and notorious womanizer without letting either subsume the other. Beatty's film career began with a starring role in director Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass
      opposite Natalie Wood, the first of his co-stars with whom he had relationships (the list includes Leslie Caron, Julie Christie, Diane Keaton, and Annette Bening, whom he married). As producer and star of 1967's Bonnie and Clyde
      , Beatty inhabited the brief and violent life of the titular bank robber in a film Pauline Kael called “the most exciting American movie since The Manchurian Candidate
      .” From 1971's McCabe & Mrs. Miller
      , now considered one of the finest westerns of all time, to his Oscar-winning turn as director in 1981's Reds
      (which he both produced and starred in), Beatty had a hand in some of New Hollywood's most important films. But Biskind does not gloss over the fact that Beatty has not had a box office hit since 1990's Dick Tracy
      , nor does he ignore the string of flops that have deflated the actor's career (Ishtar
      , Bugsy
      , Love Affair
      , etc.). Yet his respect for Beatty never dwindles, and readers are left with a complicated portrait of a complicated man, arguably a great actor of his generation.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 29, 2010
      Celebrity biographer Biskind pays requisite and respectful attention to Warren Beatty's career as an actor and director, but what really gets him going is Beatty's reputation as one of Hollywood's most notorious lotharios, and he devotes most of his creative energies to going over Beatty's (rumored and real) romantic résumé. Biskind relishes anecdotes of Beatty's liaisons with supposedly thousands of women, everyone from Natalie Wood to Madonna, but David Drummond reads with a louche gossip columnist tone and is too tongue-in-cheek and contrived to merit serious or sustained interest. Listeners are likely to question the veracity of Biskind's sources or just lose interest altogether. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, Nov. 23).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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