Orson Welles

by F.X. Feeney

Published 30 November 2006
A recognized prodigy at age 10, world famous by age 23, Orson Welles was a triple magician of theater, radio, and film - and by age 25 a promising figure in American politics. President Franklin Roosevelt encouraged him to try a run for the Senate; newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst branded him a pariah. But by the time he turned 30, Orson Welles' professional success ended irreversibly; from then until the day he died, he endured ridicule and reproach over what many judged his "failure." Few knew how feverishly he had persisted as an independent filmmaker. Now, decades after his death, "new" work keeps emerging, and his reputation as an undefeated genius and creator only grows. People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, TASCHEN shows you. "Hollywood Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous movie icons in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars.
For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.

Marlon Brando

by F.X. Feeney

Published 30 November 2006
Had he not been an actor, Marlon Brando once wrote, he would have become a criminal - specifically, a con artist. Take him at his word. Too many complain that Brando, the greatest actor of his generation, wasted his life in futile rebellions and left far too few masterworks in his wake, especially measured against his potential; but considering his sincere confession of criminal potential, we can be grateful for the little we do have. The actor who starred so unforgettably in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Last Tango in Paris certainly owes no apologies to posterity. "The Hollywood Icon" series: People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, Taschen shows you. "Hollywood Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous movie icons in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars.
For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.

Marilyn Monroe

by F.X. Feeney

Published 27 November 2006
"Forget everything you think you know about this person," Elia Kazan cautioned, in his autobiography. The icon we cherish under the name Marilyn Monroe was in truth the inspired creation of a smart, voluptuous, star struck and self-motivated fantasist named Norma Jean Mortenson. A pure product of Hollywood, she abides across time as brightly as two other self-inventors, Charlie Chaplin and Cary Grant. Few things make an afterlife blaze more mythically than a sexual reputation - ask Cleopatra. Norma Jean paid a huge price to become Marilyn, yet here she is - still setting the bar high for all other would-be goddesses. "The Hollywood Icon" series: People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, Taschen shows you. "Hollywood Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous movie icons in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars.
For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.

Audrey Hepburn

by F.X. Feeney

Published 30 November 2006
Her beauty has proved timeless - should we be surprised? Equally graceful whether moving or standing still, blessed with a balletic poise, luminous dark eyes, and an exquisite profile a queen might envy, Audrey Hepburn would no doubt have become famous in her youth even of the movies hadn't found her - simply because no self-respecting camera could resist her. What sets her iconic beauty apart now, for us, more than a decade after she's quit the stage of this life, is that her physicality is oddly secondary. Her extraordinary good looks merely halo a still-living smile. "The Hollywood Icon" series: People talk about Hollywood glamour, about studios that had more stars than there are in heaven, about actors who weren't actors but were icons. Other people talk about these things, Taschen shows you. "Hollywood Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous movie icons in the history of cinema. These 192-page books are visual biographies of the stars.
For each title, series editor Paul Duncan has painstaking selected approximately 150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are. These images are accompanied by concise introductory essays by leading film writers; each book also includes a chronology, a filmography, and a bibliography, and is peppered with apposite quotes from the movies and from life.