Sean Connery

by Alain Silver

Published 25 August 2009
This title provides visual biographies of cinema's greatest stars. Why is the only non-American on the AFI's prestigious list a Scotsman? Perhaps it's because Sean Connery's career, as international in its scope as it may have been, as global as may have been his appeal, made him a 'genuine movie star' without any petty disputation, pretension, or pandering to current fashion. Indisputably, Connery's incarnation of James Bond catapulted him to stardom and lay the foundation for the most successful franchise in motion picture history. Together Bond and Connery became larger-than-life; but it was Connery, not Bond, whose powerful presence went on to permeate scores of other roles. Connery can be as cool and charismatic as Steve McQueen, as elegant as Katherine Hepburn, or as generous as Frank Sinatra. Said Audrey Hepburn: 'There are only two great stars in my recollection who have not been changed by great massive success: Sean Connery and Lassie', and both of them Scottish. "The Movie 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. "Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities 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150 high quality enigmatic and sumptuous portraits, colorful posters and lobby cards, rare film stills, and previously unpublished candid photos showing the stars as they really are.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.

Katharine Hepburn

by Alain Silver

Published 20 May 2007
From birth, Katharine Hepburn seemed destined to become a symbol of the modern woman on stage, on screen, and in the world. Fiercely competitive, private, and independent, Hepburn was one part Olympic athlete Babe Didrikson, one part Amelia Earhart, and two parts Greta Garbo. Although often paired with the greatest actors in Hollywood - Humphrey Bogart ("The African Queen"); Cary Grant ("Bringing Up Baby"), James Stewart ("The Philadelphia Story"), and Spencer Tracy ("Adam's Rib", "Woman of the Year") - Hepburn was able to carry her own films like "Summertime", "Little Women", and "Sylvia Scarlett" over a stage and screen career that spanned eight decades. Her home was never in Hollywood (where she won four Oscars) or New York but in Connecticut, where she died lamenting "I could have accomplished three times as much. I haven't realized my full potential." "The Movie 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.
"Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities 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.

Frank Sinatra

by Alain Silver

Published 25 March 2008
Long before he was Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra was a child of the jazz age and its free-wheeling approach to life. In the course of a meteoric rise from singing waiter to the world's first pop star, Sinatra relied on his own version of keeping it simple: "I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life or the answer to life. I just go on from day to day taking what comes." As an entertainer Sinatra was both a visionary and a pragmatist, a prototype for the 20th century, who realized in the end that "You only live once, and the way I live, once is enough."In the "Movie 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. "Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities 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.More bang for your buck! "...a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand." - "The New York Times Book Review".

Steve McQueen

by Alain Silver

Published 20 May 2007
Steve McQueen found it hard to balance worldwide fame with a desperate need for solitude. Through performances that were effortless yet powerful, he connected with the people who saw him on stage, on television, in movie houses, and on magazine covers anywhere on earth. Sometimes more comfortable racing a motorcycle than in front of a camera, twice at the height of his stardom he took more than a year off from movies. Despite this, and despite dying young, he left an indelible imprint. Images, his own words, and the words of others chronicle his rise from juvenile delinquent to the highest paid star in Hollywood. "The Movie 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. "Movie Icons" is a series of photo books that feature the most famous personalities 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.