The Defiant One

This new biography contains excerpts from interviews and articles by and about Curtis all the way from his teens in the Bronx to his death at 85 in 2010. Many of these are little known and provide insights into his complex relationship with fame, family and females, the three obsessions of his life. The book also documents his many struggles with substance abuse, his disenchantment with Hollywood when it failed to take him seriously, the violent deaths of his two brothers, the failure of four of his marriages, a heart attack, the death of a son from a drug overdose and, most importantly, the manner in which his resilient spirit saw him through these challenges and tragedies. It’s a revisionist biography which adds significantly to the received wisdom on his life and times, not only through personal interviews but also revelations from two recent books not yet available in English, one written by his daughter Allegra and the other by his ex-wife Christine Kaufmann.

Author and critic Aubrey Malone has written many books on the cinema. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Aubrey Malone
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 224
Bibliographic Info: 24 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7595-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0567-8
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments  v

Preface  1

Introduction  3

 1. The Outsider  5

 2. Reform  12

 3. Ollywood  17

 4. Sultan of Shlock  30

 5. Elite of the Milk Shake Set  37

 6. High Wire Act  52

 7. The Best of Everything  58

 8. A-Lister  67

 9. Boys Will Be Girls  78

10. Mixing with the Big Guns  88

11. New Beginnings  101

12. Lightweight  119

13. Into Strangler Hell  136

14. A Passionate Amoeba  144

15. Faded Grandeur  154

16. Author Author  161

17. The Road to Perdition  168

18. Fighting the Demons  177

19. Rendezvous in Dublin  189

20. Meltdown  204

21. Picasso of the Desert  213

Film and Television Listing  225

Chapter Notes  227

Bibliography  241

Index  247

“Malone once again displays his versatility and breadth as a writer with this biography of one of the Hollywood greats. It is a nicely produced book with many illustrations”—Books Ireland.