Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed
Show business biographer Sellers (The Battle for Bond) chronicles the booze-soaked lives of four of the stage and screen's most bombastic performers. Welsh Burton (1925–1984), Irish-born Harris (1930–2002), Irish-born and English-raised O'Toole (born 1932) and English Reed (1937–1999) gave some of the 20th century's most memorable performances, but were equally famous for their offscreen antics. Except for Reed, their careers began on the British stage, before all four were lured to Hollywood, starring in such classics asLawrence of Arabia(O'Toole),Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(Burton),Camelot(Harris) andThe Three Musketeers(Reed). Consuming staggering amounts of alcohol on a daily basis, all were forces to be reckoned with on the set, often turning up too drunk to perform. Burton's tempestuous affair with Elizabeth Taylor—which led to two marriages and two divorces—often eclipsed his talent, while O'Toole, Harris and Reed saw their careers slump in the late 1970s and '80s, only to be revived by roles in such successful films asTroy(O'Toole), the Harry Potter franchise (Harris) andGladiator(Reed). Though Sellers often muddles the chronology by switching too often between the four's liquored-up antics, his glimpse into Hollywood's culture of excess is more than enough to satisfy.(Dec.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.