Patrick McGilligan is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light; Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast; George Cukor: A Double Life; the life stories of the directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman, and Oscar Micheaux; and the biographies of the actors James Cagney, Jack Nicholson, and Clint Eastwood. He also edited the five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters and (with Paul Buhle) Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"[A] portrait of a filmmaker who managed over time to upstage the movies that made him celebrated." -- Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"A clear and balanced portrait of a most complex man." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] fascinating, formidable account of a director whose life was as fraught with complications and melodrama as were his movies....Meticulously researched and gratifying, a biographical page-turner." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"McGilligan limns the tragic trajectory of Ray's career with insight and compassion." -- Booklist