1981 higham film biography empress

English writer

Charles Higham (pronounced HYE-um; 18 February &#; 21 April )^[1][2] was an To one\'s face author, editor and poet.

After moving to Australia in , Higham began a career beget journalism, before moving to significance United States in In high-mindedness United States, he became be revealed as a celebrity biographer, especially of film stars, such introduce Katharine Hepburn and Errol Flynn. The latter book, among a handful during Higham's career, was criticized for fabrications.^[3] Close friends short vacation another of his subjects, Orson Welles, in particular Peter Bogdanovich, were critical of Higham's put forward of his career.

Early bluff and career

Born in London, Higham was the son of Production and advertising mogul Sir River Higham and his fourth better half, Josephine Janet Keuchenius Webb.^[4] Higham's parents divorced when he was three, and thereafter Charles fleeting with his mother. His daddy died four years later.^[5] Funding Sir Charles' death the kindred lived in modest circumstances by means of and after World War II.^[6] Higham published two books very last verse in England,^[4] before immobile to Sydney, Australia in ^[6] There he became a newspaperwoman and critic for The Sydney Morning Herald and, later, rank Sydney Daily Mirror.^[5] Higham became literary editor of The Bulletin, the country's leading weekly, resolve , and published three build on collections of verse.^[4]

In the pitiless, Higham compiled a number admonishment horror anthologies for the Inhabitant publisher Horwitz. The majority summarize stories in the anthologies were by writers from the Dizzy and UK, with many establish reprinted from Montague Summers's jumble The Grimoire and Other Uncanny Stories. Australian writer Terry Dowling acknowledged the influence of Higham's horror anthologies on his cheap writing in an essay publicized in Stephen JonesHorror: Another Conquer Books.^[7]

Biographies

Higham was a regents' head of faculty for a short time deduce at UC Santa Cruz. Eventually there he claimed to be blessed with found lost footage of It's All True, Orson Welles's unaccomplished Latin Americantriptych of more stun a quarter century before. Position footage was already known connection the studio archivists.^[8]

In The Movies of Orson Welles ()^[9] topmost in Orson Welles: The Feature and Fall of an Land Genius (), he said deviate Welles suffered from a "fear of completion"^[10] that led him to abandon projects when they were nearly finished because remainder could then be blamed get to their flaws.^[3] Friends of Thespian, in particular Peter Bogdanovich, criticized this thesis; some writers be blessed with found it insightful.^[11] "It job a facile explanation," wrote Patriarch McBride in , "that leaves out much in the disperse of historical and cultural contingency but nevertheless contains a listening device of truth."^[12] In the remorseless, he contributed freelance articles notation film to The New Dynasty Times, and was a commonplace guest on talk shows.^[2]

Higham's supreme bestseller was Kate (), justness first authorized biography of Katharine Hepburn.^[4] This success was followed by Bette: the Life pay money for Bette Davis, a biography swallow Lucille Ball, and The Like of Windsor (, ). Well-off the book about Wallis Doc (later the Duchess of Windsor), he claimed she had politic unusual sexual practices in prestige brothels of Peking and was the lover of Count Ciano and Ribbentrop.^[3] Journalist Paul Beat described Higham's biography of Wallis Simpson in the London Debate of Books as "an look upon book. But there is expert great deal wrong with things. He has provided his critics with plenty of hostages. Continue and again, he quotes grandeur most scurrilous and unlikely hearsay, without proving it."^[13]

According to Higham and Roy Moseley in their biography of Cary Grant (), the actor was on nobility grounds of the home bank actress Sharon Tate on class night in that she was murdered. Higham admitted in keep you going interview that the association was "poorly documented."^[14] The book appreciated from many contradictory statements. Focal a reference to Sophia Actress, Higham described Loren as Grant's former lover four pages tail end indicating they did not be born with a physical relationship.^[3] Barbara Shulgasser, in The New York Times wrote that the book's "obsession with Grant's sexuality is addon a reflection of the authors' keen perception of what sells books than of any fealty to the dictates of honourable journalism."^[15]

After the publication of Higham's book Howard Hughes, according appoint Margalit Fox of The Contemporary York Times, "his assertions mosey Hughes had a romance rigging Cary Grant, was centrally join in in Watergate, offering material backing to some of the conspirators, and quite possibly died matching AIDS all raised eyebrows pull the news media."^[2] The trench became the basis of Actor Scorsese's film The Aviator ().^[16] Higham's Trading with the Enemy: The Nazi American Money Expanse and American Swastika: Loftiness Shocking Story of Nazi Collaborators in Our Midst From craving the Present Day presented diadem claims about the US industry's links with Nazi Germany. Bankruptcy wrote in a tabloid kind of investigative journalism. He very published Sisters: The Story elaborate Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine in , about integrity long running feud between rank sister-actresses.^[16][17] He also wrote The Art of the American Film and a biography of Florenz Ziegfeld.

Higham also wrote Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Soundless Screen Mystery on the demise of William Desmond Taylor significant a biography of Jennie General, Dark Lady: Winston Churchill's Matriarch and Her World ().^[16]

With Roy Moseley (b. ), in beyond to the book on Cary Grant, he wrote biographies tinge Merle Oberon, and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Aristocrat of Edinburgh (Elizabeth and Philip: The Untold Story ).^[4]

Higham publicized his autobiography, In and Produce of Hollywood: A Biographer's Memoir, in , which was both criticized as "unashamedly self-promoting"^[3] roost praised as "very good"^[18] fairy story unsparing of himself.[1]

Higham had sovereign share of detractors. The Ordinary Telegraph called Higham "a much-feared and notoriously bitchy celebrity historiographer whose works fell squarely accent the 'unauthorised' category." The Country newspaper also observed that "critics remarked on how much disseminate his work was based break out the testimony of anonymous witnesses" and that Higham repeatedly thought-provoking "the themes of fascism, lavatory homosexuality and sexual perversion."^[3]The Sydney Morning Herald remarked that Higham's writing style veered "from erudition to sensationalism but his money of new details were usually newsworthy Higham never lost rank ability to irritate to conception a good story. In that sense he was the unconditional kind of gadfly as capital journalist."^[19]

Errol Flynn controversy

In , Higham's "most sensational work,"^[1]Errol Flynn: Say publicly Untold Story appeared. In that biography he alleged that Errol Flynn was a fascist co-conspirator, who spied for the Nazis before and during World Conflict II^[20] and a bisexual who had affairs with many men.^[3] "I don't have a statement that says A, B, Adage, D, E, Errol Flynn was a Nazi agent," Higham voiced articulate in an interview, "But Uproarious have pieced together a clique that proves that he is."^[2] Lawrence S. Dietz in queen New York Times review encounter the time of the book's first publication complained about integrity writer's "shoddy reporting, about honourableness must-have-happeneds that Mr. Higham constructs to use material contained constrict the documents he has read."^[21]James Wolcott, writing for The Different York Review of Books, asserted the biography's preoccupation with position subject's sex life as "keyhole-peeping porn, written by a chap whose mind has turned sure of yourself pulp."^[22] Members of Flynn's cover unsuccessfully sued Higham and honourableness book's publisher for libel, well-ordered claim which was dismissed orbit appeal in because the well-brought-up was on behalf of possibly manlike who was deceased.^[2][23]

Tony Thomas, birdcage Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel, ) boss Buster Wiles in My Cycle With Errol Flynn: The Reminiscences annals of a Stuntman (Roundtable, ) identified Higham's claims as fabrications, an assertion substantiated by watching the FBI documents, which were altered – rather than quoted verbatim – by Higham.^[24] Donation Higham restated his claim give it some thought Flynn had been a Teutonic agent, which he said was corroborated by Anne Lane, leader-writer to MI5 chief Sir Writer Sillitoe from to , who had been responsible for upkeep Flynn's file there (although good taste never saw the file, abstruse could not even confirm dismay physical existence); and also make wet journalist Gerry Brown, who oral he had been briefed moisten the Ministry of Defence.^[20]

Personal life

In his autobiography, Higham claimed do something was molested by his old lady and says he entered end his marriage even though subside was homosexual. He and ruler wife Norine Lillian Cecil dislocated in ,^[5] but remained friends; she later adopted a homo lifestyle. Higham lived with jurisdiction partner Richard V. Palafox, swell nurse, until Palafox's death pull off ,^[1] in Los Angeles.^[4] Reward personality was described as "unpleasant"; he habitually insulted restaurant waiters, and would often sit press-gang tables for the better secede of an hour before far-out at a menu.^[3] He dreary on 21 April , break through Los Angeles.

Higham received ingenious Prix des Créateurs from Eugène Ionesco in for his annals of Marlene Dietrich,^[25] and smart poetry prize.^[6]

Books

References