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Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director – A Biography of Struggles, Triumphs, and Classic Cinema
Award-winning film historian Patrick McGilligan follows his acclaimed biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Oscar Micheaux with a revelatory look at the life of Nicholas Ray, the troubled director of In a Lonely Place We Can’t Go Home Again, and Rebel without a Cause. McGilligan charts the cerebral struggles, astonishing adventures, and artistic triumphs that defined Ray’s life, including his Hollywood collaborations with Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, and James Dean; his love affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, ZsaZsa Gabor, and Gloria Grahame; his partnerships with activist Abbie Hoffman, pornography starlet Marilyn Chambers, photographer Wim Wenders; and more. Celebrating, contextualizing, and examining Ray’s life and work, McGilligan delivers a milestone of film history and offers a captivating look at one ofclassic cinema’s most colorful figures.
565 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 12, 2011
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About the author
Patrick McGilligan
45 books71 followersPatrick McGilligan is the author of Clint one of America’s pre-eminent film biographers. He has written the life stories of directors George Cukor and Fritz Lang — both New York Times “Notable Books” — and the Edgar-nominated Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. His books have been translated into ten languages. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 26, 2024
Actually kind of shook me up. I mean, I’ve read a hundred biographies of movie directors, but this is the first in which, page after page, all I could think was, “Oh my god, what a fuck-up!”
To put it kindly, while cine-intellectuals of the fifties, sixties, and seventies got it in their heads that Nick Ray was a genius, the shameless, pathetic way the man actually lived, worked, and behaved was more like Ed Wood. The good news is, if you’ve seen Ray's five best movies— THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, IN A LONELY PLACE, JOHNNY GUITAR, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, and BIGGER THAN LIFE— you can definitely cross him off your auteur scorecard.
To put it kindly, while cine-intellectuals of the fifties, sixties, and seventies got it in their heads that Nick Ray was a genius, the shameless, pathetic way the man actually lived, worked, and behaved was more like Ed Wood. The good news is, if you’ve seen Ray's five best movies— THEY LIVE BY NIGHT, IN A LONELY PLACE, JOHNNY GUITAR, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, and BIGGER THAN LIFE— you can definitely cross him off your auteur scorecard.
December 23, 2012
Author Patrick McGilligan draws a picture of Nicholas Ray as a man in constant motion. He's handsome, charming, persuasive, creative and ahead of his time. Elia Kazan called him, "ungathered". He drank, smoked, gambled, took drugs and made love to women and men. It's amazing, with the toll such a life style takes on a body, that he lived to be 78.
How many people could claim Frank Lloyd Wright, Elia Kazan and Howard Hughes as mentors? He escorted Shelly Winters, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Crawford and worked with artists as diverse as Lead Belly, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and Woody Guthrie. While he brushed with Communism in the 30's he worked in and owned a bar in Franco's Spain, after which he raised money through the communist government in the former Yugoslavia. The story is dizzying and at the end of the book, the reader can be exhausted by it... but Ray isn't exhausted at all. In his late 70's: he has a wife in her 20's and stars in a porno film.
A parallel story to this biography is the impact of the post-war witch hunts. Ray continually meets and/or works with those who have fled abroad (interestingly, some to Franco's Spain) or are working for marginal rates and/or without credit in the US. Kazan and others who cooperated thrive. Ray does well at this time, but his relationship with the HUAC is unknown in his lifetime, and remains a mystery today.
The book may be a complete presentation of what Nicholas Ray did, where he was and who he worked with, but gives no clues as to how to know or understand him. While the book is not boring (with Ray's life how could it be?) but for a few episodes (for instance, his youth and relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, the filming of Rebel Without a Cause and 55 Days at Peking among a few others) it is not a page turner either.
The fitness of the subtitle depends on how one measures success. Ray was a financial failure and a failure as a family man. On the other hand Ray was a force in pioneering the use of breakthrough film technologies and exploring new content. While he did not die rich, he created one iconic film, made other good films and inspired the next generation of film directors in the US and abroad. He lived his life on his own terms.
How many people could claim Frank Lloyd Wright, Elia Kazan and Howard Hughes as mentors? He escorted Shelly Winters, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Crawford and worked with artists as diverse as Lead Belly, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and Woody Guthrie. While he brushed with Communism in the 30's he worked in and owned a bar in Franco's Spain, after which he raised money through the communist government in the former Yugoslavia. The story is dizzying and at the end of the book, the reader can be exhausted by it... but Ray isn't exhausted at all. In his late 70's: he has a wife in her 20's and stars in a porno film.
A parallel story to this biography is the impact of the post-war witch hunts. Ray continually meets and/or works with those who have fled abroad (interestingly, some to Franco's Spain) or are working for marginal rates and/or without credit in the US. Kazan and others who cooperated thrive. Ray does well at this time, but his relationship with the HUAC is unknown in his lifetime, and remains a mystery today.
The book may be a complete presentation of what Nicholas Ray did, where he was and who he worked with, but gives no clues as to how to know or understand him. While the book is not boring (with Ray's life how could it be?) but for a few episodes (for instance, his youth and relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, the filming of Rebel Without a Cause and 55 Days at Peking among a few others) it is not a page turner either.
The fitness of the subtitle depends on how one measures success. Ray was a financial failure and a failure as a family man. On the other hand Ray was a force in pioneering the use of breakthrough film technologies and exploring new content. While he did not die rich, he created one iconic film, made other good films and inspired the next generation of film directors in the US and abroad. He lived his life on his own terms.
January 13, 2013
Always an interesting figure, from being the director of films like "Rebel Without A Cause," "In A Lonely Place," "On Dangerous Ground," and "They Live By Night," to his appearance in Wim Wenders' "The American Friend," this detailed biography captures the complexity and flawed humanity of one of the great "auteurs" championed by the likes of New Wave film critics and film-makers Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.
In a career that was sometimes over-shadowed by the films he was forcibly removed from rather than the films he completed, McGilligan digs deep into Ray's complicated family life, his early years, his motivations, the HUAC trials which he survived but left him guilt-ridden, and the demons of drink and drugs which overtook some of his most productive years. Much of Ray's life was secretive and open to varied interpretation but McGilligan wades through the available evidence and comes up with documented facts and plausible possibilities for his surmises. By turns enlightening, insightful, mournful, moving, puzzling, and frustrating as the man himself must have been it's a book that perfectly mirrors its subject. This is likely to be the most accurate account of this elusive figure the film-making community will ever see. - BH.
In a career that was sometimes over-shadowed by the films he was forcibly removed from rather than the films he completed, McGilligan digs deep into Ray's complicated family life, his early years, his motivations, the HUAC trials which he survived but left him guilt-ridden, and the demons of drink and drugs which overtook some of his most productive years. Much of Ray's life was secretive and open to varied interpretation but McGilligan wades through the available evidence and comes up with documented facts and plausible possibilities for his surmises. By turns enlightening, insightful, mournful, moving, puzzling, and frustrating as the man himself must have been it's a book that perfectly mirrors its subject. This is likely to be the most accurate account of this elusive figure the film-making community will ever see. - BH.
October 31, 2011
A lot to like here, particularly for movie buffs and Wisconsin readers (Ray was from LaCrosse and spent time at Taliesen as Frank Lloyd Wright's theater director.) It's quite a yarn, following a sometimes brilliant and creative man as he slowl descends into drug-induced madness. Told without melodrama or hype. McGilligan is an excellent biographer with the correct blend of objective distance from his subject and reassuring intimacy with the facts.
August 28, 2025
From 1948 to 1956 film director Nicholas Ray was at the height of his creative powers. During that time period he created at least five films that have gone on to be classics: “They Live by Night,” “In a Lonely Place,” “The Lusty Men,” “Johnny Guitar” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” Film historian Patrick McGilligan does here what he did with his Hitchcock bio, providing a thoroughly researched biography of the life and works of a great film director. But unlike Hitchcock, Ray’s personal life often draws more attention than his creative, artistic work. Nicholas Ray was an addict of alcohol, sex, gambling and drugs. Though an iron constitution helped him to fend off the effects early in his career, the addictions, as they always do, caught up with his mental and physical health. By the late fifties and early sixties, he was in such bad shape that other people completed his films “Wind Across the Everglades,” “King of Kings,” and “55 Days at Peking.” McGilligan details Ray’s rise from leftist theatre groups to Hollywood, which eventually led to career threatening trouble with the HUAC. Ray managed to avoid the blacklist by giving testimony (and presumably naming names) in a secret session, but he lost many early friends in doing so.
Ray’s personal life was an endless parade of female sexual partners (including Marilyn Monroe) and the occasional male. His second marriage to actress Gloria Grahame was already on the ropes when he discovered his 13-year-old son and Grahame having sex. Ray himself had relations with some actresses in his films including an underage Natalie Wood.
Critics, especially influential French critics, found much to admire in Ray’s work. But as McGilligan points out, Ray increasingly had abandoned smaller, arty films for the very large-scale productions he had once admonished. Probably the most telling anecdote is from a meeting Ray had with Luis Bunuel in the early sixties. Bunuel said that the secret to his success was in asking for a small salary, adjusting his films to a small budget, and then filming them as he liked. Bunuel said, “’You’re a famous director. Why not try an experiment? You’ve just finished a picture that cost 5 million dollars. Why not try one for 400,000 dollars and see for yourself how much freer you are?’” Ray responded, “’You don’t understand! If I did that in Hollywood, everyone would think I was going to pieces. They’d say I was on the skids, and I’d never make another movie.’”
Even with his personal upheaval, Ray managed to attract financiers and creative partners for new films until the early sixties, when his unreliability caught up with him. Lacking projects, he moved to an island and his progressive self-destruction continued: “He moved to increasingly smaller houses, leaving behind unfinished scripts, personal mementos, heaps of refuse, and, always, unpaid bills. The director drank to stay awake and drank to fall asleep; he took any drugs on offer, in this era when the variety of available stimulants snowballed.”
Though Ray found late career interest from young film students (including work on a film about the Chicago 7), he was never able to find financing for the many projects he continued to pursue. He did small acting jobs in “The American Friend” and “Hair,” but his last “acting” was a film by Wim Wenders covering his last days as he died from lung cancer in 1979.
McGilligan’s fine biography is a must read for anyone film lover wanting to learn more about one of the greatest and most controversial American film directors. Recommended.
Ray’s personal life was an endless parade of female sexual partners (including Marilyn Monroe) and the occasional male. His second marriage to actress Gloria Grahame was already on the ropes when he discovered his 13-year-old son and Grahame having sex. Ray himself had relations with some actresses in his films including an underage Natalie Wood.
Critics, especially influential French critics, found much to admire in Ray’s work. But as McGilligan points out, Ray increasingly had abandoned smaller, arty films for the very large-scale productions he had once admonished. Probably the most telling anecdote is from a meeting Ray had with Luis Bunuel in the early sixties. Bunuel said that the secret to his success was in asking for a small salary, adjusting his films to a small budget, and then filming them as he liked. Bunuel said, “’You’re a famous director. Why not try an experiment? You’ve just finished a picture that cost 5 million dollars. Why not try one for 400,000 dollars and see for yourself how much freer you are?’” Ray responded, “’You don’t understand! If I did that in Hollywood, everyone would think I was going to pieces. They’d say I was on the skids, and I’d never make another movie.’”
Even with his personal upheaval, Ray managed to attract financiers and creative partners for new films until the early sixties, when his unreliability caught up with him. Lacking projects, he moved to an island and his progressive self-destruction continued: “He moved to increasingly smaller houses, leaving behind unfinished scripts, personal mementos, heaps of refuse, and, always, unpaid bills. The director drank to stay awake and drank to fall asleep; he took any drugs on offer, in this era when the variety of available stimulants snowballed.”
Though Ray found late career interest from young film students (including work on a film about the Chicago 7), he was never able to find financing for the many projects he continued to pursue. He did small acting jobs in “The American Friend” and “Hair,” but his last “acting” was a film by Wim Wenders covering his last days as he died from lung cancer in 1979.
McGilligan’s fine biography is a must read for anyone film lover wanting to learn more about one of the greatest and most controversial American film directors. Recommended.
January 22, 2026
Like a few McGilligan biographies, the content is salacious but often very personal and entertaining. Maybe there didn't need to be so many anecdotes about Ray's love life and the 3 billion people he slept with, male and female, but the personal dynamics are never emphasized over the man's art. It's hard not to write about a man walking in on his teenage son in bed with his wife. Thankfully, endless material covers all of Ray's creativity, the brilliant as well as the incoherent and the unfinished messes he started and then lost interest in. The director surpasses Orson Welles in the sheer amount of properties abandoned. The book is never without excitement, and the chapters devoted to his European adventures, the adoration of the French (and their ridiculous praise for some of Ray's most bloated, impersonal features like "King of Kings"), his sinister encounters with the Hollywood Red Scare even while employing such commie-baiting bastards as actors Robert Taylor and Ward Bond, his crazy academic employment with numerous universities, his incredible drug and alcohol abuse, and his dying farewell appearances as an actor in everything from "Hair" to a pretentious Wim Wenders project are all fascinating chapters. He dated Marilyn Monroe and even worked on a Three Stooges movie! To think the guy came from a boring, prosperous midwestern home in Wisconsin to go on to such a career and life definitely dwarfs us mere mortals.
September 8, 2020
Thorough and well done.
May 5, 2012
Absorbing biography of the conflicted director behind Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place and other downbeat, post-war Hollywood classics. Nick Ray was ahead of his time - a New Wave visionary 20 years before it happened. He never really fitted into the studio system, and lost his way after the untimely death of kindred spirit James Dean. Washed up by the 1960s, Ray was lionised by European critics but never completed another film.
October 30, 2011
A little snooty. Shame he doesn't actually like Ray very much. Also, not a jot of analysis on the films.
March 11, 2014
A man who had it all-talent, intelligence, looks-yet incredibly self-destructive and insecure. He did everything possible to sabotage what could have been a brilliant career.
September 18, 2012
7.5/10
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews