Overview

A figure as fascinating as any of his celebrated subjects, Don Bachardy has lived an extraordinary life at the heart of Hollywood, literary, and artistic circles. His drawings and paintings reside in museums throughout Europe and the United States, and include portraits of movie stars, writers, artists, and public and private figures of every background--from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford to Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote--all rendered in a candid, expressive style. In this unique oral biography, Bachardy recounts his astonishing story, providing illuminating recollections of celebrity portrait sittings and revelations about his thirty-year relationship with Christopher Isherwood. From their meeting in the 1950s until Isherwood's death in 1986, theirs was a legendary love story, courageous and uncompromising for its time, and remarkable in any era for the creative collaborations and art it continues to inspire. Drawn from one-on-one interviews and conversations conducted at the Santa Monica home Bachardy shared with Isherwood, Michael Schreiber has crafted a biography unlike any other, filled with tantalizing celebrity tales set against the backdrop of Bachardy's artistic and personal journey. Wise, warm, and unflinching, this is a fresh and revealing portrait of a life lived with boundless bravery, curiosity, and love.

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Michael Schreiber is a writer, teacher, and art and film historian based in Chicago. He is the author of One-Man Show: The Life and Art of Bernard Perlin, a Stonewall Honor and Lambda Literary Award Finalist, This American House, written in collaboration with his husband Jason Loper, and Don Bachardy. A native of Fargo, North Dakota, Schreiber holds degrees from Minnesota State University-Moorhead and New York University. He was a 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California in support of his work on Don Bachardy: A Hollywood Life. Daniel Henning is a director, producer, actor, and writer. His work has been seen on HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, MTV, Comedy Central, and on stages throughout Southern California. He won a 2017 Telly Award for ""Best Writer"" for the film version of his play The Tragedy of JFK (as Told by Wm. Shakespeare). As director and writer, his TV and film work includes MTV's Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory and the film Critic's Choice. He won the NAACP Theatre Award for ""Best Director of a Musical"" for The Wild Party. He is the Founding Artistic Director of Hollywood's The Blank Theatre, winning over 200 awards for his productions, including ""Best Production,"" from LA Drama Critic Circle, LA Weekly, Ovations, NAACP, etc. Henning has been inspirational to thousands of young artists through his creation of The Blank's Young Playwrights Festival (the only professional nationwide competition for playwrights aged nine to nineteen). He directed the first play by 2016 Tony Award Winner for ""Best Play"" Stephen Karam when Stephen was seventeen and a winner in The Blank's Young Playwrights Festival. Henning has also been an acting teacher and coach and is known for his ability to spot young talent. He has given opportunities to many young actors who later went on to success in Hollywood including Tessa Thompson, Noah Wyle, Alison Brie, Molly Shannon, Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. He coached Sarah Michelle Gellar on her auditions for the landmark TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and they shared a close personal friendship, even traveling to Australia together with family for New Year's Eve 2000, where the paparazzi photographed Henning and Gellar dancing. For several months, Henning was rumored to be dating Gellar in the Australian fan magazines (including Big Hit Magazine), which, of course, was inaccurate as Henning was traveling with his husband, Rick Baumgartner. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Circle in the Square Theatre School, and American Conservatory Theatre. His work for LGBTQ Equality includes creating the fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of the Black Cat Protests (the first major LGBTQ Demonstration in the US) and directing and hosting the 2017 LA City Council LGBTQ Pride Ceremony. He was recently honored by the CA State Legislature for his work in LGBTQ Equality and nurturing the future of the Arts. He has also narrated dozens of audiobooks, both nonfiction and fiction. Simon Callow is an actor, director, and writer. He has appeared in many films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral. He made his stage debut in 1973 and came to prominence in a critically acclaimed performance as Mozart in the original stage production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus at the Royal National Theatre in 1979. He is well known for a series of one-man shows that have toured internationally and featured subjects including Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Jesus, and Richard Wagner. His books include, among others, a highly acclaimed biography of Charles Laughton, a biographical trilogy on Orson Welles, and My Life in Pieces, which won the Sheridan Morley Prize in 2011. James Ivory is an Academy Award winning director, producer, and screenwriter. His directorial work includes A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, for each of which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. In 2017, he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Call Me by Your Name. He has also won three BAFTA Awards, a Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award, among many other honors.

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