George Cukor a Double Life

This biography looks at the life of George Cukor, who was among the great film directors of the studio age. In publicity and mystique he was dubbed the "women's director" for guiding the most sensitive and temperamental leading ladies to immortal performances: Garbo in "Camille", Jean Harlow in "Dinner at Eight", Ingrid Bergman in "Gaslight", Judy Garland in "A Star is Born", and - in ten films, including "The Philadelphia Story" - his lifelong friend and collaborator, Katherine Hepburn. But behind the women's director label lurked a stigma: he was the only homosexual among his colleagues. In some way's Cukor's sexual orientation was the least important aspect of his life, but in other ways it influenced his psychology and his career. It was the basis of his firing from "Gone with the Wind" - a shocking and ignominious tale that is revealed for the first time in this book.