Hollywood Hellraisers: The Wild Lives and Fast Times of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson Paperback – 18 May 2017

I confess I have abandoned a few biographies because they droned on for 600 pages about a celebrity I was only moderately interested in. But Mr. Sellers knows how to keep our attention! Dividing each chapter by decades instead of by person, he writes about four outlandish actors instead of one then provides only short anecdotes about each actor before moving on to another short anecdote. What a clever literary device to keep us from having our attention start to wander away! He did this previously with four other Hellraisers, perpetually drunk - Burton, Harris, O'Toole, and Reed. This book focusses on another four - Brando, Hopper, Beatty, and Nicholson - who seemed to be having perpetual SEX.There are only so many ways to get drunk but sex offers a wider range of options as presented by these four virile men. If I had to choose the most interesting of the four, I would have to vote for Dennis Hopper whose huge, incomparable psychotic break preceding his over the top portrayal of the evil Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET, is something I feel has never been surpassed. One could say he admitted as he convinced David Lynch "I AM FRANK!" that nobody else could have been more primed or well rehearsed for the manic nutcase role of the century! Sellers describes this whole remarkable regeneration process in truly entertaining and vivid detail. Really great, absorbing book! Let's have another four subjects, Mr. Sellers!

Nothing really to add to the reviews already written, though, for some, it may be worth noting that reading about one of the guys requires reading about all of them. The book does not deal separately with these 4 stars, but intersperses their storylines throughout the book. Overall, a fast entertaining read.

Nice little insight into what was going on in the time; no doubt a little embelished but enjoayble read.

If you think you know everything about Brando, Nicholson, Hopper and Beatty, you need to read this book.It is literally a "page-turner" and I cannot imagine how the author uncovered all these "secrets" about these known "playboys."One might say: "We shouldn't read about the 'dirty linen' of celebrities", but I do not believe that celebrities should be held to a different standard than all the rest of us.If I did half of what some of these stars did, "the world" would know about it.Eat your heart out, movie stars! There are no more secrets any more.This book is a must-read for anyone wanting to know the realities of those movie stars they love.

If you are a fan of these actors who enjoys the myths as much as the realities, I highly recommend this book. One second you'll be mesmerized and the next disgusted by these hedonistic, often idiotic geniuses. It also, surprisingly, has some real insights sprinkled throughout. I definitely came away with a much better understanding of not just Brando's insanity, but his genius as well.Note: It was hard for me to believe this book was written in 2010. The crude sense of humor and lack of political correctness was refreshing, and initially fooled me into believing it was a reprint of a book from the 70s or 80s.