Sincerity, erudition, charisma . . . Roddy McDowall. Here is the comprehensive, first-ever biography of the award-winning child star, Planet of the Apes movie icon, beloved film legend, and Hollywood renaissance man whose career spanned 60 years. As one of the very few naturally gifted child actors who graduated into adult roles with relative ease, Roddy McDowall exuded charm throughout a glorious Hollywood run that included film, television, and Broadway. John Ford’s 1941 classic How Green Was My Valley put Roddy on the map at 12-years-old. It won Best Picture over Citizen Kane and is Clint Eastwood’s favorite film of all time. But Roddy’s biggest claim to fame was yet to come. The phenomenally popular Planet of the Apes film series, which ran from 1968-1973, introduced him to a whole new generation of fans. In a career spanning 60 years, Roddy was also a professional photographer, producer and director, starstruck movie lover himself, and film preservationist. Among his treasured friends: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Angela Lansbury, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, and Rock Hudson. Openly gay among his peers, if not the public, Roddy was a trusted keeper of secrets as well. Loyal and authentic to the end, everyone in Hollywood loved Roddy McDowall. Exhaustively researched and featuring exclusive interviews with those who knew him best, this first-ever biography from author Samuel Garza Bernstein charts the extraordinary trajectory of the London-born, award-winning actor—from a childhood in front of the cameras, to a break from the studio and his controlling stage mother, an awkward adolescence and growing awareness of his sexuality, to eventually shaping the life and career that Roddy wanted for himself. Professionally and personally, he was a success. This intimate and fascinating journey of resilience, transformation, and reinvention is a long-awaited and illuminating tribute to a true Hollywood legend. Praise for Samuel Garza Bernstein : “With his conversational style, witty critiques, and rigorous research, Garza Bernstein has managed to swat away myths and inaccuracies while casually revealing new, intimate details of the life of one of Hollywood’s most sociable, yet guarded, figures. And all the while, he gives readers the gift of feeling they’re walking alongside Roddy on his seven-decade journey. Roddy McDowell: An Actor's Life sets a new standard for Hollywood biographies, one by which all others may be measured.” —Burt Kearns , author, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel “Samuel Garza Bernstein’s comprehensive and loving portrait presents the Roddy we knew and admired.” —Ileanna Douglas , actress and author, Jungle Red: The Making of MGM’s The Women on Roddy McDowell “Roddy is somewhere out there welcoming us all to devour this splendid book.” —Chris Sarandon , actor on Roddy McDowell “In a Bernstein star biography, you’re not just getting the story of a single character – but of an entire place and time and almost forgotten way of life. I think Roddy would have loved to dish the delights of this book, at one of his fabled Studio City dinners.” —Kim Powers , author, Rules for Being Dead on Roddy McDowell “Samuel Garza Bernstein has managed to beautifully convey this multifaceted man around whom so much love and admiration and gossip has gathered. We think we know so much about people, and there has been so much conjecture about Roddy. The truth is so much more interesting, and Garza Bernstein has elegantly and fully shared it with us. No axes to grind, but also no attempt has been made to soften the man and the life he led. This is an honest and admirable book.” —James Grissom , author, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog on Roddy McDowell “To read this book is at many times to feel that you are back in Roddy‘s gorgeous company.” —Joanna Gleason , actress on Roddy McDowell “A life well-lived and a story well-told.” —Richard Natale , author, Greenwich Connection on Roddy McDowell “A spirited portrait of a Hollywood legend.” ―Publisher's Weekly on Starring Joan Crawford “A bold and complex amalgam of biography, critical analysis, Hollywood gossip, and fantasy. Garza Bernstein successfully balances the apocryphal with scholarly truth, camp with sober insight. It's a satisfying, hearty stew spiced with wit and a genuine love and respect for its eternally fascinating subject.” —Charles Busch , American actor, playwright, screenwriter on Starring Joan Crawford “A delicious melange of biographical details, cultural criticism, and fanboy fantasia that brings the most vivacious actress of the twentieth century screamingly to life.” —Frank DeCaro , author of Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business on Starring Joan Crawford “Samuel Garza Bernstein writes about a woman we all wish we knew because she sounds like a f―king hoot! And he