Ty Burr's 6 favorite movie-star biographies

Ty Burr has been a film critic at The Boston Globe since 2002. Prior to that he wrote about movies for Entertainment Weekly, and he began his career as an in-house movie analyst for HBO. His books include The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together and the newly released Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame.

One of his six favorite movie-star biographies, as told to The Week magazine:

Marlon Brando by Patricia Bosworth

You could read Peter Manso's 1,100-page doorstop, Brando, or the actor's own, 480-page autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me. But Bosworth somehow gets to the knotted, self-loathing heart of Marlon's darkness in 228 elegant pages. By the time you get to the epilogue, you feel as if Brando's in the room with you.

Read about another book on the list.

Also see: Michael Wood's top ten books on film.

--Marshal Zeringue