Hollywood Hellraisers: The Wild Lives and Fast Times of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson

by Robert Sellers

'I don't know what people expect when they meet me. They seem to be afraid that I'm going to piss in the potted palm and slap them on the ass.' Marlon Brando

'I should have been dead ten times over. I believe in miracles. It's an absolute miracle that I'm still around.' Dennis Hopper

'The best time to get married is noon. That way, if things don't work out, you haven't blown the whole day.' Warren Beatty

'You only lie to two people in your life: your girlfriend and the police.' Jack Nicholson

They're the baddest bad asses Hollywood has ever seen: Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. These are men for whom rules did not apply, men for whom normal standards of behaviour were simply too wearisome to worry about. These are men who brawled, boozed, snorted and shagged their way into legend-hood - but along the way they changed acting and the way movies were made forever.

Hollywood Hellraisers is a whistle-stop tour of jaw-dropping sexual activity, misbehaviour of an Olympic standard, all-out excess and genuine madness. It's a wonder Hollywood survived.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Film, Audiobook, Biography Memoir, History, Media Tie In

337 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Boozy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't to thrilled with this. Spoiler alert.

In a nutshell.
Marlon Brando. Great actor when he was young, thought of acting as a vocation and reveled in giving studios and directors a hard time. Didn't particularly care for hollywood. Not a rousing hellraiser.

Dennis Hopper. Mentally unstable addict, thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not cared for by hollywood or his own family.

Warren Beatty. Thought he was gods gift to women, just slept with as many as he could, til he figured he better get married before they made to much fun of him. Also thinks he could be president. A joke in my book.

Jack Nicholson. A true hellraiser, although the book didn't seem to do him justice. Not as in depth as the authors previous book on hellraisers.

Overall. Skip it.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to give this book two stars because the anecdotes were entertaining, but the author was repellently overbearing with his selfsatisfied crude snark (referring to Princess Margaret as a "deluxe Milf" ( and didn't even cap it, a mistake he repeated with "Aids")) that I just can't do it. Terrible similes -- e.g., Madonna's marriage to Sean Penn was "about as stable as Paris Hilton's knicker elastic". In fact there were a number of britishisms sneaking into quotes by Americans, begging the question on the accuracy of the whole enterprise (not that I was expecting high journalism from this Page 3 hack). Not even as workaday well researched as the first Hellraisers, e.g, Taos is not actually in Mexico. Still , joke's on me for reading the whole thing. I feel like I spent the afternoon reading tabloids

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm... Dennis liked drugs, Marlon was mean to his directors, Jack liked women, Warren liked women more. Yep, that's pretty much it. The book was sloppily written and edited and the constant 'jokes' and asides were the literary equivalent of the author breaking the fourth wall to elbow me in the ribs and say 'wow, can you believe this guy!?' Too much hero worship too little depth or insight.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading and enjoying Seller's take on four home-grown hellraisers it was a given I'd enjoy this too, especially considering that I'm far more familiar with the body of work from these dudes than I was the Brits.

Featuring a different brand of hellraising than before - there's far less stories that sound like they're being recounted down the pub - I'm not entirely sure of the inclusion of Warren Beatty. A health food freak who didn't really drink or take drugs, Warren's own brand of raising hell seemed focused on women and boardrooms and while I understand how important his role was in changing movie-making for the better, he's never been a favourite of mine. Of all his films I've only ever seen Bonnie & Clyde and I'm not particularly bothered about searching out more.

Of the remaining guys, I became a huge fan of Brando whilst still a teenager after getting my first taste watching A Streetcar Named Desire, and proceeded to go on a Brando bender for the next few years (drawn by both his incredible talent and incredible looks). A deeply damaged man, even if he had a hell of a way with words, I find reading of his life more sad than anything else and whilst I may have sniggered at some of his more choice quotes, I never really felt that comfortable being asked to find other aspects amusing (though I could read about his torturing of Sinatra all day long).

Jack Nicholson comes across as the far more likeable of our quartet, and much like his performances is rarely less than charming and entertaining, but my favourite by miles was Dennis Hopper. I've always had something of a soft spot for those people who are fearless, fucked up and crazy talented, and Hopper perfectly fits that bill. Hugely self-destructive and most likely a nightmare to have worked with or be around when at his worst, as Peter Fonda said: "This guy's a looney tune. But he sure is interesting."

You're not going to learn anything particularly new from reading this, but it's a fun diversion skipping lightly through the lives of some of Hollywood's more interesting characters, and one that makes me wish that our stars of today had a little more hell in them.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this book, you may not be well versed in all the factual information there is on the four gents in question, but you will feel entertained (and probably like you need to take a shower, as well.)

Think of every stereotypical story you can of a rich, entitled actor, a drugged out celebrity hedonist, or a Lothario of epic proportions and they will not surpass the myriad of tales told in this book. Following these four very famous actors from the humble beginnings of their troubled childhoods (I guess I could blame my mother and father for my lack of fame – they were too good to me,) to their superstar careers and including all the trials and tribulations, the good the bad and the nasty things that happened along the way.

If you like reading about celebrities and their incredible fortunes and wicked excesses don’t bother you, then this one should keep you entertained.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with some of the other reviews I’ve seen on here about how the author’s own unnecessary misogynistic commentary often distracts from the storytelling going on here - it feels pretty clear he’s admiring and wanting to live up to the worst aspects of these men he’s writing about (I don’t remember this being as much of an issue in his superior Hellraisers, but maybe I just wasn’t as sensitive to it back when I read that one). But there ARE a good amount of fascinating, funny anecdotes here, even if the end result is just to convince you that no matter how any great performances they may have given, it probably wasn’t worth it for anyone to have to put up with these assholes.

[Scott Wild · Rating 2 out of 5]

Damn...never meet your heroes. I have admired these four actors for most of my life. While they are incredibly talented on-screen, I would not take the time to have a beer with either of them. Pretty much a hoard of scumbags when it comes to how they treat others...especially women. An interesting look backstage on the sets of some of Hollywood's biggest films...which makes me damn glad my girls didn't earnestly follow their Hollywood dreams...Success and the entertainment industry spotlight come with a huge price tag on them...

[Brian J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good info and stories, but if you've read any other biographies about the four stars this book profiles, you've heard all this already. Some of it comes across as tabloid-like, but it serves the tone of the book. Good, not great.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brash and unapologetically wild. Every now and then I thoroughly enjoy a book like this!

[Dank Wit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically trashy comfort reading; pretty familiar with the landscape (admittedly I'm pretty tired of Beatty at this point) but there were enough juicy anecdotes that it justified the kilobytes it took up on my phone for a week. The British tabloid style has always left me amused, what can I say? Apparently the one the author wrote on British equivalents was better, and I intend to seek it out down the road.

[Dierregi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chosen as holiday reading, this book proved to be lightweight enough, but considerably more sycophantic than expected. Even if it was obvious that Brando, Hopper, Beatty and Nicholson were selected by the author because he liked them, I was not prepared for such a level of deferential unctuousness.

I was never a fan of any of those bad boys and I just wanted to read some entertaining stories about the golden age of cinema. Unfortunately, my low expectations were met by a collection of facts retrievable with a simple online search, glued together by minimal gossip, conjectures and tons of praise.

The red line linking the biographies is that the four of them met at some stage and occasionally worked together, sometimes in obscure or forgotten movies. We further discover that being rich and famous helps picking up women and that the profession of acting seems particularly conducive to addictions (to drugs, booze, sex… whatever). Not the revelations of the century.

As far as each actor is concerned: in my opinion Brando was way overrated and I always found his mumbling unbearable. After starting a stellar movie career with iconic roles, he collected a series of flops, all conveniently ignored by the author. His contempt for his profession was one of his most irritating features. Although I agree that actors are much too venerated, Brando cashed on his reputation and enjoyed all that money can buy, while professing to be "ashamed" to earn his life that way. Perhaps he should have been informed that working in a mine is way more inconvenient and a lot less well paid.

Besides, he had an unpleasant, twisted personality. He was grossly disrespectful towards co-worker, even if according to the author some of his outrageous jokes were just harmless pranks. Finally, he was enormously arrogant and vain. He was given the part of Kurtz in Apocalypse Now because Coppola was expecting a lean, mean actor playing the crazy guy in jungle. Consequently, Brando's scenes where tailored around him and shot mostly in semi darkness to hide his obese body.

Hopper was convinced to be the best actor in the world, even if he made only three decent movies in his whole life. After the unexpected success of "Easy Rider" – which also launched Nicholson's career, Hopper went megalomaniac wild, wasted ten years in foolish projects and abusing all sorts of illegal substances. After repeated spells in rehab, he managed to go back in the game and amass a huge fortune. Of course it is very convenient to play the rebel within the establishment, thus risking nothing. The good thing about making it in Hollywood is that you just need a single hit and you can go on living on your legend for the rest of your life, while billions of suckers will think you are a genius and adore you forever.

Beatty is described as a sex-addicted, obsessive-compulsive womanizer and the "shallowest man in Hollywood" – no small achievement. His greatest contribution to the history of movies lies thirty years in the past, and yet he too is considered a Hollywood legend.

Nicholson was perhaps the best actor of the bunch. Unfortunately, with the passing of time he turned into a parody of himself. His face paralyzed in an eternal, demented grin, with eyebrows unnaturally arched (thanks to Botox) and scary white gnashers (thanks to his dentist). Apparently, despite being ugly and unattractive, he was also a womanizer and the owner of the house where Polanski had his unfortunate sexual encounter with a pubescent girl. Nicholson was not there at the time, but the author kindly informs us that he was often in some sexual mess of his own. Given the fact that Nicholson had a decent career, he gets the most sycophantic tribute. He gets so much praise; one would think he found a cure for cancer.

Conclusion: if love movie stars and rehashed, watered down gossip, this is the book for you.

[Kahn]

Following on from his wonderful account of four of this nation's favourite reprobates, Sellers attempts to repeat the trick with four of Hollywood's finest.

The only snag being, they didn't really seem to raise hell. Well, Hopper did, but Brando was just a bit weird (and ate a lot), Nicholson liked a drink and a toke (and to hit people with golf clubs) and Beatty just shagged anything that stood still long enough.

Now, I don't know if Sellers just didn't have the time to do the research (it does read like it was rushed in places) of if he just couldnt find the people who shared a snifter and a sniff with his chosen subjects (Hopper again the exception), but this is far more interesting as a catalogue of for great bodies of work rather than four lives lived on the edge of a bar stool (as the first book certainly was).

That said, it was entertaining and fun - and the stories of Brando using cue cards or ear-pieces are interesting, and you finish with renewed respect for the talents of the four men (especially Beatty).

Inadvertanly, the book captures the crucial difference between Britain and the US. Our book of hellraisers barely survived, the American version is safe and sanitised - just as Hollywood would like it.

[David Ward · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hollywood Hellraisers: The Wild Lives and Fast Times of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, and Jack Nicholson by Robert Sellers (Skyhorse 2010)(920) is without a doubt in the top-five worst excuses for a book ever set down in print. This adds nothing to the world's store of info about any of these actors; the book appears to be an excuse for the author to use profanity in print. I rate this book one star out of ten only because I can't figure out how to give it a zero. 1/10, finished 8/19/11.

[Tyrone Atkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a strange book this is. On one hand, it's linear break down of the careers and bad behaviours of Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson is largely entertaining and this will be down to the fact that the chronicles of these legendary actors and the debauchery afforded to them by their talent in a time where naughtiness went largely unchecked, is interesting.

But Hollywood Hellraisers (2009) suffers from a near-fatal flaw, the author's voice. As fun as it is to read about these four actors in a whistlestop tour of their lives, Robert Sellers displays giddiness at their exploits. It's commendable that the doesn't judge them but it would be equally correct if he didn't condone it either; it feels like he's laughing at Brando's precociousness on filmselts, he's urging Hopper to do another line, cheering Beatty on as he bed's another hopeful starlett and handing Nicholson the golf club that he smashes a motorists BMW in during a road rage incident.

This is good toilet reading but I'd recommend you find standalone biographies of these Tinseltown bad boys rather than this narratively dubious bite-size morsals.

[Kris Roedig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hollywood Hellraisers is chock full of stories about 4 of the great entertainers from Hollywood whose performances will live on for literal generations.

The book really gets good, for me at least, when the films of the #70s and beyond come in. Some BTS tidbits which I hadn’t heard and others which were told from a new perspective.

Alas, it’s score is only an 8/10 simply because the author, Robert Sellers is - utterly revered with the long line of Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, and Marlon Brando’s sexual conquests. Also, spouting catchy lines before is break is good and all by narrator Jim Fragione, but the author should really tell the reader which film it’s from and the narrator should use *some* inflection.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting at points. I listened to the audiobook which really made the British word choices stand out. The only one of these actors who I'd really consider a hellraiser would be Dennis Hooper who I've always considered overrated. I'm not the target audience for Easy Rider, but my opinion of the film went even lower when I listened to a commentary track by Hopper and there were long stretches when he couldn't even find anything to say about the film. Brando seemed more of a weirdo. Nicholson raised a little hell but seems like too nice of a guy to be a hellraiser. Sex was Beatty's only vice which again doesn't seem like much hellraising.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see reviews that are terrible but I just can't. This book is comedy gold and a hidden gem. Think most thought this was a basic thoughtful biography but it's not. It's satire and I couldn't stop laughing. In a society today where everyone is overly sensitive, I found this read to be just what we all really need and what we all need to remember. Books are ment to be written this way sometimes. To let us know we can have fun, be offended and laugh our asses off. So buy, listen or read this book. I found it refreshing

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - No. Just. No. Marlon Brando was disgusting. Dennis Hopper was an addict (so, let’s talk about him instead of helping), Warren Beatty thought he was God’s gift to all female kind, and Jack, well, Jack Nicholson was sort of a bad boy and a womanizer (just not to Warren’s standards). BUT from what I can tell, the author didn’t pay as much tribute to Jack as he did with the other three. I skipped around hoping something, anything really, would jump out at me and make me pay better attention. BUT NO! The writing was sub par at best. Not impressed.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audio book edition and after five chapters I've had enough. These four actors were talented, influencial and outrageous even by hollywood vainglorious standards. All had disfunctional childhoods and I found myself wondering if their "genius" wasn't instead mania. Although entertaining, there's only so many ways you can tell the story about arrogant bad boys enjoying fame, wealth and sex addiction.

[John McNally · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some entertaining anecdotes about the undoubtedly larger than life and hugely interesting actors that are its subject but they are let down by the course demeaning descriptions of pretty much any female mentioned. The author is like a child joyfully using the word 'fuck' to try and shock us. Given the characters he had to work with this book could and should have been much better.

[Claudia McCarty · Rating 1 out of 5]

A terribky sexist waste of time that glorifies Hollywood's worst narcissists and their shameful behavior especially towards women. A perfect read for any anachronistic moron who thought Hugh Hefner was on the right track.

[Cassie Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed hearing about their movies and the work they put into making the movies. I could have done without the details given regarding their romantic lives, but I should have known given the title.

[Bob McCormick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'll sum it up without spoilers:
Marlon was always crazy
Dennis was always drunk and on drugs
Warren tried to have sex with everyone
Jack has always been like he is now.

All of them had lots of sex with lots of women, sometimes with dodgy consent.

That's literally the whole book.

[Meri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a fun trashy thing to listen to at work. The author is snarky, to say the least. And very British based on the lingo. Which was hilarious because the narrator was not British. Anyway, yeah, those boys were wild.

[Lulu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd like to give this zero stars - dont bother reading, no insight, badly written plus author comes off as star struck.

[Des Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth a read

[RK Byers · Rating 3 out of 5]

as good as this book was at the high points, after a while, it kinda became a drag.

[Kenneth Summers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok not great.

Was most interested in jack Nicholson , Dennis hopper and marlon Brando. Learned a few new things about those three.

[George Dudley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book as there was a lot of things I didn't know that these actors. The book is almost like reading FOUR mini biographies. It was interesting and entertaining.

[Sharon Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this... easy read with all the nitty gritty