James Mason: A Personal Biography

by Diana DeRosso

The author's half sister Pamela was James Mason's first wife and Diana de Rosso enjoyed a close friendship with the actor throughout his life. Drawing on her own experience and interviews with those who knew him, including Alec Guinness, Margaret Lockwood, Deborah Kerr and many other actors, directors and writers, Diana de Rosso lets us into the real life of a truly great Englishman.

Genres: Biography

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2015

Reviews

[Mark Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a definitive read on Mason, but does give another side to him. It's neither gossipy nor scholarly, the accounts of his sister in law, but is a nice timeline read across his career. Worth a look if you're a fan, but a short read overall.

[T Jerakis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book more insightful and true than the only other biography I'd read about James Mason (Morley). The author leaves out any dynamics of family members towards Mason's second wife, but that aspect only generated news headline-interest in postmortem, anyway. It does a good job of including many interview excerpts from friends and fellow actors/film industry professionals (synonymous adjectives here) that reveal Mason's achievement in his art and private-public melancholy in what can only have been a culturally and historically, unique period making up his lifetime of film.

[Stephen Tubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

His film career formed probably less than half the content of the biography but nevertheless, it was worth the listen. A decent man.