For more than seven decades, Hollywood stars have had their portraits painted by art legend Don Bachardy, the longtime partner of playwright and novelist Christopher Isherwood. This oral history is an intertwined portrait of Bachardy’s three identities—a lifelong movie fan, as Isherwood’s young boyfriend and as an acclaimed portrait artist.
Don Bachardy: An Artist’s Life (Citadel Press, $29) by Michael Schreiber was released Oct. 28.
Bachardy readily attributes his art career to the support he received from Isherwood. Thus, he was Bachardy’s very first portrait subject from life, and across 30 years, became his most frequent subject. Bachardy and Isherwood were not only partners in life and love, but also creatively, collaborating on screenplays and with each other’s own work. They are the subjects of a painting by David Hockney that is set to be auctioned for a record-breaking $50 million.From his meeting in the 1950s until Isherwood’s death in 1986, they were a pioneering visible gay celebrity couple.
Over his course in Hollywood, the artist has had intimate encounters with James Dean; Bette Davis made dinner for him; he cooked for Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Bachardy even had a steamy affair with Rock Hudson’s boyfriend. Truman Capote tormented him during a death-defying flight. Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando gave him a ride to a Hollywood premiere; Ingrid Bergman picked him up on a Paris street corner. He and Audrey Hepburn slipped into a Paris movie matinee. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt slipped off their clothes for him. He candidly photographed Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Reese Witherspoon and Robert Downey Jr. posed privately for him.
Drawn from one-on-one interviews conducted at the Santa Monica home Bachardy shared with Isherwood, this oral history is an intimate biography filled with tantalizing celebrity tales set against the backdrop of Bachardy’s artistic and personal journey. This is a portrait of a life of artistic collaboration and unyielding and loving expression.
The book also features forewords from Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory and actor Simon Callow, along with opening statements from Liza Minnelli, Tom Ford, Joel Grey, Sir Ian McKellen, Robert Wagner, Edmund White and Michael York.
The author’s debut book, One-Man Show: The Life and Art of Bernard Perlin, was named a 2017 Stonewall Honor Book by the American Library Association and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. His second book, written with his husband, Jason Loper, is This American House, which chronicles their experiences restoring a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in rural Iowa. He is also the recipient of a 2021 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship,
Schreiber lives in Chicago, where he continues his work of the past 30 years as a special education teacher and life coach for children and young adults with autism. He can be found on Instagram at @MichaelSchreiberOfficial.
–From staff reports