This work traces Audie Murphy’s life as a film actor, including reviews of each of his films from
Beyond Glory
(1948) to
A Time for Dying
(1971). A biography of the actor runs from his birth date (listed as 1924 so he could get into the army a year early, but really 1925) to his three years in the army winning every possible combat medal, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, and from his entry into Hollywood at James Cagney’s invitation to his final dramatic decline, gambling his fortunes away, becoming involved in violent episodes, and dying in a plane crash in 1971. Each of the 49 film reviews gives full credits, including casts, characters, crew, date of release, location, and cost, backgrounds for directors and main players, and comments and anecdotes from interviews with Murphy’s colleagues. Each section also describes what was happening in the actor’s life at the time of the filming and gives interesting comments about the production. The sections on films also include reviews and critics’ notices from trade papers and newspapers of the time, and the work is richly illustrated with film stills and private photographs.