Heavenly Bodies by Richard Dryer was published as part of the BFI (British Film Institute) Cinema Series in 1986. The cover features a Portrait of Joan Crawford by Even Arnold which was first published in The Unretouched Woman.
Heavenly Bodies is an academic book on film stardom that builds upon Dyer’s pioneering work in 1979’s Stars. Here, in his seminal piece of scholarship, he analyses the particular meanings that Marilyn Monroe, Paul Robeson and Judy Garland may embody for audiences.
