Donald Spoto

Donald Spoto (born June 28, 1941) is an American biographer and theologian. He is known for his best-selling biographies of people in the worlds of film and theater, and more recently for his books on theology and spirituality. Spoto has written 29 books, including biographies of Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Alan Bates. The BBC/HBO television film The Girl (2012), about Tippi Hedren's experience during the filming of The Birds (1963), was based in part on Spoto's work on Hitchcock. Spoto has also written biographical accounts of the House of Windsor from the Victorian era to Diana, Princess of Wales, and of religious figures such as Jesus, Saint Joan of Arc, and Saint Francis of Assisi; the latter was made into a television program by Faith & Values Media.