Sammy Davis Jr. in A Man Called Adam on DVD
Wim Wender's Paris, Texas on DVD
14th Annual Kansas Silent Film Festival - Feb. 26 & 27
Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 on DVD
Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 1 on DVD
Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy on DVD

Hellraisers: The Live and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole and Oliver Reed

They are the four most extraordinary and controversial film stars Britain ever produced, men who at their peak had the whole world at their feet and lived through some of the wildest exploits Hollywood has ever seen. But all that fame had a price. In HELLRAISERS: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed (Thomas Dunne Books), Robert Sellers tells the story of four actors who got away with the most outrageous acts of indecency, the kind of behavior that would ruin the careers of some of today’s most notorious tabloid stars.

Richard Burton had no doubt that 'God put me on this earth to raise hell'.

For Peter O'Toole: 'Booze is the most outrageous of drugs, which is why I chose it.'

Richard Harris 'loved the excitement of my drinking days. Life is made from memories, which is a pity as I don't remember much'.

Oliver Reed readily admitted: 'I do not live in the world of sobriety.'

Years before David Hasselhoff’s infamous cheeseburger video or Mel Gibson’s inspired outburst at a highway patrol officer, the true pioneers of being rich and infamous were stumbling out of nightclubs and causing all manner of devilry:

When drunk, Richard Harris would rush into traffic and attack passing cars with his bare fists, and once threw a wardrobe at his wife.
O'Toole once beat up a policeman after seeing some of his colleagues rough up a prostitute.
Burton twice faced angry husbands brandishing guns after he had seduced their wives.
Reed got the juvenile cast of the musical Oliver! (1968) drunk after spiking the children's drinks with vodka.

Robert Sellers’ HELLRAISERS is the story of four of the greatest thespian boozers who ever walked - or staggered - off a film set into a pub. It's a story of drunken binges of near biblical proportions, parties and orgies, broken marriages, drugs, riots and wanton sexual conquests. And yet these artists were seemingly immune from the law. They got away with it because of their extraordinary acting talent and because the public loved them. They were truly the last of a breed, the last of the movie hellraisers.

Robert Sellers traces the intertwining lives and careers of these four actors in a celebratory catalogue of their miscreant deeds, told with humor and affection and not an ounce of moralizing. Enjoy it. They bloody well did.

ROBERT SELLERS is the author of eight books. He contributes regularly to Empire, Total Film, Cinema Retro, and The Independent. A former stand up comedian, he lives in the United Kingdom with his wife and daughter.

HELLRAISERS will be available from bookstores everywhere in December.