Biography

Donald Spoto was born on June 28, 1941 in New Rochelle, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000), The Girl (2012) and Reluctant Saint: Francis of Assisi (2003). He was married to Ole Flemming Larsen. He died on February 11, 2023 in Koege, Denmark.

Has written books on Ingrid Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, James Dean, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Stanley Kramer, Preston Sturges, Princess Diana, Lotte Lenya, Laurence Olivier, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Tennessee Williams, and Elizabeth Taylor.

The first edition of his book, "The Art Of Alfred Hitchcock", published in 1977, claims that he had, by that point, spent roughly 1500 hours of his life watching Hitchcock films, suggesting he had seen them many times each. However, the book has some extremely odd mistakes - the character played by Joan Fontaine in "Suspicion" is said to be surnamed "McKinlaw" when it's "McLaidlaw", whilst the Anthony Dawson character in "Dial M For Murder" is said to be called "Swan Lesgate". In fact, the character's real surname is "Swann", with two n's, but he poses as a "Captain Lesgate" for a time. Also, the famous director F.W. Murnau, is referred to as "Fred W. Murnau", which he was never called.

In his 2007 biography of Grace Kelly, he claims that Princess Grace personally asked him to write a book about her, specifying that he must wait until 25 years after her death before doing so. As she died at age 52 in a car crash, very unexpectedly, and was only a few years older than Spoto (whom she knew only slightly, and who had published no biographies at the time of her death), some people have been skeptical about this claim.

Taught in the Department of Religion at the College of New Rochelle.

Taught in the Theology Department at Fairfield University in Connecticut.