Jon Krampner

This is the website of Jon Krampner, biographer of Kim Stanley. "Female Brando: The Legend of Kim Stanley" was published in June of 2006 by Back Stage Books, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications.

On this site, you can read the opening passage of the book...peruse the table of contents...take the Kim Quiz...find out about booksignings and other appearances by the author...and learn more about one of the most brilliant, fascinating and troubled stars in post-World War II Broadway history.

During the 1950's and '60's, no actress dazzled Broadway like Kim Stanley.

She was acclaimed the greatest stage actress of a generation that included Julie Harris, Geraldine Page, Colleen Dewhurst, Piper Laurie and Anne Bancroft.

Arthur Penn called her the American Duse.

Elizabeth Taylor (in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof") and Marilyn Monroe (in "Bus Stop") copied her stage performances on film.

Men longed for her (and many were successful, even when she was married).

Scandal shadowed her.

And theatergoers couldn't get enough of this Method-inspired performer from the Actors Studio.

In roles such as Cherie, the "chantoosie" from "Bus Stop"; Millie Owens, the angst-ridden adolescent in "Picnic"; Sara Melody, the headstrong innkeeper's daughter in "A Touch of the Poet"; Elizabeth von Ritter, an early patient of Freud in "A Far Country"; and Masha in "The Three Sisters" she had critics scrambling for superlatives. Kim was the leading lady of live television drama, and was Oscar-nominated for her work in the films "Seance on a Wet Afternoon" and "Frances".

But after a meteoric 15-year career on Broadway, her alcoholism, brooding obsession with her father and erratic behavior engulfed her, and this brilliant actress walked away from the theater never to return, embarking upon a long Garbo-like odyssey of mystery and reclusiveness.

Kim charmed and dazzled audiences, colleagues, friends and family, but also betrayed them -- and herself. Like other self-destructive icons in the American pantheon -- Elvis, Marilyn, or Marlon Brando, to whom she was often compared -- her talent was matched only by her ability to undo herself, and both aspects will stand as her legacy. This first biography of Kim tells all -- not only about her colorful and cautionary personal life, but about her unrivaled theatrical brilliance and what became of this stage legend when the house lights went dark.