Emerging through a haze of cigarette smoke, martinis and blinding stage lights, Bob Willoughby’s photographs of the Golden Age of Hollywood are an empathetic insight into the working and private lives of the stars of the era. His photographs of actors and musicians during the 1950s and ’60s inaugurated a new, photojournalistic approach to celebrity portraiture that came to define the genre. The candor and intimacy of his images colored not only the development of portrait photography but also the representation of celebrity culture in the second half of the century.
With sitters that included everyone from Frank Sinatra to Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley to Audrey Hepburn, the pioneering American photographer Bob Willoughby changed the way that movie stars are photographed today.
 |
| Kirk Douglas stands out of the studio lights on the Columbia Studios set of The Juggler, 1952 |
 |
| Alfred Hitchcock next to the Grandfather clock on the Universal Studios set of Marnie, 1964 |
 |
| An emotive close-up of director Otto Preminger on the RKO set of The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955 |
 |
| Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman on a specially constructed set at Paramount during filming of The Graduate, 1967 |
 |
| Audrey Hepburn rehearses the Loverly number with playback on the Warner Bros. set of My Fair Lady, 1963 |
 |
| Barbra Streisand in the Beverly Hills Hotel pool, 1963 |
 |
| Big Jay McNeely driving the crowd into a frenzy at his concert at Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 1951 |
 |
| Chet Baker resting after a recording session with Gerry Mulligan, Los Angeles, 1953 |
 |
| Close-up of Big Jay McNeely at his concert at Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 1951 |
 |
| Comedian Jacques Tati photographed in NYC for Glamour magazine, 1954 |
 |
| Deliciously attractive Natalie Wood in rehearsal on The Great Race, Warner Bros., 1964 |
 |
| Director Blake Edwards makes a direct hit on Natalie Wood with a cream pie, on set of The Great Race, 1964 |
 |
| Director George Cukor and Audrey Hepburn chat after filming has finished for the day, on the Covent Garden set of My Fair Lady, 1963 |
 |
| Director George Cukor gives Judy Garland the word on a deserted sound stage during A Star Is Born, 1954 |
 |
| Director Sydney Pollack on Warner Bros. set of They Shoot Horses, Don't They, 1969 |
 |
| Donald Sutherland sits for his portrait on location in NY for Klute, 1970 |
 |
| Drummer Al Bartee in action at the Big Jay McNeely concert, Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, 1951 |
 |
| Dustin Hoffman, buzzed by a World War I airplane, sits on set of The Graduate, Paramount Studios, 1967 |
 |
| Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift dance in rehearsal on the MGM set of Raintree County, 1956 |
 |
| Ella Fitzgerald at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, 1950 |
 |
| Elvis Presley and Sophia Loren at Paramount Studios, 1958 |
 |
| Fragile Pier Angeli with Kirk Douglas in his MGM dressing room during the Equilibrium segment of The Story of Three Loves, 1952 |
 |
| Frank Sinatra rehearsing for his show at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, 1960 |
 |
| Gerry Mulligan directing a recording session in Los Angeles, 1953 |
 |
| Goldie Hawn on Columbia Studios set of Cactus Flower, 1969 |
 |
| Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and crew are treated to an impromptu concert by Louis Armstrong, on the MGM set of High Society, 1956 |
 |
| Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis |
 |
| Jack Lemmon quietly smokes his cigar on the Columbia Studios set of Luv, 1966 |
 |
| James Dean sitting in the shadows on the Warner Bros. set of Rebel Without a Cause, 1955 |
 |
| Jane Fonda resting in a New York City garment factory during shooting of Klute, 1970 |
 |
| Jean Seberg in New York City's Central Park after she won the title role in Otto Preminger's Saint Joan, 1956 |
 |
| Jerry Lewis at a recording session for The Nagger, Hollywood, 1953 |
 |
| Judy Garland in her International Variety Show, L.A. Philharmonic, 1953 |
 |
| Julie Christie on location in San Francisco for Petulia, 1967 |
 |
| Katharine Hepburn walking in the Wicklow Mountains outside of Dublin, during filming of The Lion in Winter, 1967 |
 |
| Katharine Ross and Dustin Hoffman running away from the church at the end of The Graduate, Paramount Studios, 1967 |
 |
| Lee J. Cobb sitting on the lunar landscape location of MGM's Green Mansions, 1958 |
 |
| Marilyn Monroe lost in her own thoughts on set of Let's Make Love, 1960 |
 |
| Mia Farrow perched long-legged on the scaffolding of the Paramount set for Rosemary's Baby, 1967 |
 |
| Michael Caine on Universal Studios set for Gambit, 1965 |
 |
| Mickey Rooney and his son Teddy jumping for joy on the MGM lot in Culver City, 1958 |
 |
| Montgomery Clift sitting beneath a bulletin board on set of Raintree County, 1956 |
 |
| Peter O'Toole |
 |
| Portrait of Katharine Ross in her Paramount dressing room during The Graduate, 1967 |
 |
| Rock Hudson trying to type in his trailer, but the fans are a bit distracting. On location in Grado, Italy for A Farewell to Arms, 1957 |
 |
| Roman Polanski watches Mia Farrow rehearse, 1967 |
 |
| Roy Eldridge performs at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, 1950 |
 |
| Sean Connery on set of Hitchcock's Marnie at Universal Studios, 1964 |
 |
| Shirley MacLaine on the 20th Century Fox set of Can-Can, 1959 |
 |
| Sophia Loren surrounded by other actresses' dress forms in the Paramount Studios Wardrobe Department, 1958 |
