<p>Because of his lengthy screen resume that includes almost eighty appearances in such movies as Camille and Waterloo Bridge, as well as a marriage and divorce to actress Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor was a central figure of Hollywood&#39;s classical era. Despite this, he can be regarded as a 'lost' star, an interesting contradiction given the continued success he enjoyed during his lifetime.</p><p>In Robert Taylor: Male Beauty, Masculinity, and Stardom in Hollywood, author Gillian Kelly investigates the initial construction and subsequent developments of Taylor&#39;s star persona across his thirty-five-year career. By examining concepts of male beauty, men as object of the erotic gaze, white American masculinity, and the unusual longevity of a career initially based on looks, Kelly highlights how gender, masculinity, and male stars and the ageing process affected Taylor&#39;s career. Placing Taylor within the histories of both Hollywood&#39;s classical era and mid-twentieth-century America, this study positions him firmly within the wider industrial, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts in which he worked.</p><p>Kelly examines Taylor&#39;s film and television work as well as ephemeral material, such as fan magazines, to assess how his on- and off-screen personas were created and developed over time. Taking a mostly chronological approach, Kelly places Taylor&#39;s persona within specific historical moments in order to show the complex paradox of his image remaining consistently recognizable while also shifting seamlessly within the Hollywood industry. Furthermore, she explores Taylor&#39;s importance to Hollywood cinema by demonstrating how a star persona like his can 'fit' so well, and for so long, that it almost becomes invisible and, eventually, almost forgotten.</p>