Books
- Flashback: A Brief History of Film (1986) with Louis D. Giannetti
- Five American Cinematographers (1987)
- Mary Pickford: America’s Sweetheart (1990)
- Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise (1993)
- The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930 (1997)
- Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford (1999)
- Louis B. Mayer: Lion of Hollywood (2005)
- Pieces of My Heart: A Life (2008) with Robert Wagner
- Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille (2010)
- You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age (2014) with Robert Wagner
- John Wayne: The Life and Legend (2014)
- I Loved Her In The Movies: Memories of Hollywood’s Legendary Actresses (2016) with Robert Wagner
- Hank & Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart (2017)