Craig Ellwood - the Californian Modernist best known for the Los Angeles Case Study Houses - was a product of Hollywood, fashioned and honed by ambition. This text examines both the architecture and the colourful life of this extraordinary man. Ellwood's life and career are discussed chronologically, beginning with his early work in the post-war building industry and ending with his retirement to Italy for a new life as a painter. From his initial interview with Ellwood in 1988, Neil Jackson's many interviews with dozens of Ellwood's family, friends and colleagues contribute to making this volume more than an architectural monograph. The book is illustrated with drawings and images from the Ellwood archives at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, as well as with photographs by Marvin Rand, Julius Shulman and specially commissioned pictures by John Linden.