New Biography Delivers an Intense Portrait of 24's Kiefer Sutherland and Reveals the Extreme Life and Career of the Man the World Knows as Tormented Counterterrorist Agent Jack Bauer

BOSTON, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- KIEFER SUTHERLAND: Living Dangerously (Transit Publishing; $25.00; January 11, 2010) by celebrity biographer CHRISTOPHER HEARD is an in-depth portrait of Kiefer Sutherland, the man and the actor. The book details how Sutherland's personality and life experiences have added up to make him the perfect Jack Bauer, a man of extremes, on the long-running action-drama-espionage TV series 24.

This brand-new biography follows Sutherland from the highs of his major early successes in The Lost Boys, Young Guns, and Flatliners in the 1980s to the lows of being virtually typecast as a psychotic killer in low-budget direct-to-video films in the late 1990s.

For the first time readers learn the true story of how Sutherland took a break from Hollywood to rope steers on the rodeo circuit and how this actor, who has played so many celluloid cowboys, finally met the real thing -- and how he stacked up.

Author Christopher Heard shows how Sutherland took the raw material of his own life to make Jack Bauer an iconic hero for a post-9/11 world, where fear of terrorism remains widespread -- a world of danger, anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty.

Although 24 has made Sutherland a very rich man, he has continued to behave erratically off-set, engaging in ever more serious exploits which culminated in his having to serve 6 weeks in jail in 2007. With 24 now in its last season, Sutherland is facing a future without Jack Bauer. How will he handle it? Will he build on his success, or will his inner demons bring him down again?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Toronto-based CHRISTOPHER HEARD built his career out of a lifetime passion for the history and culture of film and TV. He had his first screenplay optioned by a major Hollywood studio at age 21. Christopher had a long, Gemini Award-winning stint as a film critic on the CBC program On The Arts. He also served as co-host of the popular syndicated Canadian TV show Reel to Real for nine years. Christopher has written four books on a number of well-known actors and filmmakers, including: Johnny Depp Photo Album (2009), Mickey Rourke: High and Low (2006).

SOURCE Christopher Heard