Spoto wrote 29 books,[2] including biographies of Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Alan Bates.
In 2013, the Academy of Art University (San Francisco) bestowed on him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his contributions to literature and education.
[1] Spoto taught theology, Christian mysticism, and Biblical literature at Fairfield University, at the College of New Rochelle, and later film studies at the New School for Social Research from 1966 until 1986.
Spoto served on the boards of directors of Human Rights Watch, Death Penalty Focus, and the San Francisco-based Children's Legal Protection Center.
[6] Michael Coveney, reviewing the Alan Bates biography in 2007 in The Guardian, described him as "an American quasi-academic gossipmonger who has produced zestful, authoritative books..."[7] Barry Forshaw wrote in The Times that Spoto is "one of the most perspicacious biographers, a man whose insights into his subjects are always razor-sharp.