It is one of the most memorable images in film history: King Kong standing on top of the Empire State Building holding Fay Wray in his palm while being strafed by fighter planes. It's so powerful that it has overshadowed Kong's creator, Merian C. Cooper, a filmmaker, explorer, war hero and aviation pioneer whose real-life adventures were nearly as dramatic as the movie. Indeed, the film, released in 1933, is in many ways an autobiographical work.

This month Villard is publishing the first comprehensive biography of Cooper, "Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong," by Mark Cotta Vaz, with an introduction by Peter Jackson. Mr. Jackson, whose remake of "King Kong" starring Adrien Brody, Jack Black and Naomi Watts is to be released in December, said that seeing "Kong" when he was 9 was the reason he makes movies.

Mr. Jackson's film is at least the third version of "King Kong." (It was subject to what most critics agreed was an unfortunate remake in 1976, produced by Dino De Laurentiis.)

"Cooper deserves to be in the pantheon of American folklore icons, like Lindbergh and Babe Ruth," Mr. Vaz said in a telephone interview from California. "And in his masterpiece, he distilled all the terrors and excitement, the adventure and horrors that he experienced as a soldier and explorer."