Background

Burton Stephen Lancaster was born on November 2, 1913, in Manhattan, New York, at his parents' home at 209 East 106th Street. He was the son of Elizabeth (née Roberts) and mailman James Henry Lancaster. Both of his parents were Protestants of working-class origin.

All four of his grandparents were Irish immigrants to the United States, from the province of Ulster; his maternal grandparents were from Belfast and were descendants of English immigrants to Ireland.

They resided in Italian East Harlem. When Lancaster and his brothers were old enough, they shoveled snow, sold newspapers, and shined shoes to earn money for the family. While James Lancaster was a gentle, warm father, Elizabeth was a strict disciplinarian, instilling in her children the virtues of honesty and loyalty, with whippings if necessary. She had no prejudices against the many different ethnic groups in her neighborhood and treated them all kindly, which made a strong impression on her son.

Lancaster's mother died of chronic intestinal nephritis.

In September 1961, Lancaster's father died. James Lancaster had lived with his son since 1947. The two had been very close.

Education

Lancaster attended Public School 121 for the lower elementary grades. There he did well, especially in reading and writing. He then transferred to Public School 83, where he enjoyed English and history, but did poorly in math. Lancaster loved reading and claimed to have read every book at the 110th Street library by the time he was 14.

At the age of 13, Lancaster lost his baby fat and grew into a tall, athletic young man. He ran in the streets and parks with neighborhood children, and at the Union Settlement House he appeared in a play. A famous director, Richard Boleslavsky, saw him in the show and was so impressed, he discussed the possibility of drama school with Elizabeth Lancaster. Her son, however, was not willing, calling acting "sissy stuff."

At camp, when he was nine, Lancaster met his lifelong friend Nick Cravat, a tough little fellow with whom Lancaster would later work. Lancaster attended DeWitt Clinton High, an all-boys academic school for students who intended to go on to college. He graduated from high school on June 26, 1930 and entered New York University in September of 1931.

Lancaster left college early in his sophomore year.

Career

Burt Lancaster hoped to be a gym teacher and became involved with gymnastics. Lancaster joined a circus with his friend Cravat. They earned three dollars a week as acrobats.

In 1940, when Lancaster seriously injured his right hand, he decided to give up the circus. He worked for a department store, a refrigeration company, and at several other jobs, including that of a singing waiter, until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942.

Lancaster became part of Special Services, whose purpose was to entertain the soldiers and provide them with off-duty activities. He began as an athletic instructor, moving on to the job of entertainment specialist, where he wrote, directed and performed in skits.

Later, in New York, Lancaster visited Anderson, who worked for ABC radio. In the building's elevator, a man asked him if he was an actor. Lancaster responded that he was a "dumb actor," meaning he performed without words, as an acrobat. A few minutes later, the man telephoned the office where Lancaster was visiting and asked him to audition for the play, A Sound of Hunting.

Lancaster got the part. After three weeks of rehearsals, the play opened on November 6, 1945 and closed three weeks later. Lancaster then got an agent, Harold Hecht, and signed a contract with Hal Wallis Productions, Inc. on January 8, 1946 to make two films a year for seven years. He was also able to work for other companies. Lancaster took the train to California with one set of clothes and thirty dollars.

While waiting to make his first film for Hal Wallis, Lancaster signed a contract with Mark Hellinger to make one picture a year for up to five years. Lancaster was paid $2,500 a week for his work in The Killers, which became a big hit and launched Lancaster's film career. He later said of that time, as quoted in a Sidney Skolsky syndicated column of 1950, "I woke up one day a star. It was terrifying."

On Lancaster's second film, Desert Fury, the actor argued angrily with the director when he disagreed about how something should be done in the film. This was a habit he never lost and stemmed from his intense involvement with his work. In his third film, I Walk Alone, Lancaster starred with Kirk Douglas, with whom he would make other films, including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The two had a love-hate relationship until Lancaster's death.

In March 1948, Lancaster began work on Kiss the Blood off My Hands, the first project of his new company, Hecht-Norma Productions, that he had formed with Harold Hecht.

In 1952, Lancaster made the film Come Back, Little Sheba with actress Shirley Booth. Twenty years later, Lancaster would call Booth the finest actress he had ever worked with. His portrayal of a middle-aged alcoholic surprised audiences and displayed his acting abilities and willingness not to be typecast. Of this shift in his career, he later said, in an article in Films and Filming, "Suddenly they began to think of me as a serious actor."

In 1953, Lancaster starred in From Here to Eternity as Sgt. Warden, a tough, serious soldier who falls in love with his commanding officer's wife. The film contains one of the most famous love scenes of all times, with Lancaster and his co-star Deborah Kerr kissing on a beach as waves wash over them. From Here to Eternity earned more money than any other film in the history of Columbia Pictures to that point. Lancaster won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for the best actor of 1953. He was nominated for, but did not win, the Academy Award for best actor of that year.

In 1954, Lancaster directed his first movie, The Kentuckian, in which he also starred. Directing had been a dream of his, but after the lukewarm reception the film received, Lancaster was terribly disappointed and directed only one other movie, The Midnight Man, in 1974.

Lancaster starred in Elmer Gantry, (1960), about a larger-than-life evangelist. Later Lancaster was to say that of all the roles he had played, Elmer Gantry was the most like himself. For his work in the film Lancaster won the New York Film Critics Award for best actor of 1960, the Golden Globe for best motion picture actor in a drama, for 1960, and the Academy Award for best actor of 1960.

In late 1960, Lancaster began filming Birdman of Alcatraz, in which he plays a prisoner who raises birds. Lancaster became very emotionally involved with his role. "One of the problems an actor faces, and it's a very dangerous thing, is to get so involved in a role he loses control of what he is doing. With Birdman of Alcatraz, I couldn't stop crying throughout the film," Lancaster explained in Take 22: Moviemakers on Moviemaking. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Robert Stroud.

Lancaster began filming Judgment at Nuremberg in early 1961. The movie detailed the 1948 war crimes trial of four Nazi judges. Lancaster played Ernst Janning, but was not popular in the role. In 1964, Lancaster began filming The Hallelujah Trail in New Mexico.

As the 1970s began, Lancaster had not had a successful movie for three years. His good looks were fading, and he drank to excess. He became depressed. Although he made 14 films in the 1970s, they were not very popular. In 1973, Lancaster moved to Rome.

In late 1979, Lancaster began work on Atlantic City, a film about two elderly gangsters. It was the first film in which he played a senior citizen. For his work in the film, Lancaster earned several awards including the BAFTA Film Award for best actor, 1980; the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for best actor, 1980; and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actor, 1980. In 1988, Lancaster made the very popular film Field of Dreams, his last film for the big screen. Lancaster's last work was a television mini-series called "Separate But Equal."

In November 1990, Lancaster suffered a major stroke which left him with paralysis on his right side and difficulty speaking. Lancaster died in Century City, California on October 20, 1994, only two weeks away from his 81st birthday. He was cremated and his ashes were buried under a large oak tree in Westwood Memorial Park located in Westwood Village, California.

Achievements

• 

  Burt Lancaster was one of the most popular film stars of all times. Initially known for playing "tough guys", he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles. He was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that performance and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1980).
  
  During the 1950s, his production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster was highly successful, making films such as Trapeze (1956), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), and Separate Tables (1958). The American Film Institute ranks Lancaster as #19 of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
  
  He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.

Works

More photos

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  • The Cassandra Crossing 1976
  • The Swimmer 1968
  • I Walk Alone 1948
  • The Killers 1946
  • Executive Action 1973
  • Seven Days in May 1964
  • Sorry, Wrong Number 1948
  • Ulzana's Raid 1972
  • Castle Keep 1969
  • The Scalphunters 1968
  • Scandal Sheet 1985
  • The Rose Tattoo 1955
  • Train 1965
  • Valdez is Coming 1971
  • The Crimson Pirate 1982
  • The Professionals 1966
  • The Unforgiven 1960
  • The Leopard 1963
  • Local Hero 1983
  • Voyage of Terror 1990
  • The Gypsy Moths 1969
  • Criss Cross 1949
  • Tough Guys 1986
  • Atlantic City 1980
  • South Sea Woman 1953
  • Brute Force 1947
  • The Flame and the Arrow 1950
  • Zulu Dawn 1979
  • Lawman 1971
  • Jim Thorpe: All American 1951
  • Sweet Smell of Success 1957
  • The Young Savages 1961
  • The Rainmaker 1956

Religion

Despite his Protestant background and upbringing, Lancaster identified himself as an atheist later in life.

Politics

In September 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed 34 people from Hollywood to investigate the extent of Communist infiltration in the movie industry. To protest, several people in the industry, including Lancaster, formed the Committee for the First Amendment. This represented the beginning of his involvement with liberal political causes.

Lancaster was a vocal supporter of liberal political causes, and frequently spoke out in support of racial minorities, including at the March on Washington in 1963. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and political movements such as McCarthyism, and he helped pay for the successful defense of a soldier accused of "fragging" (murdering) another soldier during that war. In 1968, Lancaster actively supported the presidential candidacy of antiwar Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, and frequently spoke on his behalf during the Democratic primaries. He campaigned heavily for George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. In 1985, Lancaster joined the fight against AIDS after his close friend, Rock Hudson, contracted the disease. He campaigned for Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election.

Views

Quotations: "I judge a restaurant by the bread and by the coffee."

"I found marriage somewhat stifling. I don't know that I am the kind of man who ought to be married."

"I am reasonably happy, providing I keep busy."

"I always try to improve, to find new ways of expressing myself, to keep looking for truth and originality."

"Can anything be more Un-American than the Un-American committee?"

"I walked out of class one day and I never went back."

"I am interested in being in pictures that I would like to see."

"I believe we should appeal to people at the higher levels."

"A circus is like a mother in whom one can confide and who rewards and punishes."

Personality

Brave, vigorous, handsome, and an actor of great range, Lancaster never yielded in his immaculate splendor, proud to be a movie actor. According to testimony in Kate Buford's Burt Lancaster: An American Life, Lancaster was devotedly loyal to his friends and family. Old friends from his childhood remained his friends for life.

Lancaster's lifelong terror of water finally lifted in 1966 when he learned swimming for the film, ‘The Swimmer’. Though the film bombed at the box office, it remained special to Lancaster for reasons obvious.

Physical Characteristics: Not only was Lancaster a capable actor, but he looked very good on camera. He stood six feet two inches tall, weighed 180 pounds, and had a large chest and a small waist. He looked younger than he was and had a gorgeous smile and bright blue eyes. His vitality was more than cheerfulness or strength; he seemed charged with power.

As Lancaster grew older, he became increasingly plagued by atherosclerosis, barely surviving a routine gall bladder operation in January 1980. Following two minor heart attacks, he had to undergo an emergency quadruple coronary bypass in 1983, after which he was extremely weak. However, he still managed to continue acting.

Lancaster's acting career ended after he suffered a stroke on November 30, 1990, which left him partly paralyzed and largely unable to speak.

Quotes from others about the person

• Gary Fishgall: "If one had to choose a single picture from the prime of Lancaster's career to define the essence of his stardom, Elmer Gantry would be that film."

Interests

• Lancaster adored movies, especially those of the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, but he did not want to become an actor.
  
  He loved playing bridge and took the game very seriously.

• Politicians

  Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Michael Dukakis

• Artists

  Lancaster collected modern French paintings.

• Sport & Clubs

  Lancaster was involved with gymnastics.

• Music & Bands

  Until he was 15, Lancaster wanted to be an opera singer. Throughout his life he retained a love of opera and symphonic music.

Connections

Lancaster met June Ernst, an acrobat, and married her in 1935 when he was 21 and she 18. They separated in 1937 and divorced in 1940.

While putting on shows for the troops in Italy in 1944, Lancaster met the woman who was to become his second wife, Norma Anderson, a United Service Organization (USO) entertainer.

Lancaster drove back east to be with Anderson, who had given birth to their first child, James, on June 30, 1946. Lancaster and Anderson had not yet married, but would do so on December 28, 1946 in Yuma, Arizona. Their second son, Billy, was born in November of 1947.

In 1949, Lancaster began an affair with actress Shelley Winters. His marriage to Norma had problems because of her drinking, and Lancaster was often unfaithful. Norma gave birth to their third child, Susan, in July 1949. In 1950, when Norma again became pregnant, Winters realized that her relationship with Lancaster had no future. She burned all her photos of him and ended the affair.

In 1964, he met a hairdresser named Jackie Bone, who would be his girlfriend for the next 20 years. Although Lancaster was still married to Norma, he fell very much in love with Bone. He and Norma finally separated in 1967, but did not divorce until 1969. The end of his marriage was hard on Lancaster, who considered himself a family man, but he could not deal with his wife's alcoholism. Lancaster's relationship with Bone was stormy. In 1973, Lancaster and Bone moved to Rome. He learned to speak some Italian, cook spaghetti and even grew his own herbs for cooking. Their relationship remained stormy, and he cheated on her, as he had with Norma. The couple moved back to the U.S. in 1976.

At a party in 1985, Lancaster met Susie Scherer, a legal secretary who began to work for him. They fell in love and married in September 1990.

Father:

James Henry Lancaster

(1876–1961)

Mother:

Elizabeth Lancaster

(1876–1929)

Spouse:

Susan Martin

(m. 1990)

ex-spouse:

Norma Anderson

(July 30, 1917 - July 21, 1988, Los Angeles County, California, United States)

Daughter:

Joanna Lancaster

(b. July 1951)

Sister:

Jane Lancaster

(1917–1918)

Brother:

Bill Lancaster

(1912–1946)

Brother:

James R. Lancaster

(1910–1961)

ex-spouse:

June Ernst

(m. 1935; div. 1946)

Son:

Bill Lancaster

(November 17, 1947 – January 4, 1997)

Bill Lancaster was an American screenwriter and actor.

Daughter:

Sighle Lancaster

(b. 1954)

Daughter:

Susan Elizabeth Lancaster

(b. July 5, 1949)

Son:

Jimmy Lancaster

(b. June 30, 1946)

Friend:

Rock Hudson

( November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985)

Rock Hudson was an American actor, generally known for his turns as a leading man during the 1950s and 1960s.

References

• Burt Lancaster: The Man and His Movies
  1984
• Burt Lancaster: An American Life
  2000
• Burt Lancaster: A Filmography and Biography
  2000
• The Biography of Burt Lancaster
  1995
• Burt Lancaster: The Terrible-Tempered Charmer
  1995
• Burt Lancaster: A Singular Man
  1996
• Burt Lancaster
  1975