Oscar Profile #159: Burt Lancaster

Born November 2, 1913 in East Harlem to a postal worker and his wife, Burt Lancaster was one of five children. A street smart kid, he developed an interest in gymnastics at an early age. He and childhood friend Nick Cravat formed an acrobatic team called Lang and Cravat in the 1930s and together joined the Kay Brothers Circus. An injury in 1939 forced him to give up the circus life. He then held numerous temporary jobs including some as a singing waiter in restaurants until 1942 when he joined the US Army. He spent most of the war years performing for the USO where he developed an interest in acting.

A supporting role in Broadway’s short-lived A Sound of Hunting in December, 1945 led to his being cast by producer Hal Wallis in 1946’s The Killers which made him an overnight star. The following year he formed a production company with his agent Harold Hecht. The two did not actually produce a film until 1952’s The Crimson Pirate with Lancaster and old pal, Nick Cravat. They were later joined by producer James Hill, best known as Rita Hayworth’s fifth husband, when Hecht-Lancaster became Hecht-Hill-Lancaster and continued to produce films including the Oscar winning Marty before dissolving the partnership in 1959 after several flops.

Post-Killers, pre-Crimson Pirate, Lancaster’s star continued to rise in such films as All My Sons; Criss Cross; The Flame and the Arrow and Jim Thorpe – All-American. Post-Crimson Pirate Lancaster spread his wings on even more challenging roles, some of which worked, some of which didn’t. He was miscast in both 1952’s Come Back, Little Sheba and 1955’s The Rose Tattoo, both of which won their female stars (Shirley Booth, Anna Magnani) Oscars. He and partner’s wife Hayworth were also less commanding than co-stars David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Wendy Hiller and Gladys Cooper in 1958’s Separate Tables. However, when he was good, he was very good as in From Here to Etenrity which won him the first of his three New York Film Critics’ awards and the first of his four Oscar nominations: Vera Cruz; Trapeze; The Rainmaker; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; Sweet Smell of Success and The Devil’s Disciple, all made prior to 1960.

Lancaster won his second New York Film Critics award and his only Oscar on his second nomination for 1960’s Elmer Gantry. At this point in his career he was less interested in playing starring roels than he was in playing interesting characters and proved it with his supporting role in 1961’s Judgment at Nuremberg. A starring role in 1962’s Birdman of Alcatraz brought him a third Oscar nomination while 1963’s The Leopard, filmed in Italy, gave him his own favorite role as a Sicilian don. He then played a cameo role in The List of Adrian Messenger the villain in Seven Days in May; the hero in The Train and one of the heroes in The Professionals. A participation deal in 1970’s Airport made him very wealthy even though he loathed the film and couldn’t understand how it received a single Oscar nomination, let alone ten.

He continued to play both starring and supporting roles in films throughout the 1970s, capping his career with his third New York Film Critics award and fourth Oscar nomination for 1981’s Atlantic City. Notable supporting roles in 1983’s Local Hero and 1989’s Field of Dreams kept him in the public eye longer than most of his contemporaries.
Married three times, Lancaster was the father of five children with his second wife, Norma, who divorced him in 1969 after having put up with his philandering for most of their twenty-four years together. A lifelong outspoken supporter of liberal causes, he was, along with Elizabeth Taylor and Burt Reynolds, one of the first Hollywood celebrities to advocate for AIDS research and support in 1985.

Having just visited his friend, actor Dana Andrews dying of Alzheimer’s Disease in December, 1990, Lancaster suffered a stroke while attempting to leave the hospital. He remained hospitalized until February, 1991 and incapacitated and unable to speak until his death on October 20, 1994, less than two weeks before what would have been his 81st birthday.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953), directed by Fred Ziennemann

Lancaster received his first of three New York Film Critics’ awards and the first of his four Oscar nominations for his tough but fair Army sergeant who is having an affair with company commander’s wife, Deborah Kerr, in this expertly made adaptation of James Jones’ steamy novel set in the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Although Lancaster’s performance was widely heralded, he himself was in awe of co-star Montgomery Clift’s portrayal of the idealistic private who is the film’s soul. Lancaster’s roll in the sand with Kerr is one of the most iconic moments in screen history.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957), directed by Alexander Mackendrick

Lancaster’s portrayal of the nasty New York gossip columnist, based on Walter Winchell, has long been regarded as one of his best performances while Tony Curtis’ portrayal of his sycophant assistant has similarly been considered that actor’s career best performance.

Years later, Lancaster still had trouble realizing the film was now a cult classic, having been a box office failure upon its original release, one of several films whose failure led to the demise of his production company which only two years earlier had produced the Oscar winning Marty.

ELMER GANTRY (1958), directed by Richard Brooks

Lancaster received his second New York Film Critics’ award and his only Oscar for his portrayal of the phony evangelist who meets his match in true believer Jean Simmons. Brooks’ film of Sinclair Lewis’ 1927 novel was one of the year’s biggest successes, which also won Oscars for Brooks’ screenplay and Shirley Jones’ sensational supporting performance as a prostitute whom Lancaster’s Gantry rammed the fear of God into. Dean Jagger and Arthur Kennedy also lend vivid support, the former as Simmons’ protector, the latter as a skeptical reporter.

THE LEOPARD (1963), directed by Luchino Visconti

Lancaster pretty much dismissed his Oscar winning performance in Elmer Gantry as nothing more than the repetition of the way he acted as a kid. He considered his portrayal of the Sicilian prince in Visconti’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner to be his best work.

Based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s posthumously published novel, Lancaster plays a member of the aristocracy, a leopard in world of jackals, who encourages nephew Alain Delon to pursue Claudia Cardinale, the beautiful daughter of a slimy merchant (Paulo Stoppa) because “things have to change so that they can stay the same”.

Although much admired by critics, the film’s only Oscar nomination was given to its breathtakingly beautiful costume design.

ATLANTIC CITY (1981), directed by Louis Malle

Down, but not out, Lancaster’s proud small-time gangster moves slowly, a mere shadow of the strong leading man of the actor’s younger days in this late career triumph.

Taking place at the time Atlantic City was changing from a lazy seaside resort into a gambling mecca, Lancaster takes on the protection of an alluring Susan Sarandon while being bossed around by sharp-tongued invalid Kate Reid in Malle’s ode to a changing world.

Lancaster won numerous awards for his performance including his third New York Film Critics’ award, but lost the Oscar to Henry Fonda who finally won a competitive Oscar for On Golden Pond the year after he won his career achievement Oscar, an honor Lancaster was never given despite his long time contributions to the art of movie making.