Google Ads
Login | Sign Up

Job Actor, director, producer
Years active 1946-90
Top Roles Mike Rettig, Col. Thaddeus Gearhart, Capt. Vallo, Alvaro Mangiacavallo, Chris Keller
Top Genres Drama, Romance, Action, Western, Film Adaptation, Comedy
Top Topics Book-Based, Romance (Drama), Based on Play, Courtroom, True Story (based on)
Top Collaborators Harold Hecht (Producer), Hal B. Wallis (Producer), Kirk Douglas, Whit Bissell, Edmond O'Brien, Tony Curtis, Philip Van Zandt, John Frankenheimer (Director)
Also Born on November 2
Also Born in 1913
Also Born in New York
Also a Scorpio

Burt Lancaster Overview:

Legendary actor, Burt Lancaster, was born Burton Stephen Lancaster on Nov 2, 1913 in New York City, NY. Lancaster died at the age of 81 on Oct 20, 1994 in Century City, CA and was laid to rest in Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.

MINI BIO:

Muscular, fair-haired American actor with flashing smile tinged with menace. A former circus acrobat - and remarkably nimble for such a big man - he developed a taste for acting in wartime troop shows. Although he started in black thrillers, he became best known in swashbucklers, swinging spectacularly around on ropes. Some regret the drift into excessive seriousness that followed, although he did win an Oscar in 1960 for his fire-eating preacher in Elmer Gantry and was also nominated for From Here to Eternity, Birdman of Alcatraz, and, many years later, Atlantic City USA. Died from a heart attack.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Film Stars).

HONORS and AWARDS:

.

Burt Lancaster was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one for Best Actor for Elmer Gantry (as Elmer Gantry) in 1960.

Academy Awards

YearAwardFilm nameRoleResult
1953Best ActorFrom Here to Eternity (1953)Sgt. Milton WardenNominated
1960Best ActorElmer Gantry (1960)Elmer GantryWon
1962Best ActorBirdman of Alcatraz (1962)Robert StroudNominated
1981Best ActorAtlantic City (1980)LouNominated
.

He was honored with one star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of Motion Pictures.

Burt Lancaster BlogHub Articles:

The Alternate Movie Title Game (Burt Lancaster Edition)

Here are the rules: We will provide an "alternate title" for a film that starred Burt Lancaster and ask you to name the actual film. Most of these are pretty easy. Please answer no more than three questions per day so others can play. You may have an answer other than the intended one--just be able ... Read full article


Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner in director Robert Siodmak's "The Killers"

Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner in director Robert Siodmak's "The Killers" The Killers (1946) is an American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Burt Lancaster in his movie debut and Ava Gardner. The film co-stars Edmond O'Brien, Sam Levine, and Charles McGraw. The film is based on... Read full article


Burt Lancaster leads with "Brute Force"

Burt Lancaster leads with "Brute Force" Brute Force (1947) is an American film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, and Charles Bickford. The film also stars Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, and Ella Raines. The screenplay was by Richard Brooks, the cinematography ... Read full article


Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster star in "All My Sons"

Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster star in "All My Sons" All My Sons (1948) is based on the play by Arthur Miller which ran on Broadway from January 29, 1947, closed on November 8, 1949, and ran for 328 performances. The film was directed by Irving Reis and starred Edward G. Robinson and Bur... Read full article


Vera Cruz (1954): Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster

Below the Mexican border, during Antebellum days, a diverse array of Americans find themselves in the middle of the fight against Maximillian of France. Vera Cruz is far from a history lesson, however. It need not be. Still, it plays as an important footnote in a different type of history altogether... Read full article


See More Burt Lancaster Articles

Burt Lancaster Quotes:

Ned Merrill: This is the day Ned Merrill swims across the county.
— From: The Swimmer

Suzanne Renaud: I like courage. What do you like Mr. Davis?
Mike Davis: Honesty.
— From: Rope of Sand

John Malcolm: You know something, Ann? No one I know of lies with such sincerity.
— From: Separate Tables

J.J. Hunsecker: Everybody knows Manny Davis - except Mrs. Manny Davis.

Nalinle: But will they not say that growing corn is woman's work?
Massai: I am a warrior. What I do can never be woman's work.
— From: Apache
See more quotes from Burt Lancaster...
Burt Lancaster Facts
Frequently compared with the English actor Sir Dirk Bogarde. Both achieved stardom in purely commercial films, then deliberately broke away from their images to star in artistic films and in so doing lost their box office popularity. Both actors were directed twice to great effect by Luchino Visconti - Lancaster in The Leopard (1963) and Conversation Piece (1974), Bogarde in The Damned (1969) and Death in Venice (1971).

Despite his enduring stardom, he surprisingly only placed in Quigley Publications' Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars twice: #4 in 1956 and #10 in 1963. The annual poll of movie exhibitors ranks the top stars in terms of box-office drawing power. Even more surprisingly, his friend and co-star Kirk Douglas never made the list during his career.

Signed a letter in 1947 deploring the anti-communist witch hunts in Hollywood.

Allegedly showed up at a Hollywood Oscar party in the late 1950s wearing a G-string and spray-painted gold, resembling an Academy Award statuette.

In January 1980, he almost died during a routine operation to remove his gallbladder, when the operation, which should have lasted five hours, turned into an 11-hour ordeal. After the organ was removed, a team of doctors worked to repair an unusually small channel from the gallbladder to the intestines, although Lancaster later told a friend that a doctor had accidentally cut into a valve. A doctor reportedly got down on the floor to pray for the actor's life. Lancaster was in intensive care for 48-hours after the operation.

See More Facts about Burt Lancaster >>