Burt Lancaster

Burton Stephen Lancaster, better known as Burt Lancaster (New York, November 2, 1913 – Los Angeles, October 20, 1994) was an American actor, belonging to the classic cinema of that country. Of strong attraction and energy, his handsome figure was synonymous with the gallant and rude man. Winner of an Oscar award and nominated on three other occasions, his acting prestige increased from his collaboration in European cinema, especially his work with Luchino Visconti.

Early Years

Family

He was one of five children born to James Henry Lancaster, a postman, and his wife, Elizabeth Roberts, a homemaker. He grew up in East Harlem, the so-called Spanish Harlem.

Beginnings as an acrobat

In her years in Harlem, Lancaster spent many hours on the streets, where she developed her interest and ability in physical exercise and gymnastics. Later, she worked as a circus acrobat until an injury forced her to leave the profession. During World War II, he performed in army shows.

Debut with Ava Gardner

Although acting didn't appeal to him at first, when he returned from military service he tried to be an actor and received an offer for a role in a play on Broadway. He was unsuccessful, but a Hollywood agent took notice of him and got him, in 1946, his first film role, for the film Outlaws , alongside Ava Gardner. On this occasion, he did have considerable success, with the result that the following year he would star in two more films.

Lancaster was a self-taught actor who worked hard, trying to excel in each of his performances, and took advantage of his good physical appearance to make his way in the Hollywood scene. At first, the roles he played were predominantly blunt and blunt character characters that fit well with his personality.

Heyday

Thereafter, he appeared in numerous productions, from dramatic and suspenseful to warlike and adventure. In several of his adventure films, which achieved great box office success, such as The Falcon and the Arrow or The Fearsome Mocker, he was accompanied in the cast by his friend from the childhood and circus partner Nick Cravat, also a great acrobat, and who used to play mute characters, possibly because his thick Brooklyn accent did not fit too well with the times in which the plots of his films took place.

By the mid-1950s, he challenged his own acting ability, and began to accept increasingly demanding and varied roles.

In most of them, the self-taught actor obtained great recognition from the public and from professionals in the field. In this way, he became a movie star and one of the great classic actors of his time, participating in films that became film classics such as From Here to Eternity (1953) by director Fred Zinnemann., Veracruz (1954) by Robert Aldrich, Duelo de titans (1957) by director John Sturges, Elmer Gantry (1960) by director Richard Brooks, and The Leopard (1963) by director Luchino Visconti. In that decade, he shone especially in the classic films Seven Days in May (1964), about the dismantling of a coup in the US, and The Swimmer (1968), a symbolist film about a failure that adapts a masterpiece by the so-called "Chekhov of the suburbs", John Cheever.

Awards: Oscar and others

In 1960, he received the Oscar for Best Leading Actor for his role in Elmer Gantry, for which he was also awarded a Golden Globe and the Circle Award. of New York Film Critics.

He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for three other films. The first, From Here to Eternity, in 1953, by director Fred Zinnemann, in which he performs a passionate kiss scene with Deborah Kerr, lying in a swimsuit on a beach, which was considered highly erotic. by the standards of the time. The second was The Man from Alcatraz, in 1962, by director John Frankenheimer, and the third was Atlantic City, in 1980, by director Louis Malle.

Last years

Later in his career, Lancaster abandoned action films as his appearance matured and concentrated on playing distinguished character roles, further enhancing his prestige. He was an acting competitor to Kirk Douglas and Marlon Brando.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he worked on various European productions with directors such as Luchino Visconti and Bernardo Bertolucci. Interested in demanding roles, he was willing on more than one occasion to work for much less than usual financial compensation if the script and the director seemed interesting to him. He even helped finance with his own money films that he considered to be of special artistic value.

He also produced some films of the incipient independent cinema, helping directors like Sydney Pollack or John Frankenheimer to consolidate themselves in the world of cinema. Likewise, he appeared in several films produced for television.

In 1979, he suffered his first heart attack while filming the opening scenes of The Legend of Bill Doolin. Despite this, he continued to work throughout the 1980s in both film and television.

In November 1990, shortly after finishing filming his latest film, he suffered a massive heart attack that left him incapacitated. From that moment on, he isolates himself socially, even from his friends, whom he does not allow to visit him and only allows telephone contact. An actress and friend of his who wanted to see him was turned away by Lancaster on the phone with the following message:

"I wish you would remember me as you met me and not see what I have become."

Private life and death

He was a person who was very jealous of his privacy. He was married three times. His first marriage was to June Ernst, from 1935 to 1946. His second marriage (1946-1969) was to Norma Anderson, a former acrobat like himself, who bore him four children and they adopted another. Lancaster had a reputation as a ladies' man, which led to his divorce from Anderson in 1969. He married his third wife, Susan Martin, in 1990 in the twilight of his life; she would accompany him until his death.

As he got older, his heart began to fail, which prevented him from continuing his professional activities as normal. At the end of that same year, 1990, he suffered a stroke that left him mute and had to undergo open-heart surgery. Later, a second stroke forced him to use a wheelchair, leaving him partially paralyzed.

He died in 1994, at his home in Los Angeles, of a heart attack. His remains are in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

He was a defender of minorities and financially supported the creation of liberal groups, which increased the rumor of his possible communist militancy when he opposed McCarthyism. Later in life he was an opponent of the Vietnam War. A supporter of gay rights, he joined the fight against AIDS in 1985, when his friend Rock Hudson contracted the disease.

Some recent biographers claim Lancaster was bisexual, having romantic relationships with both men and women.

According to the testimony of Kate Buford in her book Burt Lancaster: An American Life, the already famous Lancaster showed loyalty to his family and his friends of the past, keeping his old friends until the end of his days childhood friends from East Harlem.

Filmography

In addition, he acted in approximately a dozen television productions between 1974 and 1991.

Awards and distinctions

Oscar Awards

Golden Globes

Venice International Film Festival

Berlin International Film Festival

San Sebastian International Film Festival

• Donostia Award of the San Sebastian Festival, winner.

In popular culture

Comics artist Enrique Villagrán, who signed under the pseudonym Gómez Sierra, was inspired by the face of Burt Lancaster for the aesthetic creation of the character Mike Nolan, an English mechanic and one of the main protagonists of the comic series Los aventureros, written by Robin Wood and Armando Fernández for the Columba publishing house in the 70s and 80s.

The Hombres G album You_shit…_Burt_Lancaster is named after him.