- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 3 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0306810190
- ISBN-13: 978-0306810190
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 726 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #529,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
If you have any serious interest in movies, you've got to read NPR pundit Kate Buford's sharp-eyed, meticulous, intelligent account of Burt Lancaster's life and work. The most inward of actors--director Luchino Visconti called him "the most perfectly mysterious man I ever met"--Lancaster spurned most press attention. Buford proves there was more to the No. 1 box-office star of Elmer Gantry and From Here to Eternity than muscles and big capped teeth. Growing up in Mob-ruled Harlem (Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll perpetrated the famous "baby massacre" on Lancaster's block), Lancaster ran off to the circus as an acrobat, went to war, and hit stardom at 33. Sweet Smell of Success cowriter Clifford Odets said there were seven Burts, including "Inscrutable Burt" and "Monster Golem Burt." He intimidated Montgomery Clift and Norman Mailer, threatened to toss his producer out a window, slugged Margot Kidder, put a girlfriend in the hospital by hurling her in the air just like his character in Brute Force, and made Kirk Douglas cry by mocking his elevator shoes. After he seduced costar Yvonne De Carlo in her mink coat (he also bedded Deborah Kerr and Marlene Dietrich), the mother of his five children comforted herself with innumerable minks and bottles of booze. His kids were neglected; the son whose baseball team Lancaster coached wrote The Bad News Bears, capturing Burt in the gruff Matthau character.
Buford notes that the seducer Gantry and control freak J.J. Hunsecker were closest to the real Burt, while the Birdman of Alcatraz was who he wanted to be. She takes us behind the scenes, showing precisely what the actor contributed (and threatened to undermine) in his great films, including his Oscar win as producer, Marty. Buford also explains how his independent film company anticipated many later trends but blew it by overspending on script development, and assesses his brilliant deconstruction of his own legend as the lion in winter of Local Hero and Atlantic City. And she puts all gossip in perspective. Burt's jealousy as he fumed in his car outside the house where his ex Shelley Winters was bedding Marlon Brando had a film-historical importance: Brando also stole Stanley Kowalski and the Godfather roles from Burt, and he represented the Method acting style Burt strenuously opposed for the first half of his career. Because he was too smart and curious to stick with one persona, and more interested in art than money, Lancaster needs a landmark biography. He's got one now. And you must check out his full-backside nudity on the back cover! --Tim Appelo --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
At the height of the Hollywood blacklist, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover received a letter telling him to "check the moving picture Crimson Pirate because in it Burt Lancaster makes a speech about workers" that "sounds like a commie plug." Lancaster's decades-long political involvement with liberal causes (and his constant run-ins with the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s) are a central theme in this well-researched and engaging biography, which also details the artist's acting career, his turns as a producer and his personal life. Buford, a regular commentator on National Public Radio, has constructed a complex portrait of a man who was a noted womanizer, yet also engaged in sex with men; who was kind and generous, yet often resorted to violence in his personal relationships; who was a mainstream "megastar" (who was parodied in Mad magazine) before reinventing himself as a major figure in Italian art films; and who broke from the imprisoning studio system and revolutionized the industry by beginning an independent production company. By carefully contextualizing Lancaster's more than 50-year career--which began in the circus and included such film classics as From Here to Eternity and Elmer Gantry--within the tumultuous political and economic changes of the postwar years, Buford's finely detailed, sensitive biography ranks among the best of its genre. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting reading,
By Ellis Taylor (Winslow, AZ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Burt Lancaster: An American Life (Paperback)
I enjoyed this book a great deal. While I was familiar with most of Lancaster's films, his private life was a mystery. One thing I do have to say for the author: she's thorough. Not to the point of boredom, but all her bases are covered. There's just enough information on Lancaster's background, and I found the story of his parents as fascinating as his. The accounts of his physical feats during his "circus" years were remarkable, as were his inner conflicts over some of the parts he played. Of special interest was the Hect collaboration and foray into producing. My only dislike of the book (and this echoes another reviewer) was Buford's teasing of the bisexuality theme. Why make oblique references to this unless you're going to give us some facts? Was he or wasn't he? There should be more to substantiate this, given the fact that a)This was Hollywood and everyone knew everyone else's business, and b) Lancaster is dead and, according to even the most die-hard Hollywood standards, this makes for fair game. But when all is said and done, this is a great read. I highly recommend this, along with Gerald Clarke's bio on Truman Capote.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Story of a Legend,
By Kelli N. "snoops71" (Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Burt Lancaster: An American Life (Paperback)
I hadn't paid very much attention to Burt Lancaster until just a few months ago. I didn't know what an outstanding actor he was. After reading this book, I feel I know him even more. This book is very detailed and thorough. It's obvious Kate Buford put enormous amounts of time and research into it. She did a great job. If you, like me, want to discover the real Burt Lancaster, this is the book to buy.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A dangerous man!,
By Eva25at (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Burt Lancaster: An American Life (Paperback)
Compliments to the author! This is probably the best investigated star biography I know - and the bluntest. Burt Lancaster grew up in New York under desolate conditions. His mother beat him. He found diversion in sports and practiced frequently. He became a true muscle man and even worked as acrobat. His magnificent body and his colgate smile became his biggest assets in Hollywood, but he wanted more: He gave dynamic performances in "issue" films, like SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, ELMER GANTRY and THE SWIMMER and became also a successful producer. Like most stars of his generation he survived the sixties in westerns, but late in life he was rewarded with worthwile roles in ATLANTIC CITY and LOCAL HERO. At one point, the author complains that today's filmgoers throw him in the same pot as Kirk Douglas and Charlton Heston, yet, despite her obvious admiration of his talents, something drives her to unveil the dark side of his life.I fully expected to discover some skeletons in his closet, but I didn't expect them to rattle so loud: It's neither the hint at bisexuality that shocks me, nor the revelation that a government agency kept a file about his secret life, that included "orgies" with Rock Hudson (She does not tell us what exactly happened at those orgies). No, the most shocking moment comes when Buford reveals that once he threw a woman to the floor with brute force. This case of grievous bodily harm was settled out of court, but I think it is too serious to be excused with charming Walt Whitman citations. Yet - we had been warned before: he was always on his guard, she tells us, because "He knew that he was able to kill a man". Like his character in THE LEOPARD he took what he wanted with the right of the sovereign. His marriage was a "must" marriage, but it produced 7 children, despite his wife's serious alcohol problems. He was apparently a dedicated father. Some of the details in this book excite real awe for the author, not because they are unsavory, but because they made it in this book at all: What Lancaster's sons did to a neighbor's swimming-pool (exactly what you think), that digestion was a topic at dinner table...How she made her interview-partners babble! Lancaster was a star who kept an "entourage": Generous in financial matters, he kept many people at arm's length, hereby preventing them, of course, to stand on their own feet. No one hindered Kate Buford to write a pretty, fan-pleasing hagiography. That she opted for honesty instead does her credit: Those are the only biographies worth reading, even if they are not always pleasant. Well done, Mrs. Buford!
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