Burt Lancaster

In November 1990, while visiting Dana Andrews, who had Alzheimer's disease, Burt Lancaster suffered a severe stroke. Lancaster remained in the hospital until February 1991 and was incapacitated and unable to speak until his death in October 1994.

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He helped pay for the defense of Pvt. Billy Dean Smith, an African-American soldier accused in 1971 of 'fragging' two officers in Vietnam. Lancaster gave the defense lawyers $3,000 to hire ballistics experts to testify at Smith's court-martial. Smith was acquitted.

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He was not close friends with Kirk Douglas, as is commonly perceived. Their "friendship" was largely manufactured by the publicity-hungry Douglas; in reality they were highly competitive with each other and at times expressed mutual personal contempt in private, despite their mutual respect for each other's acting abilities.

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He was a fan of the silent film The Unknown (1927), most likely because the film is set in a circus and Burt himself had spent much of his early life in one. He once said that no scene in any film had affected him as emotionally as the scene in this film in which Lon Chaney learns that Joan Crawford does not love him.

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Until he underwent emergency quadruple heart bypass surgery in 1983, he maintained the magnificent physical condition he had achieved as an acrobat in his youth. He apparently impressed many people who knew him with his tremendous strength.

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He felt he intimidated his co-star Montgomery Clift on the set of From Here to Eternity (1953) because of Clift's great talent.

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Allegedly, at a Hollywood Oscar party in the late 1950s, he wore a G-string resembling an Oscar statuette and gold spray-painted on, after a similar display had been performed by Rock Hudson and Vera-Ellen.

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The screenplay for The Bad News Bears (1976), written by his son Bill Lancaster, was based on his father's experience as a coach. Bill had been left disabled by polio in childhood, and according to Kirk Douglas's son Joel Douglas, a friend of Bill's, the Tatum O'Neal character in the film was the odd child Bill. The coach played by Walter Matthau was based on Burt, who was known for his crankiness.

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During World War II, he entertained troops as a member of the Special Services branch. He served in Italy for much of the war.

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During the Great Depression, he made a living working as a nude artist's model by day and a singing waiter by night.

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In January 1980, he nearly died during what was supposed to be a routine operation to remove his gallbladder, but the operation, expected to last five hours, turned into an 11-hour ordeal. After the organ was removed, a team of doctors worked to repair an unusually small duct leading from the gallbladder to the intestines, though Lancaster later told a friend that a doctor had accidentally cut a valve. One doctor was reported to have lain on the floor to pray for the actor's life. Lancaster spent 48 hours in intensive care after the surgery.

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To impress customers at Marshall Fields, he would do handstands on the counter and somersaults in the aisles.

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He turned down a basketball scholarship to NYU to become an acrobat with the Kay Brothers Circus.

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One of his demands was that a high bar be installed on sets and locations so he could do acrobatics and stay in shape.

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His son Jimmy was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

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One of the few humanitarian causes he publicly associated himself with was AIDS research. In 1985, he read a letter from Rock Hudson announcing that he would die of AIDS, though there was later some dispute over whether the letter was written by Hudson or by his secretary (in a 2010 Paley Center for Media documentary on gay visibility on TV, writer Bruce Vilanch said he wrote the letter at Hudson's request). This took place at a Hollywood dinner organized to raise awareness, which very few stars, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Burt Reynolds, dared to attend. In 1988, Lancaster appeared in a poster holding a rose with a headline urging people to be careful.

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Burt Lancaster was one of the few actors honored with a speaking role at Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington in 1963.

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He was unable to attend the funeral of his close friend Telly Savalas because he was seriously ill at the time.

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His house burned down (like many others) in the famous Bel Air-Brentwood fire of 11/6/61.

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He admitted that something strange always happened to him on film sets. Sometimes he would complain about everything very loudly. Yet by the end of shooting the crew loved him and hated to see him go despite his complaints. He never understood why.

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His son Jimmy was born with a foot deformity and as a baby had to wear a cast that had to be changed constantly. When his daughter Joanna was born with the same deformity, they decided not to use a cast and instead to see whether the deformity would heal on its own.

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Ironically, despite being an extremely versatile athlete since his days as a circus acrobat, he was not a very good swimmer and had to train with a professional swimming coach for his role in The Swimmer (1968), which he took on after asking his daughter Joanna what she thought of the script.

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At his own request he was buried without any memorial or funeral service. His grave at Westwood Memorial Park has only a headstone reading "Burt Lancaster, 1913-1994".

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His son Bill Lancaster wrote the screenplay for the film The Bad News Bears (1976).

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Burt Lancaster was one of the Hollywood film stars known for their liberal political sympathies, along with Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis Jr., Charlton Heston, Judy Garland, Eartha Kitt, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman, and in August 1963 he took part in Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington. He flew home from Europe, where he was shooting a film, in order to attend. He was a financial supporter of King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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He was initially cast in the Victor Mature role in The Robe (1953), but backed out because of the film's Christian theme.

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Sydney Pollack said that as late as 1975, when Lancaster was in his sixties, he was still doing giant swings on the bar, smoking, drinking martinis every night and running three times a week.

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While serving in the U.S. Army, he met the USO entertainer Norma Anderson, who helped him attend theater auditions when he returned to New York. He married her after The Killers (1946) was released.

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Because of his anti-Vietnam War sympathies he turned down the lead role in Patton (1970), but he actively campaigned for the lead in The Godfather (1972), the next film by "Patton" screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola. He offered to do a screen test for the role of Don Corleone, and although Paramount executives were interested in casting him, Coppola wanted Marlon Brando and got him after Brando did his own "screen test" (in fact a video Coppola shot of him improvising as the old Don). Both George C. Scott and Brando won Oscars for these roles and turned them down.

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He did not begin acting until he was 31 years old.

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His performance as J. J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) ranked 76th on "Premiere" Magazine's 2006 list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.

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After Hector Babenco handed him the novel at the 1981 New York Film Critics Circle Awards ceremony, Burt Lancaster spent four years trying to secure financing for Babenco's film Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), adapted from Manuel Puig's novel. Lancaster was to play Molina, the homosexual hairdresser who shares a cell with the political prisoner Valentin. However, Lancaster suffered a heart attack in June 1983 and then underwent quadruple bypass surgery, and at the age of 70 he was in fact uninsurable. He had to withdraw from roles in Maria's Lovers (1984), Gorky Park (1983), Firestarter (1984) and the TV miniseries A. D. (1985). The film was later made for less than 1 million dollars with William Hurt in the role Lancaster had wanted to play. Hurt won the Oscar for Best Actor for the role of Molina.

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In the late 1950s John Wayne approached him and proposed making a western together. Lancaster laughed at the idea and suggested they would also need Kirk Douglas in the film. In reality, Lancaster would not work with Wayne, Hollywood's most prominent Republican activist, who was actively involved in the anti-Communist hysteria (often called "witch hunts") encouraged by Sen. Joseph McCarthy as a founding member and later President of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Lancaster had agreed to share top billing with Gary Cooper, a moderate Republican who gave vague testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947, after Cooper appeared in the anti-McCarthyite western High Noon (1952). Despite this, after Wayne died in Los Angeles, Lancaster took part in a moment of silence for Wayne on 6/11/79 during the shooting of Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980).

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On the set of Ulzana's Raid (1972) he told Bruce Davison that he had undergone so much cosmetic surgery over the years that at the age of 58 the only genuine thing about him was his eyes. He also advised Davison not to get too openly involved in the anti-Vietnam movement until he was well established in Hollywood.

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Despite his reputation for physical strength, agility and keeping his body in the best possible condition, he smoked constantly.

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In the 1960s United Artists forced him to make four films for 150,000 dollars each: because of cost overruns at his production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, he was personally liable for The Young Savages (1961), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Train (1964) and The Hallelujah Trail (1965) instead of his usual fee of 750,000 dollars.

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Burt Lancaster began his career as a circus performer.

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When the Beatles stayed in Hollywood in August 1964, Burt Lancaster gave two of his handguns to Ringo Starr.

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While attending DeWitt Clinton High School in New York, Burt Lancaster was involved in a knife fight. He suffered injuries that left him bedridden for several months.

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Burt Lancaster was a notorious womanizer in Hollywood, which eventually led his wife Norma to leave him.

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Burt Lancaster was replaced by Laurence Olivier in the role of Dr. Ernst Janning in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). Lancaster had not been impressed by Olivier's repeated confusion of him with Kirk Douglas during the filming of The Devil's Disciple (1959).

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Burt Lancaster was cast in a role in Old Gringo (1989), but when he arrived in Mexico City for rehearsals in December 1987, Columbia informed him that he would be replaced by Gregory Peck because his insurance was too high. He sued Columbia for his $1.5 million fee and reached an out-of-court settlement.

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Burt Lancaster was descended from Ulster Irish Protestants who emigrated to the United States in the 1880s.

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While hosting a celebrity golf tournament, John Huston, who had directed Burt Lancaster in The Unforgiven (1960), chartered a small plane to drop thousands of ping-pong balls reading "Burt Lancaster sucks" because of a dispute between them.

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Burt Lancaster was drafted into the United States Army in 1942. He served in the Special Services unit of the Fifth Army.

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Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas appeared together in seven films: Victory at Entebbe (1976), Tough Guys (1986), Seven Days in May (1964), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), I Walk Alone (1947), Gunfight at the O. K. Corral (1957) and The Devil's Disciple (1959).

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Burt Lancaster turned down the role of Harry Callahan in Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry (1971). The vigilante figure — a lawman who oversteps the law to kill a criminal, which some called fascist — conflicted with his belief in criminal and social justice and in collective responsibility for protecting individual rights.

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After being injured while performing acrobatics, Burt Lancaster worked as a truck driver, firefighter, meat packer and haberdashery salesman for the Marshall Fields department store chain.

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Burt Lancaster's only grandchild, Keigh Kristin Lancaster, died on 20.08.2017 at the age of 51. Her ashes were buried together with those of her father, Bill Lancaster. She had no children.

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Because of his liberal political beliefs, Burt Lancaster was nearly blacklisted in the late 1940s, and the FBI kept a file detailing his activities.

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Luchino Visconti wanted to cast Laurence Olivier as the Italian prince in The Leopard (1963), but his producer rejected the offer. The producer insisted on a box-office star to justify the lavish production's high budget and effectively forced Visconti to accept Burt Lancaster. A decade later, the two Oscar-winning actors competed again, this time for the role of another Italian prince, the Mafia boss Don Corleone in The Godfather (1972), and ultimately lost to Marlon Brando.

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Burt Lancaster turned down a $1 million offer to appear in the remake of Ben-Hur (1959). Had he accepted, he would have crossed the $1 million threshold and beaten both Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra (1963)) as the first female star and Marlon Brando (The Fugitive Kind (1960)) as the first male star to do so.

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Burt Lancaster joined the March on Washington for Civil Rights on 28.08.63, along with Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando and Bob Dylan.

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Burt Lancaster appeared in eight films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: From Here to Eternity (1953), The Rose Tattoo (1955), Separate Tables (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Airport (1970), Atlantic City (1980) and Field of Dreams (1989). From Here to Eternity won in the category.

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A strong and agile man — despite chain-smoking — Burt Lancaster lost two roles in Cecil B. DeMille's films because of politics, owing to his years as a circus acrobat. DeMille, an ultraconservative Republican, refused to consider the liberal Democrat Lancaster for roles in Samson and Delilah (1949) and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).

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On the set of 1900 (1976), Burt Lancaster told Bernardo Bertolucci that he had undergone so much cosmetic surgery over the years that the only genuine feature of his face was his eyes. In his later films he wore a toupee, but he did not wear one in artistic films.

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A prospective boyfriend of Lancaster's daughter Joanna had to climb a 25-meter rope before receiving permission to date her.

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Lancaster's son Billy was named after his deceased brother. His daughter Susan Elizabeth was named after her mother, Lizzie.

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Burt Lancaster lost two roles to Marlon Brando (roles that helped make Brando a legend): Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

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When the production ran out of money five days before shooting, Lancaster found $150,000 of his own money to complete Go Tell the Spartans (1978). To save money, the shooting schedule had already been cut from 40 days to 31.

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In his youth, Lancaster wanted to become an opera singer because he had a good soprano voice, but he lost that talent when his voice broke at the age of 17. His passion for opera never diminished, and he served on the board of the Los Angeles Opera Company. His love of art was passed on to his children, all of whom were connected to it.

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Lancaster claimed he learned a great deal from Gary Cooper's relaxed acting style and behavior on the set of Vera Cruz (1954).

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Shortly before his severe stroke in November 1990, Lancaster had discussed taking a role in a sequel to The Leopard (1963). Some of his friends told him he would be making a big mistake.

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Although Go Tell the Spartans (1978) was seen by very few people when it was released, it is regarded as the greatest anti-war film about Vietnam.

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In 1987, Burt Lancaster joined Gregory Peck, Martin Sheen and Lloyd Bridges in narrating a television commercial for People for the American Way, the liberal advocacy group founded by Norman Lear to oppose President Ronald Reagan's appointment of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

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As a child, Burt Lancaster was beaten by his mother for bringing home the wrong change from the grocery store.

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Burt Lancaster was Cecil B. DeMille's first choice to play Samson in Samson and Delilah (1949).

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In 1965, Burt Lancaster turned down the role of Major General Charles Gordon in Khartoum (1966), which went to Charlton Heston, as well as the role played by Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).

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Burt Lancaster was nearly 33 when he appeared in his first film, The Killers (1946); since his late youth he had worked as a circus acrobat, served in the war and acted on Broadway.

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While filming The Professionals (1966) in Coyote Gorge in Nevada's Valley of Fire, Burt Lancaster climbed one of the 150-metre-high cliffs. He was 53 years old.

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Burt Lancaster worked with director John Huston to make The Unforgiven (1960) as a left-wing response to John Ford's epic western The Searchers (1956).

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In 2013, his birthplace, New York City, honoured Burt Lancaster's 100th birthday with a 12-film retrospective at Lincoln Center spanning The Killers (1946) to Atlantic City (1980).

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In July 1965, United Artists reached an agreement with Burt Lancaster to end its relationship with the production company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, which had been financially struggling after several late-1950s flops and excessive spending and had ceased operations in 1959. The sum involved was 920,954.85 dollars, or about $5,223,000 in 2003 dollars. Part of the proposed 1964 deal with UA was for Lancaster to star in Khartoum (1966), but the role was ultimately played by Charlton Heston.

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On the set of Lawman (1971), Burt Lancaster caught director Michael Winner and threatened to throw him off a mountain in Durango, Mexico.

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At least one biography of Burt Lancaster claimed he was bisexual and had sexual relations with men throughout his life.

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Burt Lancaster had five children: James Stephen "Jimmy" (born 30.6.46), Bill Lancaster (born 11/47), Susan Elizabeth (born 7/5/49), Joanna Mari (born 7/51) and Sighle (born 1954).

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For his performance as J. J. Hunsecker in Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Burt Lancaster ranked 61st on Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

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Burt Lancaster was known as a very private man and did not like giving interviews very often.

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Burt Lancaster's first wife, June Ernst, was a young acrobat when they married.

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Burt Lancaster has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.

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Burt Lancaster's daughter Sighle worked as a model and later became a social worker.

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Burt Lancaster was named the 19th greatest actor on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Greatest Screen Legends.

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Burt Lancaster appeared in six films directed by John Frankenheimer.

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Burt Lancaster took a pay cut to make Castle Keep (1969), which was intended to be the ultimate anti-war film and an allegory for the Vietnam conflict.

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In the 1960s, Burt Lancaster was Norman Mailer's bridge partner.

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Despite his lasting fame, Burt Lancaster surprisingly appeared only twice on Quigley Publications' Top 10 Money-Making Stars Poll: 4th in 1956 and 10th in 1963. The annual poll of film exhibitors ranked the top stars by box-office drawing power. Even more surprisingly, his friend and co-star Kirk Douglas never made the list during his career.

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Jane Fonda admitted she was devastated to lose Burt Lancaster from Old Gringo (1989) because she admired him so much.

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Burt Lancaster was named the 39th Greatest Movie Star of All Time by "Entertainment Weekly".

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Burt Lancaster's daughter Sighle pronounces her name as Sheila.

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Burt Lancaster had hepatitis while filming Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980).

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Burt Lancaster was considered for Gregory Peck's role in Twelve O'Clock High (1949).

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According to his will, no funeral or memorial service was to be held after Burt Lancaster's death.

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Turner Classic Movies honored Burt Lancaster as Star of the Month in November 2013 in celebration of his 100th birthday.

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Burt Lancaster has only one grandchild, his grandson Keigh, born in 1966 to his son Bill Lancaster.

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Burt Lancaster was the subject of the first puzzle (category: Person) on the premiere episode of the popular nighttime game show Wheel of Fortune (1983).

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Burt Lancaster has a stepson named John Scherer from his widow Susie.

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Burt Lancaster campaigned for George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election.

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In March 1976, Burt Lancaster attended Luchino Visconti's funeral in Rome.

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Burt Lancaster graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in New York in 1930.

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On his 80th birthday, Burt Lancaster was reported to have fallen into a coma.

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In 1995, Burt Lancaster was chosen by "Empire" magazine as one of the 100 sexiest stars in cinema history (at No. 100).

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Burt Lancaster was with his girlfriend Jackie Bone for 17 years until they separated, and in 1986 he planned to marry his secretary Susan Scherer, with whom he had fallen in love.

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Burt Lancaster suffered his first heart attack in 1979, during the production of Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980).

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Lancaster was the first choice to play Sam Flusky in Under Capricorn (1949), but he was considered too expensive, and the role went to Joseph Cotten.

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After placing tenth in the 1962 Motion Picture Herald poll of the most popular box-office stars, Lancaster fell to 18th in 1963 and never appeared on the list again.

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In October 1997, Lancaster ranked 85th on Empire magazine's (UK) list "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time."

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Lancaster turned down the lead role in Dark City (1950), which then went to Charlton Heston and became Heston's first film.

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Burt Lancaster was the son of James Lancaster (12/6/1876-9/10/1961) and Elizabeth Lancaster, née Roberts (5/13/1877-11/29/1929). Both were born in New York.

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Lancaster campaigned for Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election.

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In 1984, Lancaster received the Mental Health Award from the Department of Psychiatry at UC Irvine.

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His Best Actor Oscar nomination for Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) is the only time Lancaster was nominated for a performance in a film that was not also nominated for Best Picture.

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Lancaster supported Tom Bradley's unsuccessful 1969 campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles.

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Lancaster was considered for the role of Jason Colby in The Colbys (1985).

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Lancaster was descended from English immigrants who came to Ulster.

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Burt Lancaster was the father of Bill Lancaster.

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Lancaster was sought for The Wild Geese (1978), but he considered it beneath him and was interested in Ashanti (1979) instead, though the terms could not be agreed upon.

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Before Marlon Brando was cast, Lancaster sought the role of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but he was never considered for the part.

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During World War II, Lancaster served in the army in North Africa and Italy.

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Lancaster was planning to marry his secretary, Susan Scherer, with whom he had fallen in love.

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The producers initially wanted Burt Lancaster for the role of Rafer Janders in The Wild Geese (1978), but when he began pushing for script changes to give his character a central role, he was replaced by Richard Harris. Lancaster claimed he turned the role down because he considered the film "inferior."

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There is a street named after Burt Lancaster in Endicott, New York.

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Lancaster, Robert Mitchum and Rod Steiger were among those considered for roles in Patton (1970).

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On the set of Little Treasure (1985), Burt Lancaster had a physical altercation with his co-star Margot Kidder. According to Kidder, they argued over how a scene should be played, she took Lancaster to a "whack," and he then retaliated. This occurred when Lancaster was 70 years old and recovering from heart surgery.

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