Lancaster, Burt, 1913-1994

Name Entries

Information

person

Name Entries *

Lancaster, Burt, 1913-1994

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Surname :

Lancaster

Forename :

Burt

Date :

1913-1994

eng

Latn

authorizedForm

rda

Lancaster, Burton Stephen, 1913-1994

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Surname :

Lancaster

Forename :

Burton Stephen

Date :

1913-1994

eng

Latn

alternativeForm

rda

Lankaster, Bert, 1913-1994

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Surname :

Lankaster

Forename :

Bert

Date :

1913-1994

eng

Latn

alternativeForm

rda

Lancaster Burton 1913-1994

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Surname :

Lancaster

Forename :

Burton

Date :

1913-1994

eng

Latn

alternativeForm

rda

Genders

Male

Exist Dates

Exist Dates - Date Range

1913-11-02

November 2, 1913

Birth

1994-10-20

October 20, 1994

Death

Show Fuzzy Range Fields

Biographical History

Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor and producer. Initially known for playing tough guys with a tender heart, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year career in film and, later, television. He was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor (winning once), and he also won two BAFTA Awards and one Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor. The American Film Institute ranks Lancaster as #19 of the greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

Lancaster performed as a circus acrobat in the 1930s. After serving in World War II, the 32-year-old Lancaster landed a role in a Broadway play and drew the attention of a Hollywood agent. His breakthrough role was the film noir The Killers in 1946 alongside Ava Gardner. A critical success, it launched both of their careers. In 1953, Lancaster played the illicit lover of Deborah Kerr in the military drama From Here to Eternity. A box office smash, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and landed a Best Actor nomination for Lancaster. In 1956, he starred in The Rainmaker, with Katharine Hepburn, earning a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination, and in 1957 he starred in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral with frequent co-star Kirk Douglas. During the 1950s, his production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, was highly successful, with Lancaster acting in films such as: Trapeze in 1956, a box office smash in which he used his acrobatic skills; Sweet Smell of Success (1957), a dark drama today considered a classic; Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), a WWII submarine drama with Clark Gable; and Separate Tables (1958), a hotel-set drama which received seven Oscar nominations.

In the early 1960s, Lancaster starred in a string of critically successful films, each in very disparate roles. Playing a charismatic biblical con-man in Elmer Gantry in 1960 won him the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor. He played a Nazi war criminal in 1961 in the all-star, war-crime-trial film, Judgment at Nuremberg. Playing a bird expert prisoner in Birdman of Alcatraz in 1962, he earned the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor and his third Oscar nomination. In 1963, Lancaster traveled to Italy to star as an Italian prince in the epic period drama The Leopard. In 1964, he played a US Air Force General who, opposed by a Colonel played by Kirk Douglas, tries to overthrow the President in Seven Days in May. Then, in 1966, he played an explosives expert in the western The Professionals.

In 1970, Lancaster starred in the box-office hit, air-disaster drama Airport. He experienced a career resurgence in 1980 with the crime-romance Atlantic City, winning the BAFTA for Best Actor and landing his fourth Oscar nomination. Starting in the late 1970s, he also appeared in television mini-series, including the award-winning Separate but Equal with Sidney Poitier. He continued acting into his late 70s, until a stroke in 1990 forced him to retire; four years later he died from a heart attack. His final film role was in the Oscar-nominated Field of Dreams.

eng

Latn

External Related CPF

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10568972

https://viaf.org/viaf/115079271

https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q160528

https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n83065628

https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n83065628

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000044/

Other Entity IDs (Same As)

Sources

Loading ...

Resource Relations

Loading ...

Internal CPF Relations

Loading ...

Languages Used

eng

Latn

Subjects

Academy Awards (Motion pictures)

Actors and actresses, American

Film actors and actresses

Producers

World War II, 1939-1945

Nationalities

Americans

Activities

Occupations

Actors

Actors, American

Film Actor

Film Producer

Legal Statuses

Places

California

CA, US

AssociatedPlace

Death

New York City

NY, US

AssociatedPlace

Birth

Convention Declarations

<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>

General Contexts

Structure or Genealogies

Mandates

Identity Constellation Identifier(s)

w6pw79pb

85341386