Against Type

Burt Lancaster, one of the greatest post WW II movie stars, was a very unlikely candidate for movie stardom. As a kid growing up in a railroad flat in the Italian section of East Harlem, he was a voracious reader, ardent opera fan, and avid moviegoer, but not someone who had ever manifested the slightest interest in acting until he became involved with the Union Settlement House. Later, in the sort of career move that helps build legends, Lancaster quit New York University in his sophomore year to join the circus with his lifelong friend and sometime partner, Nick Cravat. Through a combination of luck and timing he made his way to Broadway and from there to Hollywood. With a huge success in his very first film, The Killers (1946), he was catapulted to fame. Lancaster was one of the first actors to enjoy success with an independent production company of his own, paving the way for many others and hastening the demise of the studio system. He managed to balance commercial projects against more personal ones for most of his career, with satisfying results that are a testimony to his intelligence and taste. Drawing heavily on interviews with Lancaster's colleagues and friends, and movie stars' memoirs, this workmanlike bio offers little of the kinetic energy Lancaster brought to his own work.