Burt Lancaster (1947)
Burt Lancaster in the 1947 film "Desert Fury". My restoration and colorization of a Hal Wallis Productions publicity photo.
Daniel Mangin has described how Lancaster´s incredibly movie career got started:
"For an actor whose screen debut, the 1946 film noir classic "The Killers," made him an instant star, Burt Lancaster's first few seconds on celluloid are remarkably subdued. He lies motionless in bed, his face in shadow. The brightest light in the shot shines on his T-shirted chest as he learns that two hit men are on their way to rub him out. He's nearly invisible as he passively accepts his fate, his face in shadow until just before he's murdered."
"As Kate Buford points out in her absorbing new biography of the actor, Lancaster, who was born in 1913 and died in 1994, had the makings of a star: broad shoulders, a chiseled face, brilliant blue eyes, defiantly wayward hair and an iconic smile -- much mimicked by impersonators during his heyday -- that he called "The Grin." Though he was a big man, he moved with grace on-screen, thanks to years of touring as a circus acrobat.
David O. Selznick, the legendary producer of "Gone With the Wind," had the chance to put him under contract in the mid-1940s but declined. Following the paradigm of Hollywood's golden age, Selznick looked for personality types he could showcase in a series of similar roles, and he'd already signed one ravishing hunk, Guy Madison (a star remembered these days only by fey folk of a certain vintage). Who needed another?"
"Selznick's rejection was actually a stroke of luck -- one of many -- for Lancaster. He hooked up with Harold Hecht, an agent who accurately gauged the social and economic forces transforming the motion-picture business after World War II. Within a few years, not only had Hecht helped engineer Lancaster's superstardom (Lew Wasserman, the head of MCA, also played a key role), Hecht and Lancaster had become the producers of "Marty," "Trapeze" (Lancaster's homage to his circus days) and other hits. In the 1950s and early 1960s their company was the most successful independent outfit distributing through United Artists."
(Salon)
Burt Lancaster (1947)
Burt Lancaster in the 1947 film "Desert Fury". My restoration and colorization of a Hal Wallis Productions publicity photo.
Daniel Mangin has described how Lancaster´s incredibly movie career got started:
"For an actor whose screen debut, the 1946 film noir classic "The Killers," made him an instant star, Burt Lancaster's first few seconds on celluloid are remarkably subdued. He lies motionless in bed, his face in shadow. The brightest light in the shot shines on his T-shirted chest as he learns that two hit men are on their way to rub him out. He's nearly invisible as he passively accepts his fate, his face in shadow until just before he's murdered."
"As Kate Buford points out in her absorbing new biography of the actor, Lancaster, who was born in 1913 and died in 1994, had the makings of a star: broad shoulders, a chiseled face, brilliant blue eyes, defiantly wayward hair and an iconic smile -- much mimicked by impersonators during his heyday -- that he called "The Grin." Though he was a big man, he moved with grace on-screen, thanks to years of touring as a circus acrobat.
David O. Selznick, the legendary producer of "Gone With the Wind," had the chance to put him under contract in the mid-1940s but declined. Following the paradigm of Hollywood's golden age, Selznick looked for personality types he could showcase in a series of similar roles, and he'd already signed one ravishing hunk, Guy Madison (a star remembered these days only by fey folk of a certain vintage). Who needed another?"
"Selznick's rejection was actually a stroke of luck -- one of many -- for Lancaster. He hooked up with Harold Hecht, an agent who accurately gauged the social and economic forces transforming the motion-picture business after World War II. Within a few years, not only had Hecht helped engineer Lancaster's superstardom (Lew Wasserman, the head of MCA, also played a key role), Hecht and Lancaster had become the producers of "Marty," "Trapeze" (Lancaster's homage to his circus days) and other hits. In the 1950s and early 1960s their company was the most successful independent outfit distributing through United Artists."
(Salon)