Burt lancaster was gay
Home / gay topics / Burt lancaster was gay
An artistic perfectionist with his eye always on new projects and new ways of doing things, Burt Lancaster managed repeatedly to sabotage his own superstardom in quest of greater challenge and fulfillment in the Hollywood he once called, "nothing more than a big circus." (Coming from Lancaster, the crack probably wasn't entirely derogatory as the star begin his show business career as a circus performer during the depression.) According to Kate Buford, author of the latest Lancaster biography, "From 1946 to 1990, he alternated the artsy with the commercial movie, financing one with the profits of the other to keep himself in play."
Buford says that Lancaster was, "Too earnest to be chic, he hungered to make what he considered grown-up movies that engaged, productively, with the circumstances of his era," ultimately leading the way to, "one of the biggest shifts in the industry since the talkies: from studio domination to widespread independent production."
This was the public Lancaster: Mr Muscles and Teeth, whose hard-edged American babe-next-door good looks were a commodity for the star himself to exploit.
He told me he had arranged for me to go away with him for the weekend … to discuss my career.
“I asked him, sarcastically, if I could bring my girlfriend. Then he told me about a new movie he was making with one of the lead roles for a good looking guy in his late teens and he said I would be perfect for the part,” said Vince.
“I just sat there unable to digest what was going on.
Grantham-born Vince was doing a late show at Churchills nightclub in Soho.
“I did a sweep search of the audience, looking for any celebrities who might be there, and at a table I saw someone who looked remarkably like Burt Lancaster.
“Within 15 minutes of coming off stage I got a phone call from the maitre d’ who calmly said, ‘Mr Lancaster has invited you to join him for a drink’.
“I was in awe.
Don’t you dare speak to him again’, he warned me.”
But tempted by the lure of a movie career, Vince went back to the star’s table. Muscles, Mr. Teeth
Reviewed by Sienna Powers
He was, perhaps, born too soon. Lancaster died at home in Los Angeles on October 20, 1994 after "one last heart attack."
What emerges most strongly from Buford's well-rendered portrait is the passion, strength and determination of the late star.
‘Get in a taxi and go home. Buford is a pro and she tells Lancaster's story well. With compassion, respect and a nonjudgmental eye, she takes us through the turbulent early years of Lancaster's career right through to his frustrations at finding his still brilliant mind housed in a body that increasingly let him down. Others are golden-age-of-film-era standards: Birdman of Alcatraz, Atlantic City, From Here to Eternity (in which he rolls memorably in the sand with Deborah Kerr), Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral: the list is longer than Lancaster's own well-made arms. The private Lancaster, as reported by Buford, was even more complex. "That moral juxtaposition was perhaps one source of the melancholy that lurked behind the ice-blue eyes." Buford also writes of "compelling evidence" of Lancaster's bisexuality, that seems less than convincing.
A "serious, compulsive womanizer," Lancaster and second wife Norma had five children together. "They protect you. | August 2000
Sienna Powers is a transplanted Calgarian who lives and works in Vancouver, B.C. She is a writer and conceptual artist.
'Oscar winning Hollywood star propositioned me when I was a teenager' says Nottinghamshire singer
'Here he was with his hand on my thigh, inviting me to spend the night with him'
Rock and roll pioneer Vince Eager has revealed how a career in Hollywood vanished after he declined the sexual advances of an Oscar-winning movie legend.
Vince was a teenage singer in a London nightclub when he was propositioned by tough guy Burt Lancaster who offered him a movie role if he spent the night with him in his hotel.
“I turned him down and the movie offer was immediately withdrawn,” said Vince, who lives in Radcliffe on Trent where he is about to celebrate 60 years in show business.
The year was 1958.
Your phone number won't be shared with other members of the group.
.
He walked off in a huff and I never recorded for Parlophone again.
“This sort of thing happened all the time and there would have been many struggling young artistes who succumbed.
“I am just glad I was strong enough to resist … even though it meant I never had a movie career nor a hit record.”
Vince went on to star as Elvis Presley in a West End musical during the 1980s and then became a cruise director.
Then add the number to your phone contacts book as 'Nottingham Post'. I know they're out there telling their homosexual friends that we're having a big affair or something.") and for being the only matinee-idol type male star to publicly support Rock Hudson when the nature of Hudson's illness was released.
Whether or not Buford herself found her own evidence compelling, she doesn't dwell on ambiguities in Lancaster's sexuality.
We are reminded of the films, some of them -- like Sweet Smell of Success and Rocket Gibraltar -- more critically acclaimed now than they were in the time directly following their release. Burt Lancaster was one of my favourite actors and there we were, chatting like old friends.
“I said I was going home but I would be happy to meet him at 8.30am the next morning to talk about the part in his movie.
“Burt snarled at me and said, ‘You don’t come back with me now boy, you ain’t gonna be in the movie’.”
Rugged action man Lancaster, twice married and the father of five, died in 1994.
He still makes regular appearances with his rock and roll show.
And to mark the 60 anniversary of that skiffle success, he is staging a concert at Grange Hall, Radcliffe on Trent on December 28 when he will be performing with his group The Memphis Tones, Tristram Shandy and The Boutones.
Then he put his hand on my thigh and said, ‘Do you understand’?”
By now Vince was starting to feel uncomfortable and left the table to call his manager Larry Parnes.
“As soon as I mentioned Burt Lancaster’s name he warned me not to go anywhere near his hotel.
“Burt Lancaster was one of my heroes from movies like Trapeze and Gunfight At The OK Corral, and here he was with his hand on my thigh, inviting me to spend the night with him.”
Vince said the current publicity surrounding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had reminded him of the incident and that the abuse of sex and power had always been rife in the entertainment world.
And it was not the only time Vince lost a career opportunity because he said ‘no’.
His big break came in 1957 when his Grantham group The Vagabonds travelled down to London and finished second in the World Skiffle Championship.
She shows him as being deeply talented, hardworking -- he was making movies until a massive cerebral stroke left him wheelchair-bound and partly paralyzed in 1990 -- and unforgivably human.