Burt Lancaster did not enter the film world until his mid-thirties, having developed a taste for acting in Army shows but lacking any formal dramatic training. A former circus performer, his strong personality and presence, athletic physique and winning smile made him a popular Hollywood star from the 1940s into the 70s, and kept him prominent in star character roles thereafter. Lancaster's first film role, as an ex-prizefighter on the lam in Robert Siodmak's splendid film noir, "The Killers" (1946), turned out to be one of Hollywood's most impressive star debuts and one of his finest performances ever. It was also the first in a series of noir thrillers to which he brought a streetwise toughness, a sense of menace and, at times, a surprising tenderness.
From the beginning Lancaster sought to control his own career, alternating roles as tough-guy gangsters, cops and convicts (memorably in the blistering "Brute Force" 1947) with offbeat, adventurous and challenging projects. He sought to expand his range as an actor-star and supported adaptations of notable plays which might not have otherwise been filmed (Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" 1948, Tennessee Williams's "The Rose Tattoo" 1955). In 1948 he formed Norma Productions, the first of several independent production companies, to help make another noir, "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands". His partner was his agent Harold Hecht and, about half a decade later, producer James Hill joined them. One of the first actor-dominated production companies, the renamed Hecht-Hill-Lancaster was responsible for the Oscar-winning realist drama "Marty" (1955) and "Bachelor Party" (1957), another landmark in adult urban drama, as well as films starring Lancaster, such as the gripping submarine drama, "Run Silent, Run Deep" (1958).
Lancaster the actor had also switched gears as he moved into the 50s, leaving film noir, baring his massive chest and gnashing his teeth in a series of tongue-in-cheek swashbucklers and adventure yarns including the exuberant "The Flame and the Arrow" (1950) and the well-liked spoof "The Crimson Pirate" (1952), which he also produced. That same year he essayed his first serious "character" role, playing a middle-aged former alcoholic married to a slatternly wife (Shirley Booth) in an adaptation of William Inge's stage hit "Come Back, Little Sheba" (1952). Soon thereafter he also tried his hand behind the camera, directing the spirited frontier saga "The Kentuckian" (1955). Throughout his career, he alternated crowd-pleasers aimed at the mass audience with ambitious, risky projects. One critic noted that Lancaster's performances could be typed based on his hairstyles--long and pompadoured for rousing adventure roles, close-cropped or parted in the middle for "serious" projects (e.g. "The Rose Tattoo" 1955, "Birdman of Alcatraz" 1962).
Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Lancaster starred in a host of successful Westerns, war films and melodramas, giving memorable performances as the rigid sergeant in "From Here to Eternity" (1953) and the charming con man who brings rain to a parched community in "The Rainmaker" (1956). Two very different films brought out his best: He was a monster of restrained menace as vicious, all-powerful gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker in the gritty "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957); and in Richard Brooks' successful adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' "Elmer Gantry" (1960), Lancaster utilized his grinning charm and larger-than-life presence to create a seductive portrait of a charlatan evangelist which earned him the best actor Oscar. He also gave a landmark performance as an Italian aristocrat in Visconti's "The Leopard" (1963)--a character he claimed was modeled on Visconti himself.
Lancaster's 60s and 70s Hollywood credits included the powerful political thriller "Seven Days in May" (1964), with the star as a power-hungry general; "The Swimmer" (1968), which offered Lancaster a particularly good role as a middle-aged businessman; and "Go Tell the Spartans" (1978), an interesting, underrated Vietnam War drama. Much of his work, though, highlighted the more routine melodramatics of the all-star adventure dramas "Airport" (1970) and "Twilight's Last Gleaming" (1978), but Lancaster always gave his roles a flamboyantly hammy, full-blown sense of commitment.
Lancaster made a graceful transition to senior roles, notably in Bertolucci's "1900" (1976), "Local Hero" (1983) and "Atlantic City" (1980). For the latter film, in which he played an aging con man, he received his fourth Oscar nomination as well as the New York Film Critics' Best Actor award. His last American feature roles included his sixth co-starring role opposite Kirk Douglas in the nostalgic gangster comedy "Tough Guys" (1986) and in the gentle baseball-themed fantasy "Field of Dreams" (1989). Formerly married to circus performer June Ernst (1935-36) and actress Norma Anderson (1946-69; by whom he had two sons and three daughters), Lancaster wed TV producer Susan Scherer in 1990.
