| Born in what was then the Irish quarter of East Harlem, | | | | – such as the movie Apache (1954), a pro-Indian |
| Lancaster showed an early aptitude for sport and | | | | Western that appealed to Lancaster's staunchly liberal |
| athletics. He enrolled at New York University, but | | | | politics. But Mackendrick's late-noir masterpiece Sweet |
| dropped out to form an acrobatic duo with boyhood | | | | Smell of Success (1957) failed at the box-office, |
| friend, Nick Cravat, billed as ‘Lang and Cravat'. | | | | despite one of Lancaster's most chilling performances |
| They played several circus troupes before injury | | | | on screen as the monstrous showbiz columnist, king of |
| forced Lancaster to quit. During the war he served in | | | | a predatory night-world. |
| the army entertainments section, and on his discharge | | | | Westerns suited his rangy physique and relaxed |
| decided to take up acting. His first role, as a juvenile | | | | athleticism. He turned the grin to fine villainous account |
| lead in a Broadway play, brought him numerous | | | | opposite Gary Cooper's principled loner in the movie |
| Hollywood offers (he signed with Hal Walis) and a | | | | Vera Cruz (1954), then swapped roles to play a staid, |
| partnership with agent Harold Hecht. | | | | controlled Wyatt Earp to Kirk Douglas's maverick Doc |
| Lancaster's inexperience and the narrowness of his | | | | Holliday in Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957). And few |
| range, evident in such early roles as the fall-guy in | | | | actors were better equipped to play con-men, |
| Siodmaks's The Killers (1946) and the victimized con in | | | | cold-eyed and ruthless beneath purring charm: he was |
| Dassin's taut prison drama Brute Force (1947), were | | | | good in movies such as The Rainmaker (1956) but |
| more than offset by the intensity of his screen | | | | overwhelmed as Elmer Gantry (1960), drunk on the |
| presence – a brooding, feral power than even in | | | | floor of his own swaggering oratory. |
| supposedly weak characters, such as Stanwyck's | | | | Hecht-Hill-Lancaster broke up around 1960, and |
| scheming husband in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), | | | | Lancaster turned to quieter, more reflective roles, |
| conveyed a sense of barely suppressed violence. It | | | | though never losing the sense of contained menace: in |
| was a quality new in Hollywood leading men, as | | | | Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) his condemned killer |
| Lancaster himself acknowledged: ‘I was part of a | | | | handles tiny fragile creatures with infinite gentleness, |
| new kind of furniture – tougher, less polished, | | | | and his megalomaniac general of Seven Days in May |
| grainier.' | | | | (1964) is all the scarier for an air of glassy-eyed calm. |
| This dangerous edge fitted him perfectly for the noir | | | | But his portrayal of the Sicilian prince in the movie Il |
| movies of the period. Its upside, played with an | | | | Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963) came as a revelation. |
| infectious air of self-mockery, was a swashbuckling | | | | Few people – including initially Visconti himself - had |
| zest that made him one of the most exhilarating of | | | | thought him capable of such poised aristocratic |
| action heroes. In the movies Flame and the arrow | | | | melancholy. The movie revealed unexpected depths in |
| (1950) and The Crimson Pirate (1952) Lancaster, | | | | him; Visconti called him ‘the most perfectly |
| reteamed with his old partner Nick Cravat, swung, | | | | mysterious man I have ever met'. This mysterious |
| soared and tumbled with ballet grace and evident | | | | quality was exploited again by Visconti in |
| delight in the sheer physicality of his performance. By | | | | Conversations Piece (1974), where Lancaster plays |
| comparison, even Flynn and Fairbanks seem | | | | the lonely professor enticed out of his isolation by the |
| earthbound. | | | | decadent ‘family' which moves in next to his |
| Some critics, seeing no further than the superb | | | | book-strewn apartment. |
| physique and the toothy grin, derided him as beefcake, | | | | Lancaster's later movies were variable, but they |
| missing the fierce intelligence he brought to every role. | | | | include some of his finest roles as age relaxed and |
| Lancaster, well aware of his own limitations, was | | | | mellowed him. In Ulzana's Raid (1972) he exuded innate |
| constantly pushing to extend his range and reveal the | | | | authority as the grizzled, fatalistic scout, dying stoically |
| vulnerability beneath the brawn – as with his weary, | | | | for the stupidity of others. He good-humouredly guyed |
| ex-alcoholic doctor in the movie Come Back, Little | | | | his own dynamic image for Bill Forsyth's quirky |
| Sheba, cannily underplaying to Shirley Booth's tour de | | | | comedy Local Hero (1983), and contributed a touchingly |
| force as his wife. | | | | wistful cameo in Field of Dreams (1989). But he was at |
| Lancaster was too shrewd to self himself into the | | | | his best, blending pathos with bravado, in Malle's |
| contractual slavery that had trapped most pre-war | | | | Atlantic City USA (1980) as the ageing two-bit |
| stars. His box-office appeal, allied to Hecht's financial | | | | gangster granted the chance to live out his own |
| acumen, created the first of the actors-agent | | | | absurd fantasies. ‘I think I may have a respectful |
| partnerships that would break the power of Hollywood | | | | following, but not a affectionate one ‘, Lancaster |
| studios. Later joined by script-writer James Hill, | | | | once observed, but time has proven him wrong. Not |
| Hecht-Hill-Lancaster became the most powerful | | | | only did his range broaden and deepen with age; he |
| independent production company of the 1950s, always | | | | also – against all expectations – became lovable |
| willing to take on risky projects. Some of them paid off | | | | as well. |