Burt Lancaster is perhaps most widely remembered as the tough, iron-jawed star of films such as Gunfight at the OK Corral and Airport. But as this superbly readable and insightful biography demonstrates, he was an actor with much broader ambitions brilliantly realised in Viscontis The Leopard as well as the founder of the first actor-led production company in Hollywood. Lancasters liberal political views led not only to frequent clashes with the House Un-American Activities Committee and a voluminous FBI file, but also a private life that was colourful even by Hollywood standards. Although a devoted father and husband (to three wives), the actor took numerous lovers of both sexes. In his sexual tastes as in his choice of roles, he defied classification. Kate Bufords definitive biography offers a full, frank, sensitive and compelling portrait of the star of Atlantic City, From Here to Eternity and Elmer Gantry (for which he won a Best Actor Oscar). Lancaster emerges as a man of restless energy, relentless curiosity and continual development as an actor: a star every bit as interesting offscreen as on. As one American reviewer put it: Not many film stars receive first-class biographies; Burt Lancaster not only deserved one, he got one. Acclaimed biographer Kate Buford has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio in the United States since 1994.
Kate Buford has been a regular commentator since 1994 for Morning Edition on National Public Radio in the US. Her interest in Lancaster was first stimulated when she researched and wrote an article on the career for Film Comment magazine. She is the author of Burt Lancaster: An American Life and a biography of the American athlete Jim Thorpe.
