Eldergays, tell me about Burt Lancaster.

Oops

*To Danny with love, Burt

Was he gay... or possibly bi?

Gay for pay....

Probably gay for pay, or a role, at least once in his life, but nobody who would have trouble signing a picture for a gay fan. He never ran away from his nudes and was quite proud of them. He was a sexual predator though. Not that I would mind. I guess some did. He would fuck anything that stood still long enough.

Ahh yes Burt was easy on the eyes in his youth. Rumored to be bisexual, particularly when on location in Italy

He gave zero fucks about who saw his nudes after he became famous. He posed for them when he need food and rent money. Who knows what else he did for money.

He sure wuz purdy. Especially in "Elmer Gantry."

R5 What a bush!

Here he is in “Zulu Dawn” (1979)

Back left.

True story...I think he was a circus performer or something before washing ashore in films (?)

New York method actress Shirley Knight once said, "Oh yes, Hollywood. That place where they give acting awards to Burt Lancaster."

Burt's best: Rainmaker, Trapeze, Atlantic City.

With DL Icon Joan Rivers in 'The Swimmer'. Not a great film, but an interesting one.

For some strange reason he had a career. I guess the casting couch was working just as well or better back then. He was also accused a few years ago of abusing a young girl who was the daughter of a close friend of his.

He was a genuinely talented actor who worked hard at his craft, and was a natural the first time he was on screen (in "The Killers") and was an actor of genuine rage and accomplishment in middle age (in films like "Elmer Gantry" and "the Birdman f Alcatraz").

It's long rumored he was gay for pay when he was young, and also that he was bisexual and had a lifelong affair with his longtime vaudeville acrobatic partner Nick Cravat (who appears with him in "The Crimson Pirate"). He was a very complex guy. He was a lifelong liberal.

Accused, not proven. He was a civil rights activist. Anyone who doesn't respond to him on screen is numb.

He was bi. Someone I knew ( who is sadly no longer with us ) met him in Paris and Had an enjoyable night with him. I had no reason to disbelieve my friend as he had no reason to make up the story. I got the impression Lancaster was perfectly straightforward about it. But then it was before Hollywood agents and PR firms had such a stranglehold on actors even when out of the country. Way before social media, of course, as well.

He had a great movie every decade.

ATLANTIC CITY remains my fave. Was the song inspired by it?

Iconic scene

Wasn't there a book published around 1999/2000 about scandals and secrets of old Hollywood that claimed Burt Lancaster used to have orgies with other Hollywood stars like Rock Hudson?

Shelley Winters claims to have had an affair with him. So he was probably all-sexual.

He was a ham too often, but improved the older he got.

He was bisexual, and a top. He had a famous liaison with Brando, who also had been one of Shelley Winters' paramours. Brando and Lancaster went into a hotel suite together (this was the early-success years for Brando when everyone wanted him) and didn't come out for several days.

The link is about Shelley Winters' tell-all in 1980.

I thought he was actually quite moving in FIELD OF DREAMS.

I think it was Burt Lancaster that Shelley Winters was talking about in her book. She was crying because she couldn't see him. Brando was over at Shelley's place in bed with her. Brando got up, collected all the pictures of Lancaster and marched down the hallway naked and dumped the pictures in the dumpster.

Shelley had the best of the best cock.

Burt and Nick. I was hoping for someone a little hotter.

[quote]Shelley had the best of the best cock.

I'm guessing because she was willing and available. Because she wasn't that beautiful. She herself admits she had an overbite. And rather than getting glamour roles, she had to make do with spaghetti westerns and playing the frumpy and middle aged and yentas.

The best thing Lancaster ever did was beat up Michael Winner.

Shirley Knight wishes she had half of Lancaster's career as an internationally known above the title star of major studio pictures.

Then there's Shirley Booth. I like both Booth and Lancaster a lot. So I couldn't wait to finally see Come Back Little Sheeba when it was playing on TV. That was a dog of a movie. Literally and figuratively.

[quote]Accused, not proven.

So funny, I thought this said:

[bold] "Acting, not proven." [/bold]

Tho he would certainly have had beautiful children with Ava Gardner (!)

Darling Bimbo-gays, if you haven't seen him in the two movies he made with Luchino Visconti--"The Leopard" (his greatest performance) and "Conversation Piece"--then you don't know jack shit about Burt Lancaster. He was a brave actor, he was gorgeous, and he had more sex appeal than entire Marvel Universe.

Miss Eldergay

Stripper/hooker Liz Renay said he was the greatest lover she ever had. She just about swooned talking about him decades later. She said the worst by far was Jerry Lewis who wanted her to walk in front of him. He would the put a white rug down and well, you can imagine the rest.

R16, more info, PLEASE.

R31, so true! And "The Swimmer," "Birdman," "Sweet Smell of Success"...

Gayer than most

He had an affair with Tony Curtis during the making of the Sweet Smell of Success.

"I'm guessing because she was willing and available. Because she wasn't that beautiful. "

Shelly Winters did indeed get all the best cock, and when she was too old to get it, shared her memories of dick with the public! So yeah, she wasn't beautiful, but she must have been a fun gal, someone who liked laughs, parties, hot men, and fucking. A young woman who likes fucking can always find a man!

And lucky bitch to get Lancaster, he really does seem to have been the top of everyone's fantasies - the dominant alpha male who'll fuck anyone with a hole and make them love it.

At the start of production of "From Here to Eternity", Montgomery Clift thought Lancaster didn't like him because Lancaster was distant and aloof. Lancaster was actually in awe of Clift's acting and began hanging around, watching Clift film his scenes, whenever possible. The two wound up becoming good friends during the film's production and rumors were they hooked up, with Lancaster being the pursuer. (Coincidentally, "Eternity" also starred Clift's then-friend Frank Sinatra but the two had a major falling out later when Clift attended a party hosted by Sinatra at his house and spent the night drunkenly pursuing a male guest, much to Sinatra's annoyance.)

He treated Sarandon and Louis Malle (the director) terribly on the set of Atlantic City.

She deserved it, in advance.

OP, That scene in "The Rainmaker " when he talks about discovering his powers always makes me cry.

R37, in some book or another, I read that when "FHtE" was shooting in Hawaii, every night Clift and Sinatra would go out and get so blind hammered drunk that they'd come back to the film company's hotel unable to stand. So for some reason, every night Lancaster would come down and carry them back to their beds, and that for many years after Sinatra would call Lancaster "Mom".

Personally, I doubt they had an affair because I can't imagine a bigger boner-killer than seeing someone that sloppy drunk night after night, but then there are people who will fuck a passed-out drunk, or just anything with a hole.

Burt wanted Clift for the Tino role in Trapeze initially, but iirc he declined and Tony Curtis got the job. Much better choice IMHO.

He was a good actor but not a great one and people like Deborah Kerr, Tony Curtis and Shirley Booth acted circles around him.

But he had an exquisite taste for filmmaking and his movie choices as a producer and actor were of the highest quality. Of all the classic movie stars he was probably the most interesting.

I agree with OP that he was amazing in the Rainmaker, he really nailed the exuberant dreamer called Bill Starbuck and brought some real magic to the role. The Rainmaker unfortunately is not his most famous movie but well worth checking out for the wonderful writing, beautiful score and great performances.

It's actually the lesser known movies that I like the best. Sorry, Wong Number, Atlantic City, Separate Tables, Come Back Little Sheba, A Child Is Waiting, The Unforgiven, Mister 880, The Crimson Pirate, Trapeze, Jim Thorpe, Kiss The Blood Off My Hands, All My Sons, and of course Sweet Smell of Success.

For movie buffs Burt's work is a real treasure trove.

Totally agree, r43. Love most of those films mentioned.

Burt was so bi, he might've well been gay.

Everything about him was pretty and special kudos for his hair! Did he pioneer that flippitity doodah tousled high pile? He rarely did slick hair.

He originated bed head, no?

He was a good guy

Of all the Hollywood people you came to know, who left the biggest impression on you, and why?

I think the person who left the biggest impression on me was Burt Lancaster. He was exactly as energetic and charismatic in real life as he was on film. But that’s not what impressed me the most about him. One day he called me up and asked me if I knew anything about Cesar Chavez and the work he was doing with the farm workers. I said I only knew about it from reading stories in the newspaper. He then invited me up for the day to check out Chavez’s operation and see the kind of struggles they were going through. Burt’s personality was as big as they come, but when we went up to see Chavez and the farm workers he was as respectful, polite, and attentive as anyone I’d ever seen. He completely put his ego aside to listen to everyone he came into contact with. Not that Burt had ever been dismissive with people before, but most of the time his personality could really take over the room. Not in this case. That showed me how much he really cared about the issues that were important to him. There were no camera crews, no reporters, just two guys trying to understand the lives of people that were fighting for their rights.