Broadway Lancaster returned to New York after his Army service. Although initially unenthusiastic about acting, Lancaster was encouraged to audition for a Broadway play by a producer who saw him in an elevator while he was visiting his then-girlfriend at work. The audition was successful and Lancaster was cast in
Harry Brown's
A Sound of Hunting (1945). The show ran for only three weeks, but his performance attracted the interest of a Hollywood agent,
Harold Hecht. Lancaster had other offers but Hecht promised him the opportunity to produce their own movies within five years of hitting Hollywood. Through Hecht, Lancaster was brought to the attention of producer
Hal B. Wallis. Lancaster left New York and moved to Los Angeles. Wallis signed him to a non-exclusive eight-movie contract.
Hal Wallis in
The Killers, 1946 Lancaster's first filmed movie was
Desert Fury for Wallis in 1947, where Lancaster was billed after
John Hodiak and
Lizabeth Scott. It was directed by
Lewis Allen. Then producer
Mark Hellinger approached him to star in 1946's
The Killers, which was completed and released prior to
Desert Fury. Directed by
Robert Siodmak, it was a great commercial and critical success and launched Lancaster and his co-star
Ava Gardner to stardom. It has since come to be regarded as a classic. Hellinger used Lancaster again on
Brute Force in 1947, a prison drama written by
Richard Brooks and directed by
Jules Dassin. It was also well received. In 1948, Lancaster had a change of pace with the film adaptation of
Arthur Miller's
All My Sons, made at
Universal Pictures with
Edward G. Robinson. His third film for Wallis was an adaptation of
Sorry, Wrong Number in 1948, with
Barbara Stanwyck.
Norma Productions Hecht kept to his promise to Lancaster to turn producer. The two of them formed a company, Norma Productions, and did a deal with Universal to make a thriller about a disturbed G.I. in London,
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands in 1948, with
Joan Fontaine and directed by Norman Foster. It made a profit of only $50,000, but was critically acclaimed. Lancaster was borrowed by
20th Century Fox for
Mister 880 in 1950, a comedy crime romance film with
Edmund Gwenn. MGM put him in a popular Western,
Vengeance Valley in 1951, then he went to Warners to play the title role in the biopic
Jim Thorpe – All-American, also in 1951.
Halburt Norma signed a deal with
Columbia Pictures to make two films through a Norma subsidiary, Halburt. The first film was 1951's
Ten Tall Men, where Lancaster was a member of the
French Foreign Legion.
Robert Aldrich worked on the movie as a production manager. The second was 1952's
The First Time, a comedy which was the directorial debut of
Frank Tashlin. It was meant to star Lancaster but he wound up not appearing in the filmthe first of their productions in which he did not act.
Hecht-Lancaster Productions In 1951, the actor/producer duo changed the company's name to Hecht-Lancaster Productions. The first film under the new name was another swashbuckler: 1952's
The Crimson Pirate, directed by Siodmak. Again, co-starring Nick Cravat, it was extremely popular. Taking the premise of The Flame and the Arrow a step further, it allowed the pair to, not only emphasise the absurdity of the story with more spectacle and comical situations but to demonstrate they were able to perform their own circus skills-based stunts without relying on
stuntmen quite as much as most Hollywood stars. As if to downplay this, Lancaster himself speaks to the audience in the opening scene over footage of Lancaster performing a dangerous rope swing from one of his pirate ship's masts to the other. "…in a pirate world, believe only what you see." The footage is then reversed to show a near impossible backwards swing to the first mast again, from which he proclaims "No, believe HALF of what you see." Lancaster changed pace once more by doing a straight dramatic part in 1952's
Come Back, Little Sheba, based on a Broadway hit, with
Shirley Booth, produced by Wallis and directed by
Daniel Mann. Alternating with adventure films, he went into
South Sea Woman in 1952 at Warners. Part of the Norma-Warners contract was that Lancaster had to appear in some non-Norma films, of which this was one. in
From Here to Eternity, 1953 In 1954, for his own company, Lancaster produced and starred in ''
His Majesty O'Keefe'', a South Sea island tale shot in Fiji. It was co-written by James Hill, who would soon become a part of the Hecht-Lancaster partnership.
United Artists Hecht and Lancaster left Warners for
United Artists, for what began as a two-picture deal, the first of which was to be 1954's
Apache, starring Lancaster as a Native American. They followed it with another Western in 1954,
Vera Cruz, co-starring
Gary Cooper and produced by Hill. Both films were directed by
Robert Aldrich and were hugely popular. United Artists signed Hecht-Lancaster to a multi-picture contract, to make seven films over two years. These included films in which Lancaster did not act. Their first was
Marty in 1955, based on
Paddy Chayefsky's TV play starring
Ernest Borgnine and directed by
Delbert Mann. It won both the
Best Picture Oscar and the
Palme d'Or award at
Cannes and Borgnine an
Best Actor Oscar. It also earned $2 million on a budget of $350,000.
Vera Cruz had been a huge success, but
Marty secured Hecht-Lancaster as one of the most successful independent production companies in Hollywood at the time.
Marty star Borgnine was under contract to Hecht-Lancaster and was unhappy about his lack of upcoming roles, especially after only receiving some seven lines in 1957's
Sweet Smell of Success and half of his normal pay for
Marty. He eventually sued for breach of contract to gain back some of this money in 1957. Without Hill, Hecht and Lancaster produced
The Kentuckian in 1955. It was directed by Lancaster in his directorial debut, and he also played a lead role. Lancaster disliked directing and only did it once more, on 1974's
The Midnight Man. Lancaster still had commitments with Wallis, and made
The Rose Tattoo for him in 1955, starring with
Anna Magnani and Daniel Mann directing. It was very popular at the box office and critically acclaimed, winning Magnani an Oscar.
Hecht-Hill-Lancaster In 1955, Hill was made an equal partner in Hecht-Lancaster, with his name added to the production company.
Hecht-Hill-Lancaster (HHL) released their first film
Trapeze in 1956, with Lancaster performing many of his own stunts. The film, co-starring
Tony Curtis and
Gina Lollobrigida, went on to become the production company's top box office success, and United Artists expanded its deal with HHL. In 1956, Lancaster and Hecht partnered with
Loring Buzzell and entered the music industry with the music publishing companies
Leigh Music,
Hecht-Lancaster & Buzzell Music,
Calyork Music and
Colby Music and the record labels
Calyork Records and
Maine Records. The HHL team impressed Hollywood with its success; as
Life wrote in 1957, "[a]fter the independent production of a baker's dozen of pictures, it has yet to have its first flop ... (They were also good pictures.)." In late 1957, they announced they would make ten films worth $14 million in 1958. Lancaster made two films for Wallis to complete his eight-film commitment for that contract:
The Rainmaker (1956) with
Katharine Hepburn, which earned Lancaster a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor; and
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) with Kirk Douglas, which was a huge commercial hit directed by
John Sturges. Lancaster re-teamed with
Tony Curtis in 1957 for
Sweet Smell of Success, a co-production between Hecht-Hill-Lancaster and Curtis' own company with wife
Janet Leigh, Curtleigh Productions. The movie, directed by
Alexander Mackendrick, was a critical success but a commercial disappointment. Over the years it has come to be regarded as one of Lancaster's greatest films. HHL produced seven additional films in the late 1950s. Four starred Lancaster:
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), a
Robert Wise directed war film with
Clark Gable, which was mildly popular;
Separate Tables (1958) a hotel-set drama with Kerr and
Rita Hayworth (who married James Hill), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Oscar awards for lead actor
David Niven and supporting actress
Wendy Hiller, and was both a critical and commercial success; ''
The Devil's Disciple (1959), with Douglas and Laurence Olivier, which lost money (and saw Lancaster fire Mackendrick during shooting); and the Western The Unforgiven'' (1960), with
Audrey Hepburn, which was a critical and commercial disappointment. Three were made without Lancaster, all of which lost money:
The Bachelor Party (1957), from another TV play by Chayefsky, and directed by Delbert Mann;
Take a Giant Step (1959), about a black student; and
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1960), from an Australian play, shot on location in Australia and Britain. Lancaster was originally announced as the lead for
Doll but did not appear in the final film. The Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions company dissolved in 1960 after Hill ruptured his relationship with both Hecht and Lancaster. Hill went on to produce a single additional film,
The Happy Thieves, in a new production company, Hillworth Productions, co-owned with his wife
Rita Hayworth.
Hecht and Lancaster Lancaster played the title role in
Elmer Gantry (1960), written and directed by Richard Brooks for United Artists. The film received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Lancaster won the
1960 Academy Award for Best Actor, a Golden Globe Award, and the
New York Film Critics Award for his performance. Hecht and Lancaster worked together on
The Young Savages (1961), directed by
John Frankenheimer and produced by Hecht.
Sydney Pollack worked as a dialogue coach. Lancaster starred in
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) for
Stanley Kramer, alongside
Spencer Tracy,
Richard Widmark and a number of other stars. The film was both a commercial and critical success, receiving eleven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. He then did another film with Hecht and Frankenheimer (replacing
Charles Crichton),
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), a largely fictionalized biography. In it he plays
Robert Stroud, a federal prisoner incarcerated for life for two murders, who begins to collect birds and over time becomes an expert in bird diseases, even publishing a book. The film shows Stroud transferred to the maximum security Alcatraz prison where he is not allowed to keep birds and as he ages he gets married, markets bird remedies, helps stop a prison rebellion, and writes a book on the history of the U.S. penal system, but never gets paroled. The sympathetic performance earned Lancaster a Best Actor Oscar nomination, a BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Dramatic Role. Hecht went on to produce five films without Lancaster's assistance, through his company Harold Hecht Films Productions between 1961 and 1967, including another Academy Award winner,
Cat Ballou, starring
Lee Marvin and
Jane Fonda.
Collaborations with younger filmmakers Lancaster made
A Child Is Waiting (1963) with
Judy Garland. It was produced by Kramer and directed by
John Cassavetes. He went to Italy to star in
The Leopard (1963) for
Luchino Visconti, co-starring
Alain Delon and
Claudia Cardinale. It was one of Lancaster's favorite films and was a big hit in France but failed in the US (though the version released was much truncated). He had a small role in
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) for producer/star Kirk Douglas, and then did two for Frankenheimer:
Seven Days in May (1964), a political thriller with Douglas, and
The Train (1964), a World War Two action film (Lancaster had Frankenheimer replace
Arthur Penn several days into filming). Lancaster starred in
The Hallelujah Trail (1965), a comic Western produced and directed by
John Sturges which failed to recoup its large cost. He had a big hit with
The Professionals (1966), a Western directed by Brooks and also starring
Lee Marvin. In 1966, at the age of 52, Lancaster appeared nude in director
Frank Perry's film
The Swimmer (1968), in what the critic
Roger Ebert called "his finest performance". Prior to working on
The Swimmer, Lancaster was terrified of the water because he did not know how to swim. In preparation for the film, he took swimming lessons from
UCLA swim coach Bob Horn. Filming was difficult and clashes between Lancaster and Perry led to
Sydney Pollack coming in to do some filming. The film was not released until 1968, when it proved to be a commercial failure, though Lancaster remained proud of the movie and his performance.
Norlan Productions in
The Unforgiven, 1960 In 1967, Lancaster formed a new partnership with
Roland Kibbee, who had already worked as a writer on five Lancaster projects:
Ten Tall Men,
The Crimson Pirate,
Three Sailors and a Girl (in which Lancaster made a cameo appearance),
Vera Cruz, and ''The Devil's Disciple''. Through Norlan Productions, Lancaster and Kibbee produced
The Scalphunters in 1968, directed by Sydney Pollack. Lancaster followed it with another film from Pollack,
Castle Keep in 1969, which was a big flop. So was
The Gypsy Moths, for Frankenheimer, also in 1969.
1970s during documentary filming "The Unknown War", episode 9 War in the Air. Moscow, USSR, 1978, photo: Leo Medvedev Lancaster had one of the biggest successes of his career with
Airport in 1970, starring alongside
Dean Martin,
George Kennedy,
Van Heflin,
Helen Hayes,
Maureen Stapleton,
Barbara Hale,
Jean Seberg, and
Jacqueline Bisset. The
Ross Hunter film received nine Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. It became one of the biggest box-office hits of 1970 and, at that time, reportedly the highest-grossing film in the history of
Universal Pictures. He then went into a series of Westerns:
Lawman in 1971, directed by
Michael Winner;
Valdez Is Coming in 1971, for Norlan; and ''
Ulzana's Raid in 1972, directed by Aldrich and produced by himself and Hecht. None were particularly popular but Ulzana's Raid'' has become a cult film. Lancaster did two thrillers, both 1973:
Scorpio with Winner and
Executive Action. Lancaster returned to directing in 1974 with
The Midnight Man, which he also wrote and produced with Kibee. He made a second film with Visconti,
Conversation Piece in 1974 and played the title role in the TV series
Moses the Lawgiver, also in 1974. Lancaster was one of many well-known actors in the international ensemble cast of 1975's film
1900, directed by
Bernardo Bertolucci, and he had a cameo in 1976's ''
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson'' for
Robert Altman. He played
Shimon Peres in the TV movie
Victory at Entebbe in 1977 and had a supporting role in
The Cassandra Crossing in 1976. He made a fourth and final film with Aldrich, ''
Twilight's Last Gleaming'' in 1977, and had the title role in 1977's
The Island of Dr. Moreau. Lancaster was top-billed in
Go Tell the Spartans in 1978, a
Vietnam War film; Lancaster admired the script so much that he took a reduced fee and donated money to help the movie to be completed. He was in
Zulu Dawn in 1979.
1980s Lancaster began the 1980s with a highly acclaimed performance alongside
Susan Sarandon in
Atlantic City in 1980, directed by
Louis Malle. The film received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and a Best Actor nomination for Lancaster. He had key roles in
Cattle Annie and Little Britches in 1981,
The Skin in 1982 with Cardinale,
Marco Polo, also in 1982, and
Local Hero in 1983. By now, Lancaster was mostly a character actor in features, as in
The Osterman Weekend in 1983, but he was the lead in the TV movie
Scandal Sheet in 1985. He was in
Little Treasure in 1985, directed by
Alan Sharp, who had written ''Ulzana's Raid
; On Wings of Eagles'' for TV in 1986, as
Bull Simons; 1986's made for TV
Barnum starred him in the title role;
Tough Guys reunited him on the big screen with Kirk Douglas in 1986;
Fathers and Sons: A German Tragedy (in German
Väter und Söhne – Eine deutsche Tragödie) in 1986 for German TV; 1987's
Control made in Italy;
Rocket Gibraltar in 1988, and ''
The Jeweller's Shop'' in 1989. His first critical success in a while was
Field of Dreams in 1989, in which he played a supporting role as
Moonlight Graham. He was also in the miniseries
The Betrothed in 1989.
Later career Lancaster's final performances included TV miniseries
The Phantom of the Opera (1990);
Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair (1990) as
Leon Klinghoffer based on the 1985 hijacking incident; and
Separate But Equal (1991) with
Sidney Poitier.
Frequent collaborators '', 1961 Lancaster appeared in a total of seventeen films produced by his agent,
Harold Hecht. Eight of these were co-produced by
James Hill. He also appeared in eight films produced by
Hal B. Wallis and two with producer
Mark Hellinger. Although Lancaster's work alongside Kirk Douglas was known as that of a successful pair of actors, Douglas, in fact, produced four films for the pair, through his production companies Bryna Productions and Joel Productions. Roland Kibbee also produced three Lancaster films, and Lancaster was also cast in two
Stanley Kramer productions.
Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas starred in seven films across the decades with Burt Lancaster:
I Walk Alone (1948),
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), ''
The Devil's Disciple (1959), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), Seven Days in May (1964), Victory at Entebbe (1976) and Tough Guys (1986), which fixed the notion of the pair as something of a team in the public imagination. Douglas was always billed under Lancaster in these movies but, with the exception of I Walk Alone'', in which Douglas played a villain, their roles were usually more or less the same size. Both actors arrived in Hollywood at about the same time, and first appeared together in the fourth film for each, albeit with Douglas in a supporting role. They both became actor-producers who sought out independent Hollywood careers.
John Frankenheimer John Frankenheimer directed five films with Lancaster:
The Young Savages (1961),
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962),
Seven Days in May (1964),
The Train (1964), and
The Gypsy Moths (1969).
Other repeat collaborators He was directed four times by
Robert Aldrich, three times each by
Robert Siodmak and
Sydney Pollack, and twice each by
Byron Haskin,
Daniel Mann,
John Sturges,
John Huston,
Richard Brooks,
Alexander Mackendrick,
Luchino Visconti, and
Michael Winner.
Roland Kibbee wrote for seven Lancaster films. Lancaster used makeup veteran Robert Schiffer in twenty credited films, hiring Schiffer on nearly all of the films he produced. ==Political activism==