Burt Lancaster
Birthday: Born in 1913-11-02 in New York City, New York, USA
Deathday: 1994-10-20
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile (which he called "The Grin"). Later he took roles that went against his initial "tough guy" image. In the late 1950s Lancaster abandoned his "all-American" image and came to be regarded as one of the best actors of his generation. Lancaster was nominated four times for Academy Awards and won once — for his work in Elmer Gantry in 1960. He also won a Golden Globe for that performance and BAFTA Awards for The Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and Atlantic City (1980). His production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, was the most successful and innovative star-driven independent production company in Hollywood of the 1950s, making movies such as Marty (1955), Trapeze (1956), and Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Lancaster also directed two films: The Kentuckian (1955) and The Midnight Man (1974). In 1999, the American Film Institute named Lancaster nineteenth among the greatest male stars of all time. Description above from the Wikipedia article Burt Lancaster, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
The Colgate Comedy Hour
Character: Self
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show starred many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Ray Bolger, Gordon MacRae, Ben Blue, Robert Paige, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster, Broadway dancer Wayne Lamb and Spike Jones and His City Slickers....
The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time....
The Oscars
Character: Self
An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar....
On Wings of Eagles
Character: Lieutenant Colonel Arthur E. 'Bull' Simons
On Wings of Eagles is a NBC TV mini-series, starring Burt Lancaster - Richard Crenna and directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. The TV series was adapted from Ken Follet's novel of the same name. The plot is set during the Iranian revolution. During the takeover of Iran, the king is overthrown, and two executives of Electronic Data Systems are imprisoned on false charges. The head of the company, Mr. Perot, travels to Tehran to negotiate for their release. Meanwhile, a retired US Army Special Forces C...
The Phantom of the Opera
Character: Gérard Carrière
The Phantom of the Opera is a 1990 NBC two-part drama television miniseries. It is adapted from Arthur Kopit's book for his then-unproduced stage musical Phantom, which is based loosely on Gaston Leroux's novel....
Startime
Character:
Startime is an anthology show of drama, comedy, and variety, and was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color. The program was aired Tuesday nights in the United States on the NBC Television network in the 1959-60 television season....
Separate but Equal
Character: John W. Davis
A two-part miniseries. Dramatizes the events leading up to the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school desegregation, "Brown vs. Board of Education."...
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Character: Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time....
I promessi sposi
Character: Cardinal Federigo
...
Mosè
Character: Mosè
A biopic of Moses, who led the Jewish people out of Egypt, ex. by parting the Red Sea and afterwards delivered the Ten Commandments from God....
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Character: Self
A talk show presented by Michel Drucker...
The Dick Cavett Show
Character: Self - Guest
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks....
Marco Polo
Character: Teobaldo Visconti
The life of the 13th-century Venetian explorer who sought to connect the civilizations of China and Europe through trade....
The Unknown War
Character: Self - Host
A documentary television series of the Nazi-Soviet War, edited from over 3.5 million feet of film taken by Soviet camera crews from the first day of the war, 22 June 1941, to the Soviet entry into Berlin in May 1945....
Reflets de Cannes
Character: Self
...
Golden Globe Awards
Character: Self - Presenter
An annual awards ceremony recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association....
Golden Globe Awards
Character: Self - Winner
An annual awards ceremony recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association....
Movie Credits
Birdman of Alcatraz
Character: Robert Stroud
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world....
Sweet Smell of Success
Character: J.J. Hunsecker
New York City newspaper writer J.J. Hunsecker holds considerable sway over public opinion with his Broadway column, but one thing that he can't control is his younger sister, Susan, who is in a relationship with aspiring jazz guitarist Steve Dallas. Hunsecker strongly disapproves of the romance and recruits publicist Sidney Falco to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method....
The Leopard
Character: Prince Don Fabrizio Salina
As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life. Proud but pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina allows his war hero nephew, Tancredi, to marry Angelica, the beautiful daughter of gauche, bourgeois Don Calogero, in order to maintain the family's accustomed level of comfort and political clout....
Movie Tough Guys
Character: Self (archive footage)
This compilation of film highlights features many of the biggest box office tough guys of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s—Bogart, Brando, Cagney and more!...
Judgment at Nuremberg
Character: Ernst Janning
In 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner....
Field of Dreams
Character: Doc "Moonlight" Graham
Ray Kinsella is an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond. He does, but the voice's directions don't stop -- even after the spirits of deceased ballplayers turn up to play....
The Train
Character: Paul Labiche
As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it...
Moses the Lawgiver
Character: Moses
The epic story of Moses, who led the Israelites out of slavery, parted the Red Sea and received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Originally a TV Miniseries recut for theaters...
Airport
Character: Mel Bakersfeld
Melodrama about a bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved....
1900
Character: Alfredo Berlinghieri the Elder
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides....
Tough Guys
Character: Harry Doyle
Harry Doyle and Archie Lang are two old-time train robbers, who held up a train in 1956 and have been incarcerated for thirty years. After serving their time, they are released from jail and have to adjust to a new life of freedom. and soon realize that they still have the pizzazz when, picking up their prison checks at a bank, they foil a robbery attempt....
Valdez Is Coming
Character: Valdez
Old Mexican-American sheriff Bob Valdez has always been a haven of sanity in a land of madmen when it came to defending law and order. But the weapon smuggler Frank Tanner is greedy and impulsive. When Tanner provokes a shooting that causes the death of an innocent man and Valdez asks him to financially compensate the widow, Tanner refuses to do so and severely humiliates Valdez, who will do justice and avenge his honor, no matter what it takes....
Local Hero
Character: Felix Happer
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected....
Elmer Gantry
Character: Elmer Gantry
When hedonistic but charming con man Elmer Gantry meets the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer, a roadside revivalist, he feigns piousness to join her act as a passionate preacher. The two make a successful onstage pair, and their chemistry extends to romance. Both the show and their relationship are threatened, however, when one of Gantry's ex-lovers decides that she has a score to settle with the charismatic performer....
Victory at Entebbe
Character: Shimon Peres
The film is based on an actual event: Operation Entebbe and the freeing of Israeli hostages at Entebbe Airport (now Entebbe International Airport) in Uganda....
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
Character: William Earle 'Bill' Saunders
Bill Saunders, a former prisoner of war living in England, whose experiences have left him unstable and violent, gets into a bar fight in which he in kills a man and then flees. He hides out with the assistance of a nurse, Jane Wharton, who believes his story that the killing was an accident....
Criss Cross
Character: Steve Thompson
An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband....
Sorry, Wrong Number
Character: Henry Stevenson
Leona Stevenson is confined to bed and uses her telephone to keep in contact with the outside world. One day she overhears a murder plot on the telephone and is desperate to find out who is the intended victim....
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Character: Marshal Wyatt Earp
Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral....
The Crimson Pirate
Character: Capt. Vallo (The Crimson Pirate)
Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball scientist, sailing ships, naval fights and tons of swordplay....
Atlantic City
Character: Lou
In a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger....
From Here to Eternity
Character: 1st Sgt. Milton Warden
In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love....
The Professionals
Character: Dolworth
An arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit....
The Unforgiven
Character: Ben Zachary
The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their beloved adopted daughter was stolen from the Kiowa tribe....
The Hallelujah Trail
Character: Col. Thaddeus P. Gearhart
A wagon train heads for Denver with a cargo of whisky for the miners. Chaos ensues as the Temperance League, the US cavalry, the miners and the local Indians all try to take control of the valuable cargo....
The List of Adrian Messenger
Character: Protester
Adrian Messenger, a famous writer, asks his friend Anthony Gethryn, a former British agent, to help him investigate the whereabouts of the people who appear on a list, without asking him the reason why he should do so....
Seven Days in May
Character: Gen. James Mattoon Scott
A U.S. Army colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him....
The Cassandra Crossing
Character: Col. Stephen Mackenzie
Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease, and nobody will let them off the train....
Go Tell the Spartans
Character: Maj. Asa Barker
Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel "Incident at Muc Wa." It tells the story about U.S. Army military advisers during the early part of the Vietnam War. Led my Major Asa Barker, these advisers and their South Vietnamese counterparts defend the village of Muc Wa against multiple attacks by Viet-Cong guerrillas....
The Scalphunters
Character: Joe Bass
Forced to trade his valuable furs for a well-educated escaped slave, a rugged trapper vows to recover the pelts from the Indians and later the renegades that killed them....
The Osterman Weekend
Character: Maxwell Danforth
The host of an investigative news show is convinced by the CIA that the friends he has invited to a weekend in the country are engaged in a conspiracy that threatens national security....
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Character: (in "The Killers") (archive footage)
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'....
The Flame and the Arrow
Character: Dardo Bartoli
Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency against their Hessian conquerors....
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Character: Dr. Paul Moreau
A ship-wrecked man floats ashore on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The island is inhabited by a scientist, Dr. Moreau, who in an experiment has turned beasts into human beings....
The Swimmer
Character: Ned Merrill
Well-off ad man Ned Merrill is visiting a friend when he notices the abundance of backyard pools that populate their upscale suburb. Ned suddenly decides that he'd like to travel the eight miles back to his own home by simply swimming across every pool in town. Soon, Ned's journey becomes harrowing; at each house, he is somehow confronted with a reminder of his romantic, domestic and economic failures....
Desert Fury
Character: Tom Hanson
The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them....
I Walk Alone
Character: Frankie Madison
Bootleggers on the lam Frankie and Noll split up to evade capture by the police. Frankie is caught and jailed, but Noll manages to escape and open a posh New York City nightclub. 14 years later, Frankie is released from the clink and visits Noll with the intention of collecting his half of the nightclub's profits. But Noll, who has no intention of being so equitable, uses his ex-girlfriend Kay to divert Frankie from his intended goal....
Vera Cruz
Character: Joe Erin
After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz....
Luchino Visconti
Character: Self
A chronological look at the creative life of Luchino Visconti (1906-1976). It examines his theatricality, role in the neorealist movement, use of melodrama, and relation to decadence. It touches on the impact of a fabulously wealthy childhood, his writing for "Cinema," his politics, his work with Renoir, his appreciation of Thomas Mann, and his deep knowledge of literature and the arts. Visconti moves constantly between film and the theater, staging plays provocatively, working with Maria Callas...
Brute Force
Character: Joe Collins
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?...
Trapeze
Character: Mike Ribble
A pair of men try to perform the dangerous "triple" in their trapeze act. Problems arise when the duo is made into a trio following the addition of a sexy female performer....
Executive Action
Character: Farrington
Rogue intelligence agents, right-wing politicians, greedy capitalists, and free-lance assassins plot and carry out the JFK assassination in this speculative agitprop....
I Love Liberty
Character: Self
An all-star variety special saluting America....
Ulzana's Raid
Character: McIntosh
A report reaches the US Army Cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, Lieutenant DeBuin, is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh, an experienced scout, and Ke-Ni-Tay, an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres, rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims, he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naivity and...
Lawman
Character: Bannock Marshal Jared Maddox
While passing through the town of Bannock, a bunch of drunken cattlemen go overboard with their celebrating and accidentally kill an old man with a stray shot. They return home to Sabbath unaware of his death. Bannock lawman Jered Maddox later arrives there to arrest everyone involved on a charge of murder. Sabbath is run by land baron Vince Bronson, a benevolent despot, who, upon hearing of the death, offers restitution for the incident....
The Killers
Character: 'Swede' Andersen
Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man....
Scorpio
Character: Cross
Cross is an old hand at the CIA who often teams up with Frenchman Jean “Scorpio” Laurier, a gifted freelance operative. After their last mission together, the CIA orders Scorpio to eliminate Cross, leaving him no choice but to obey....
Jim Thorpe – All-American
Character: Jim Thorpe
The triumph and tragedy of Native American Jim Thorpe, who, after winning both the pentathlon and decathlon in the same Olympics, is stripped of his medals on a technicality....
Apache
Character: Massai
Following the surrender of Geronimo, Massai, the last Apache warrior is captured and scheduled for transportation to a Florida reservation. On the way he manages to escape and heads for his homeland to win back his girl and settle down to grow crops. His pursuers have other ideas though....
Separate Tables
Character: John Malcolm
Boarders at an English resort struggle with emotional problems....
Vengeance Valley
Character: Owen Daybright
A cattle baron takes in an orphaned boy and raises him, causing his own son to resent the boy. As they get older the resentment festers into hatred, and eventually the real son frames his stepbrother for fathering an illegitimate child that is actually his, seeing it as an opportunity to get his half-brother out of the way so he can have his father's empire all to himself....
Rope of Sand
Character: Michael (Mike) Davis
Story of a South African diamond mine watched over by a sadistic policeman tasked with looking out for smugglers....
The Rainmaker
Character: Bill Starbuck
Lizzie Curry is on the verge of becoming a hopeless old maid. Her wit and intelligence and skills as a homemaker can't make up for the fact that she's just plain plain! Even the town sheriff, File, for whom she harbors a secrect yen, won't take a chance --- until the town suffers a drought and into the lives of Lizzie and her brothers and father comes one Bill Starbuck ... profession: Rainmaker!...
The Skin
Character: Generale Clark
Based on the memoirs of author Curzio Malaparte, diplomatic liaison between the Allied and Italian forces after the defeat of the Nazis in Italy, The Skin follows the collapse of Italian society under the US occupation and the desperate measures required for survival....
Ali the Man: Ali the Fighter
Character: Narrator
Ali the Fighter was made in 1975, when the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight was still fresh in everyone's minds. Filmmaker William Greaves frames Ali's rise to glory, beginning with his "Cassius Clay" days back in Louisville....
All My Sons
Character: Chris Keller
During WWII, industrialist Joe Keller commits a crime and frames his business partner Herbert Deever. Years later, his sin comes back to haunt him when his son plans to marry Deever's daughter....
La Classe américaine
Character: José (archive footage)
George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery. (Sixteen French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)...
Three Sailors and a Girl
Character: Marine (uncredited)
A group of sailors invest in a musical revue....
The Fighters
Character: Self (uncredited)
Behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali....
Castle Keep
Character: Maj. Abraham Falconer
During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans....
The Gypsy Moths
Character: Mike Rettig
Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend....
The Kentuckian
Character: Elias Wakefield
A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas....
The Rose Tattoo
Character: Alvaro Mangiacavallo
A grieving widow embarks on a new romance when she discovers her late husband had been cheating on her....
Zulu Dawn
Character: Col. Anthony Durnford
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership....
Run Silent, Run Deep
Character: Lt. Jim Bledsoe
The captain of a submarine sunk by the Japanese during WWII is finally given a chance to skipper another sub after a year of working a desk job. His singleminded determination for revenge against the destroyer that sunk his previous vessel puts his new crew in unneccessary danger....
Fight of the Century
Character: Self - Presenter
Legendary boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971....
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
Character: The Legend Maker (Ned Buntline)
Buffalo Bill plans to put on his own Wild West sideshow, and Chief Sitting Bull has agreed to appear in it. However, Sitting Bull has his own hidden agenda, involving the President and General Custer....
Conversation Piece
Character: Professor
A retired professor of American origin lives a solitary life in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. He is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa and her lover, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, and forced to rent to them an apartment on the upper floor of his palazzo. From this point on his quiet routine is turned into chaos by his tenants' machinations, and everybody's life takes an unexpected but inevitable turn....
Come Back, Little Sheba
Character: Doc Delaney
A mismatched couple's marital problems come to the surface when the husband develops an interest in their pretty boarder....
Twilight's Last Gleaming
Character: Gen. Lawrence Dell
A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 unless the President reveals details of a secret meeting held just after the start of the Vietnam War between Dell and the then President's most trusted advisors....
The Devil's Disciple
Character: Anthony Anderson
In a small New England town during the American War of Independence, Dick Dudgeon, a revolutionary American Puritan, is mistaken for local minister Rev. Anthony Anderson and arrested by the British. Dick discovers himself incapable of accusing another human to suffer and continues to masquerade as the reverend....
The Young Savages
Character: Hank Bell
A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy....
Rocket Gibraltar
Character: Levi Rockwell
A man's family comes for his 77th birthday and while he loves all of his children and their children, he and his children don't exactly connect. However, he connects with his grandchildren. And he tells them what he wants for his birthday and they do what they can to give it to him....
Paul Newman: The Restless
Character: Self (archive footage)
Multi-talented, Paul Newman is one of the greatest American actors of all time. With his silhouette of a Greek statue and his unreal blue eyes, he embodied the quintessential Hollywood star. But he never seemed satisfied. The son of a Jewish sporting goods retailer who despises him and a Catholic mother who adores him, driven by self-doubt and an inherited need for approval from his childhood, he has worked throughout his fifty-year career to break the image of the pretty boy. He made his first ...
Mister 880
Character: Steve Buchanan
The Skipper is a charming old man loved by all his neighbors. What they don't know is that he is also Mr. 880, an amateurish counterfeiter who has amazingly managed to elude the Secret Service for 20 years....
A Child Is Waiting
Character: Matthew Clark
Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of a state institution for intellectually disabled children. Jean Hansen, a former music teacher anxious to give her life some meaning, joins the staff of the hospital. Jean, who tries to shelter the children with her love, suspiciously regards Dr. Clark's stern training methods. She becomes emotionally involved with 12-year-old Reuben Widdicombe, who has been abandoned by his divorced parents....
South Sea Woman
Character: Sgt. James O'Hearn
Marine Sergeant James O'Hearn is being tried at the San Diego Marine base for desertion, theft, scandalous conduct and destruction of property in time of war. He refuses to testify or plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. Showgirl Ginger Martin takes the stand against his protest. She testifies O'Hearn won't talk because he is protecting the name of his pal, Marine Private Davey White. Ginger tells how she, broke and stranded, met the two marines in Shanghai two weeks before Pearl Harbor....
Separate But Equal
Character: John W. Davis
A dramatization of the events of Brown vs. Board of Education, the American court case that destroyed the legal validity of racial segregation....
Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed
Character: Self (archive footage)
This timely exploration of Hollywood and LGBTQ+ identity examines the life of legendary actor Rock Hudson, from his public "ladies' man" persona to his private life as a gay man....
Ten Tall Men
Character: Sergeant Mike Kincaid
Sgt. Mike Kincaid of the French Foreign Legion learns, from a Riff prisoner, that an attack will soon be made by the villainous Hussin on the Legion's outpost of Tarfa. Kincaid volunteers to lead nine other Legionnaires on a mission to delay Hussin's attack till reinforcements arrive. When he discovers that Hussin plans to marry Mahla, a girl from a rival tribe, in order to build a coalition against the French, Kincaid kidnaps Mahla. Hussin forcefully takes her back, but by now his planned attac...
His Majesty O'Keefe
Character: Capt. David Dion O'Keefe
Men steal for it. Nations go to war for it. The it is oil - and it grows on trees. Coconut oil is the precious lifeblood of 1870s South Seas traders. And lots of real blood will be spilled to get it! Screen royalty Burt Lancaster is His Majesty O'Keefe in this last of three adventures that (along with The Flame and the Arrow and The Crimson Pirate) blew a revitalizing wind into the sails of the swashbuckler genre. Action, cunning and derring-do are watchwords of the title seafarer as he befrien...
Variety Girl
Character: Burt Lancaster
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio....
The Midnight Man
Character: Jim Slade
An ex-convict, and ex-cop, finds himself in the midst of drama as a murder, of a female student, is commited at the university where he works as a night watchman. He is reluctantly drawn into the criminal investigation and eventually becomes a suspect in the case. Will he be able to find the real murderer and clear his own name, or not?...
Ronin: Filming in the Fast Lane
Character: Self (archive footage)
A behind-the-scenes featurette that focuses on John Frankenheimer's approach to the 1998 film "Ronin."...
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
Character: Self (archive footage)
The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong....
Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier I
Character:
Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali, billed as The Fight Of The Century or simply The Fight, was a heavyweight championship boxing match between WBA, WBC, and The Ring heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali, on Monday, March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City....
Cattle Annie and Little Britches
Character: Bill Doolin
In nineteenth century Oklahoma, two teen girls, fans of stories about outlaws, are on a quest to meet and join up with them. They find a shadow of a former gang and although disappointed, still try to help them escape from a vigorous Marshal....
Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair
Character: Leon Klinghoffer
The story of the hijacking of the Italian luxury liner Achille Lauro by four Palestinians....
Little Treasure
Character: Delbert Teschmacher
Margo is an ex-stripper who meets her long, lost father in Mexico. She looks after him in the waning days of his life, with the help of a traveling projectionist. The father passes away, telling of the loot from a botched bank robbery that he buried years earlier. The two get jobs in town as their relationship grows and they search for the treasure on the weekends. But while the treasure seems to bring them together, it also seems to be tearing them apart....
Jenny is a Good Thing
Character: Narrator
Jenny is a Good Thing is a 1969 American short documentary film about children and poverty, directed by Joan Horvath. Produced by Project Head Start, it shows the importance of good nutrition for underprivileged nursery school children. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short....
Control
Character: Dr. Herbert Monroe
An experiment of psychological effects under stressful conditions in a shelter. When fifteen strangers are put into a nuclear shelter to see how long they can survive without interaction with the outside, things work out fine....
Fathers and Sons
Character: Geheimrat Carl Julius Deutz
Follows two wealthy families in Germany during the first half of the 20th century. One of them is German, the other one Jewish....
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
Character: Self (archive footage)
Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the documentary follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the Civil Rights movement. Rare footage of King's speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of other high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause, punctuated by heartfelt testimonials by some of Hollywood's biggest stars....
Rat Pack
Character: Self (archive footage)
In the 1950s, a small group of artists monopolized the attention of the cameras and the public. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford together form the "rat pack": they sing the most popular hits of the moment, star in the most profitable Hollywood films and are already making a splash on television . This documentary, produced by a recognized specialist in the history of Hollywood, recounts the exceptional destiny of this informal group which flirted with th...
Scandal Sheet
Character: Harold Fallen
The publisher of a celebrity gossip tabloid sets out to destroy an aging actor, whose career is foundering and who is also facing a battle with alcoholism....
Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line
Character: Self (archive footage)
Born Ruby Stevens, she was orphaned when she was four. A chance audition led to a chorus job. By 17 she was a Ziegfeld Girl. At 20 she earned excellent reviews for a bit part in a Broadway play — and she had a new name: Barbara Stanwyck....
Luchino Visconti: Between Truth and Passion
Character: Self (archive footage)
Forty years after his death, this documentary pays tribute to one of the major filmmakers of Italian cinema, to an original work that continues to inspire today's cinema. Coming from one of the greatest families of the Italian aristocracy, he could have been a rich and cultured man, living in opulence and idleness, but Luchino wanted a different destiny. This is the story that director Elisabeth Kapnist and Christian Dumais-Lvowski wanted to tell. Count Visconti di Modrone wears the clothes of a...
The Jeweller's Shop
Character: The Jeweller
Burt Lancaster stars as the titular merchant in this classic adaptation of Pope John Paul II's best-selling play "The Jeweller's Shop," an inspiring drama about three married couples and their ups and downs in holy matrimony. With a faithful jeweler acting as their spiritual adviser, three sets of husbands and wives struggle to live their lives with love, steering clear of avarice and infidelity. Olivia Hussey and Ben Cross also star....
Barnum
Character: PT Barnum
The amazing biography of legendary circus impresario and unparalleled showman, P.T. Barnum....
Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away
Character: Self
This 1986 documentary features interviews with director Alexander Mackendrick, actor Burt Lancaster, producer James Hill, and others....
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Character: Self
A TV special on the 100th anniversary of the birth of film....
Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist
Character: Self - Host, Narrator
This one-hour film, narrated by Actor BURT LANCASTER, explores the lingering effects of The Hollywood Blacklist, which occurred in the late forties and early fifties as part of the Anti-Communist witch-hunts that terrorized the nation. This film is seen through the eyes of the wives and children of the now deceased Hollywood figures whose careers were destroyed when studio bosses, along with guild and union officials capitulated to the demands of the House Un-American Activities Committee....
Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire
Character: Self (archive footage)
Actress Sally Field looks at the dramatic life and successful career of the superb actress Barbara Stanwyck (1907-90), a Hollywood legend....
Filmmakers vs. Tycoons
Character: Self (archive footage)
How the cinema industry does not respect the author's work as it was conceived, how manipulates the motion pictures in order to make them easier to watch by an undemanding audience or even how mutilates them to adapt the original formats and runtimes to the restrictive frame of the television screen and the abusive requirements of advertising. (Followed by “Filmmakers in Action.”)...
The Untameable Kirk Douglas
Character: Self - Actor (archive footage)
The story of actor Kirk Douglas, the man and the legend, one of the last stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. An epic journey through the 20th century and the entire history of Hollywood. A testimony of the huge scope of his life and the scale of the myth. The untameable Kirk Douglas, the ragman's son....
L'ultimo gattopardo - Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo
Character: Self
...
The South Bank Show: 'Local Hero'
Character: Self
A documentary about the making of Bill Forsyth's 1983 film "Local Hero."...
And the Oscar Goes To...
Character: Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement....
Dawn's Early Light: Ralph McGill and the Segregated South
Character: Self
Colorful, outspoken, a man of many contradictions, Ralph McGill emerged during the troubled years of the 1950s and '60s as a prominent and influential Southern white opponent of segregation and one of America's most revered newspaper editors. As he became convinced of the injustice of segregation and the inevitability of change, McGill used his front-page editorial column in the Atlanta Constitution as a Southern forum for his distinctive blend of moral outrage and pragmatic moderation. McGill's...
Big Game America
Character: Narrator
Burt Lancaster hosts a review of the first 50 years in NFL history....
Race to Oblivion
Character: Self - Host / Narrator
Documentary about the dangers of the nuclear arms race, including an interview with an eyewitness of the bomb drop on Hiroshima and scientific statements describing the devastating consequences of a nuclear war....
The Making of a 'Local Hero' (With a Little Help from His Friends)
Character: Self
Documentary for Scottish television about the making of Bill Forsyth's 1983 film "Local Hero."...
Alpha to Omega: Exposing 'The Osterman Weekend'
Character: Self (archive footage)
Testimony of the cast, the producers and other participants of the shootings of "The Osterman Weekend"....
Games in Depth
Character: Self
A mysterious Polaroid-filmed short that showcases depth in stereo photography....
Burt Lancaster: Daring to Reach
Character: Self (archive footage)
He went from street-wise tough to art-collector liberal-activist, from circus-acrobat hunk to Academy Award winner. Burton Stephen Lancaster — later Burt Lancaster — was one of five children of a New York City postal worker. By eighteen, Burt was 6'2" and blessed with the athletic physique and dynamic good looks that helped make him famous. A stint in the Army introduced Burt to acting and led him to Hollywood where his first release, "The Killers" (1946), propelled him to stardom at age 32. He ...
Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs
Character: Self - Narrator
Burt Lancaster narrates this overview of the incredible career of jazz saxophonist Benny Carter, one of the chief architects of the Big Band sound. COMMENTARY BY CLINT EASTWOOD W/ QUINCY JONES, DIZZY GILLESPIE, ELLA FITZGERALD, LENA HORNE AND MORE...
Night of 100 Stars
Character: Self
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and cost...
A Walking Tour of Sesame Street
Character: Self (archive footage)
Sesame Street celebrated its 10th anniversary in the spring of 1979 with a half-hour PBS special hosted by James Earl Jones titled A Walking Tour of Sesame Street. The special aired on individual PBS stations at various times between March and May 1979. (Muppet Wiki)...