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Do you think that Burt Langcaster was an exceptional actor who deserved more recognition by the motion picture industry and should have won more Oscars by the Academy?

Dawgismygawd 6 Apr 1
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1

Burt Lancaster was a trained acrobat. His partner before movies did a few movies with him. It was that bearded short guy that often enough played deaf mute, not because he was but because his thick NY accent was too much for the movies. He have my respect. He was great even aged in "Atlantic City". But he acted his Era, time of Heros and when you can do your own stuns, who but the hero you can be. He did a great Wyatt Eartt, even if without the mustache.

1

The only problem with Burt Lancaster was that he played Burt Lancaster in every role, kinda like John Wayne always played John Wayne. I guess it was mostly that way for a long time in Hollywood until actors like Marlon Brando came along. Marlon Brando did not play Marlon Brando; he became the character he was playing.

1

The only thing that I remember of him is his good looks. I need to watch more moves where he acted

Tetla Level 2 Apr 2, 2018
1

He did have an exceptional face.

1

He was before my time (I was born in 1952). During his heyday I was still growing up in Haiti. I saw Field of Dreams, but don't remember him specifically.

1

So many of his films were good. My favorites are "Sweet Smell of Success" totally berilliant as the Walter Winchell like J.J Hunsecke, and "The Train" as French Resistance fighter Paul Labiche. Paul Scofield as the German Col. Franz von Waldheim.was great also.

2

Rodney Dangerfield would have been more deserving.

surely you jest...

@Dawgismygawd No I don't.

And stop calling me Shirley.

1

Elmer Gantry, classic!

1

He was intertaining to watch in films but did not have much of a range. Pretty much play the same type of charactor in every film.

I strongly disagree...how many of his films have you seen?

@Dawgismygawd Many. Like John Wayne, he was never cast as a coward (like Humphrey Bogart was)...only a hero because he likely could not play those roles.
Many fans cannot distinguish between acting skill and their fondness for a particular actor. As an example I have already posted, John Wayne only played one character in all his movies...the undefeated hero. I liked Burt Lancaster in all the movies I saw him in, but until an actor plays characters that are not cut from a single facet, and as much as I enjoyed his movies, his "acting ability" should remain suspect. Let Burt Lancaster play a sniveling coward and then we can assess his acting ability.

@dahermit then you never saw "The Swimmer".

@GipsyOfNewSpain It so happened I saw "The Swimmer". He played a delusional man who did not know that his wife and children had left him years earlier and he had lost everything he had. I still stand by my statement that Burt Lancaster did not have much range as an actor.

@dahermit you don't like the guy, you don't like the guy. But how many actors played a delusional man to that level and so convincing? I like latest Oscar winner yet I saw "darkest hour", I would had never give and Oscar for best actor to 4.5 hours of makeup.

@GipsyOfNewSpain You missed the point...I DID like the guy but I am honest about his range of acting ability.

@dahermit Never said he was "ranged" like a complete thespian but he acted in an era where it was not demanded, something about hollywood. I wouldnt task a john wayne as a genghis khan or matt damon as a chinese, or an actor with black hair as henry 8 or liz taylor as cleopatra but burt lancaster was the swimmer. It was never demanded acting from Marilyn Monroe. It Factor don't need to act. So Lancaster played Lancaster like Yul Bryner played Bryner. I am done discussing an actor that did was he was casted for.

1

In "7 Days in May" he played an Army General who was head of a conspiracy to overthrow the President of the USA. Tense stuff.

1

Atlantic City was a high point. Local Hero was wonderful. Winning Oscars is, imho, overrated.

3

I read about this actor and, by the way, he was a life long openly non religious person, would not take roles that he thought promoted religious views, and had very specified instructions for his funeral, including a low key affair, no religion to be mentioned. In addition to this, he was a very fine actor with great presence. Also his views on religion were looked upon poorly by religious actors and alike in Hollywood. He didn't care.

1

He was a good actor. Come Back Little Sheba -wasn't he nominated for an Oscar?

3

There's a long list of Hollywood people who didn't get as much Academy recognition as they deserved!
IMHO, the Academy should add an annual Honor Roll giving Oscars to deceased artists who didn't win any while still alive! (They can start with Montgomery Clift...)
Also, the Oscar for adapted script should also go to the author of the original work too. (Same principle by which he's given a credit.)

1

I don't believe in award shows, but l do believe he isn't given enough credit for his acting.

3

Burt Lancaster was an exceptional actor. Originally he was a circus performer with Nick Cravat and both of them were even in movies together re-creating some of their circus acts in pirate films. Nick was the little guy who never talked. Burt's acting was good but I'm sure his circus days put him in a category of also being his own stunt man for a while.
I loved all his movies.

That's his name Nick Cravat, short, bearded circus partner, that I thought he was deaf mute because in many movies he played a mute or a cuted tongue man and it happened he had such a thick NY City accent that it was better for him not to speak. Lancaster played like most leading man his era. The tall hero.

1

Why do you ask about Burt in particular?

For me his was a top notch actor with stunning performances and many of his films and was not properly recognized and remembered.

1

He was great in Field of Dreams

gater Level 7 Apr 1, 2018

Yes, to mention one...and there are many...

1

On reflection, he was definitely more than a jouneyman actor. His work spanned 5 decades with a notable peak in the 60s. Did he get his due? I think so. But I find it interesting that the BAFTAs lauded him more in his later career than the American Academy .

1

He was a very good actor. I remember many diverse roles he played.

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