Biography
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 wo...
Known For
Complete Filmography

Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed
2023
as 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 hi...

Paul Newman: The Restless
2023
as 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 emb...

Rat Pack
2022
as 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 Bish...

The Untameable Kirk Douglas
2017
as 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 centur...

Luchino Visconti: Between Truth and Passion
2016
as 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 ins...

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
2014
as 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 scr...

And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as 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 ...

L'ultimo gattopardo - Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo
2010
as Self

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
2009
as Self (archive footage)
In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot's production of L'Enfer came to a halt. Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after ...
Luchino Visconti: Life as in a Novel
2008
as Self (archive footage)
A documentary about film director Luchino Visconti

Filmmakers vs. Tycoons
2005
as 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 wa...

Ronin: Filming in the Fast Lane
2004
as Self (archive footage)
A behind-the-scenes featurette that focuses on John Frankenheimer's approach to the 1998 film "Ronin."

Alpha to Omega: Exposing 'The Osterman Weekend'
2004
as Self (archive footage)
Testimony of the cast, the producers and other participants of the shootings of "The Osterman Weekend".

Luchino Visconti
2002
as Self (archive footage)
A chronological look at the creative life of Luchino Visconti (1906-1976). It examines his theatricality, role in the neorealist movement, use of melo...

Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down The Line
1997
as 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 excellen...

Burt Lancaster: Daring to Reach
1996
as 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 B...

La Classe américaine
1993
as 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...

Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire
1991
as 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.

Separate But Equal
1991
as 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.

Movie Tough Guys
1991
as 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!

Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs
1990
as 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. CO...

Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair
1990
as Leon Klinghoffer
The story of the hijacking of the Italian luxury liner Achille Lauro by four Palestinians.

Dawn's Early Light: Ralph McGill and the Segregated South
1989
as 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...

Field of Dreams
1989
as 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 direct...

The Jeweller's Shop
1989
as 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 d...

Rocket Gibraltar
1988
as 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. Howev...

Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist
1987
as 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 an...

Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
1987
as Self
A TV special on the 100th anniversary of the birth of film.

Control
1987
as 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 ...

Barnum
1986
as PT Barnum
The amazing biography of legendary circus impresario and unparalleled showman, P.T. Barnum.

Tough Guys
1986
as 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 the...

Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away
1986
as Self
This 1986 documentary features interviews with director Alexander Mackendrick, actor Burt Lancaster, producer James Hill, and others.

Kiss of the Spider Woman
1985
Thanks
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his politic...

Little Treasure
1985
as 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 pr...

Scandal Sheet
1985
as 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 alcoho...

The Making of a 'Local Hero' (With a Little Help from His Friends)
1983
as Self
Documentary for Scottish television about the making of Bill Forsyth's 1983 film "Local Hero."

The Osterman Weekend
1983
as 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...

The South Bank Show: 'Local Hero'
1983
as Self
A documentary about the making of Bill Forsyth's 1983 film "Local Hero."

Local Hero
1983
as 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.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
1982
as (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...

I Love Liberty
1982
as Self
An all-star variety special saluting America.

Night of 100 Stars
1982
as Self
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City ...

Race to Oblivion
1982
as 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 stateme...

Race to Oblivion
1982
Thanks
Documentary about the dangers of the nuclear arms race, including an interview with an eyewitness of the bomb drop on Hiroshima and scientific stateme...

The Skin
1981
as 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 ...

Cattle Annie and Little Britches
1981
as 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 f...

Atlantic City
1980
as 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 a...

Zulu Dawn
1979
as Col. Anthony Durnford
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.

A Walking Tour of Sesame Street
1979
as 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 S...

Go Tell the Spartans
1978
as Maj. Asa Barker
A unit of American military advisors in Vietnam prior to the major U.S. involvement finds similarities between their helpless struggle against the Vie...

The Island of Dr. Moreau
1977
as 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 turne...

Twilight's Last Gleaming
1977
as 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 u...

Victory at Entebbe
1976
as 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 ...

The Cassandra Crossing
1976
as Col. Stephen Mackenzie
Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease, and nobody will let them off the train.

1900
1976
as 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.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
1976
as 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 a...

Ali the Man: Ali the Fighter
1975
as 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 ...

Moses the Lawgiver
1974
as 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 M...

Conversation Piece
1974
as 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 lov...

The Midnight Man
1974
as 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 nig...

The Midnight Man
1974
Screenplay, Producer, Director
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 nig...

The Fighters
1974
as Self (uncredited)
Behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.

Executive Action
1973
as Farrington
Rogue intelligence agents, right-wing politicians, greedy capitalists, and free-lance assassins plot and carry out the JFK assassination in this specu...

Scorpio
1973
as 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 toget...

Ulzana's Raid
1972
as 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, L...

Ulzana's Raid
1972
Producer
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, L...

Valdez Is Coming
1971
as 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 ...

Valdez Is Coming
1971
Executive Producer
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 ...

Lawman
1971
as 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 st...

Fight of the Century
1971
as Self - Presenter
Legendary boxing match between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971.

Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier I
1971
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, an...

Airport
1970
as Mel Bakersfeld
An airport manager tries to keep his terminals open during a snowstorm, while a suicide bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight.

King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1970
as 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 activi...

Big Game America
1969
as Narrator
Burt Lancaster hosts a review of the first 50 years in NFL history.

The Gypsy Moths
1969
as Mike Rettig
Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend.

Castle Keep
1969
as 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 ...

Jenny is a Good Thing
1969
as 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, ...
The Sky Divers
1969
as Self
A behind-the-scenes, promotional short about the making of the feature film The Gypsy Moths (1969), which extensively features free fall skydiving.

The Swimmer
1968
as Ned Merrill
A man spends a summer day swimming home via all the pools in his quiet suburban neighborhood.

The Scalphunters
1968
as 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 renegad...

The Scalphunters
1968
Producer
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 renegad...

The Professionals
1966
as Dolworth
An arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit.

Games in Depth
1966
as Self
A mysterious Polaroid-filmed short that showcases depth in stereo photography.

The Hallelujah Trail
1965
as 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 ...

The Train
1964
as 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...

Seven Days in May
1964
as Gen. James Mattoon Scott
A U.S. Marine Corps colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him.

The List of Adrian Messenger
1963
as 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 ...

The Leopard
1963
as 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 un...

A Child Is Waiting
1963
as 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 lif...

Birdman of Alcatraz
1962
as Robert Stroud
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stro...

Judgment at Nuremberg
1961
as 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. Chie...

The Young Savages
1961
as Hank Bell
A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy.

Elmer Gantry
1960
as Elmer Gantry
A charismatic charlatan begins a business — and eventually romantic — relationship with a roadside evangelist to sell religion to 1920s America. Based...

The Unforgiven
1960
as 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 Unforgiven
1960
Producer
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 Devil's Disciple
1959
as 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 Re...

Separate Tables
1958
as John Malcolm
The lives of a disparate group of unfulfilled people converge at a small, seaside English hotel in this adaptation of Terence Rattigan's classic play.

Separate Tables
1958
Producer
The lives of a disparate group of unfulfilled people converge at a small, seaside English hotel in this adaptation of Terence Rattigan's classic play.

Run Silent, Run Deep
1958
as 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 s...

Sweet Smell of Success
1957
as 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 contro...

Sweet Smell of Success
1957
Executive Producer
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 contro...

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
1957
as 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. Corr...

The Rainmaker
1956
as 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...

Trapeze
1956
as 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 ...

The Rose Tattoo
1955
as Alvaro Mangiacavallo
A grieving widow embarks on a new romance when she discovers her late husband had been cheating on her.

The Kentuckian
1955
as Elias Wakefield
A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.

The Kentuckian
1955
Director
A frontiersman and his son fight to build a new home in Texas.

Marty
1955
Producer
Marty, a butcher who lives in the Bronx with his mother is unmarried at 34. Good-natured but socially awkward he faces constant badgering from family ...

Vera Cruz
1954
as 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 mee...

Apache
1954
as Massai
Following the surrender of Geronimo, Massai, the last Apache warrior is captured and scheduled for transportation to a Florida reservation. On the way...

Apache
1954
Producer
Following the surrender of Geronimo, Massai, the last Apache warrior is captured and scheduled for transportation to a Florida reservation. On the way...

His Majesty O'Keefe
1954
as 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. ...

Three Sailors and a Girl
1953
as Marine (uncredited)
A group of sailors invest in a musical revue.

From Here to Eternity
1953
as 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.

South Sea Woman
1953
as 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...

Come Back, Little Sheba
1953
as Doc Delaney
A mismatched couple's marital problems come to the surface when the husband develops an interest in their pretty boarder.

The Crimson Pirate
1952
as 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 l...

The Crimson Pirate
1952
Producer
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 l...

Ten Tall Men
1951
as 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...

Jim Thorpe – All-American
1951
as 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 m...
The Screen Director
1951
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
A documentary short film depicting the work of the motion picture director. An anonymous director is shown preparing the various aspects of a film for...

Vengeance Valley
1951
as 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, a...

Mister 880
1950
as 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 ama...

The Flame and the Arrow
1950
as 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 aga...

Rope of Sand
1949
as Michael (Mike) Davis
Story of a South African diamond mine watched over by a sadistic policeman tasked with looking out for smugglers.

Criss Cross
1949
as Steve Thompson
An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands
1948
as 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 kil...

Sorry, Wrong Number
1948
as 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 teleph...

All My Sons
1948
as 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 whe...

I Walk Alone
1947
as 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 p...

Variety Girl
1947
as 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 ...

Desert Fury
1947
as Tom Hanson
The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.

Brute Force
1947
as 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 e...

The Killers
1946
as '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. Si...
Handle With Care
N/A
as Narrator
The program demonstrates and stresses the importance of a central agency in the community to assist families to cope with the problem of mental retard...
Getting Through
N/A
as Burt Lancaster
Actor Burt Lancaster is featured in this film, which focuses on teenagers and smoking. The film explores why young people begin smoking and what facto...