{"id":11066,"date":"2023-11-02T12:53:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T12:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=11066"},"modified":"2023-11-04T17:27:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T17:27:12","slug":"when-burt-lancaster-wrote-me-a-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=11066","title":{"rendered":"When Burt Lancaster wrote me a letter …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 When the Burt Lancaster film \u2018Birdman of Alcatraz\u2019 (below) came out in 1962, I wrote about it in the Gravesend Reporter, where I was doing my training in Kent, England. Fascinated by the prisoner\u2019s story, I promoted a petition to have the real Birdman, Robert Stroud, paroled after serving many, many years behind bars. Shortly afterwards, I received a thank-you letter from Hollywood. It bore the signature of Burt Lancaster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Twenty-five years later, Lancaster showed up at a press event in Century City, Los Angeles, with co-star Ben Gazzara to talk about a forgettable Italian HBO co-production titled \u2018Control\u2019 After the formalities, Lancaster stuck around to speak to a few of us using his inimitable voice, laugh and gestures to describe the iconic love scene with Deborah Kerr on a Hawaiian beach in \u2018From Here to Eternity\u2019 (above). Several young women were captivated.<\/p>\n

I introduced myself and told him of the letter I had received about the Birdman petition \u00a0signed by him. He looked at me to see if I appeared willing to overlook that the signature had been a stamp applied to many such letters by a publicist. Seeing that I was, Lancaster grinned widely, held up his hands in mock innocence and slapped me on the back. \u2018Of course, of course,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

I cannot think of a film starring Burt Lancaster, who was born 110 years ago today and died in 1994, that I would not watch again gladly. There are so many including \u2018The Killers\u2019 with Ava Gardner, \u2018The Rainmaker\u2019 with Katharine Hepburn, hia Oscar-winner \u2018Elmer Gantry\u2019 with Jean Simmons, \u2018Sorry, Wrong Number\u2019 with Barbara Stanwyck, \u2018The Unforiven\u2019 with Audrey Hepburn,\u2019The Leopard\u2019 and \u2018The Professionals\u2019 with Claudia Cardinale, \u2018Trapeze\u2019 and \u2018Sweet Smell of Success\u2019 both with Tony Curtis and \u2018Gunfight at the OK Coal\u2019 and \u2018Sven Days in May\u2019 both with Kirk Douglas.<\/p>\n

Among my favourites are \u2018Ulzana\u2019s Raid\u2019, \u2018Atlantic City\u2019 and perhaps most of all, \u2018Local Hero\u2019 (below). Few movie stars could match his magnetic screen presence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 When the Burt Lancaster film \u2018Birdman of Alcatraz\u2019 (below) came out in 1962, I wrote about it in the Gravesend Reporter, where I was doing my training in Kent, England. Fascinated by the prisoner\u2019s story, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,1263,2257],"tags":[5116,5426,1718,504,5424,5425],"class_list":["post-11066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-film","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","tag-local-hero","tag-birdman-of-alcatraz","tag-burt-lancaster","tag-deborah-kerr","tag-robert-stroud","tag-from-here-to-eternity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11066"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11075,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11066\/revisions\/11075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}