85 FILMS OF BURT LANCASTER (1913 - 1994)
by milam_ogden | created - 02 Nov 2015 | updated - 02 Nov 2015 | PublicGod smiled on this date in 1913 when Burt Lancaster was born in New York City.
From Irish descent, Lancaster began his career as a circus performer with his strong gymnastics skills.
Being exposed to the USO during World War II, Lancaster turned to acting and he is basically self-taught.
His first movie turned him into an instant star.
His career spanned 43 years from 1946 to 1989. He appeared in 85 movies with genre breakdown as: drama (51); romance (23); westerns (15); comedy (14); action/adv (14) and war (10).
He appeared in film during five decades with the majority of his movies (60%) being released in the 40s, 50s and 60s.
He appeared in 7 movies with Kirk Douglas, one of his best Hollywood friends.
His IMDb ratings are:
mode - 7.4 (9)
mean - 6.9
median - 7.0
He was one of my favorite actors of all time.
He passed away at the age of 90 on 10-20-94 in Century City, CA.
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1. The Killers (1946)
Passed | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker
Votes: 23,544
what a debut!!!! a classic film noir
2. Brute Force (1947)
Passed | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo
Votes: 11,487
an intense prison flick
3. Desert Fury (1947)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.
Director: Lewis Allen | Stars: John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey
Votes: 1,959
a charming film noir
4. Variety Girl (1947)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy, Musical
Almost everyone under contract to Paramount Pictures at the time make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.
Director: George Marshall | Stars: Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, Frank Ferguson
Votes: 500
5. I Walk Alone (1947)
Approved | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Frankie Madison leaves prison expecting a share from his ex-partner. But Prohibition bootlegging didn't prepare Frankie for Big Business.
Director: Byron Haskin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey
Votes: 3,277
another film noir classic
6. All My Sons (1948)
Approved | 94 min | Drama, Film-Noir
During WW2, industrialist Joe Keller commits a crime and frames his business partner Herbert Deever but years later his sin comes back to haunt him when Joe's son plans to marry Deever's daughter.
Director: Irving Reis | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancaster, Mady Christians, Louisa Horton
Votes: 2,397
7. Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Approved | 89 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
While on the telephone, an invalid woman overhears what she thinks is a murder plot and attempts to prevent it.
Director: Anatole Litvak | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey
Votes: 12,504
a mediocre film noir
8. Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fugitive Bill Saunders and lonely nurse Jane Wharton are crossed by fate when he hides out in her apartment.
Director: Norman Foster | Stars: Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton, Lewis L. Russell
Votes: 2,077
9. Criss Cross (1949)
Not Rated | 84 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
An armored truck driver and his ex-wife conspire with a gang to have his own truck robbed on the route.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally
Votes: 9,569
one of my favorite film noirs
10. Rope of Sand (1949)
Approved | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Crime
A man abused by a sadistic mining company cop before he could tell where on their desert property he'd found diamonds decides to steal them instead.
Director: William Dieterle | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre
Votes: 1,781
11. The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
Passed | 88 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
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.
Director: Jacques Tourneur | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas, Aline MacMahon
Votes: 4,223
12. Mister 880 (1950)
Approved | 90 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
Gentle romantic comedy about a Secret Service Agent trying to catch a cold case counterfeiter and a United Nations translator.
Director: Edmund Goulding | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Edmund Gwenn, Dorothy McGuire, Millard Mitchell
Votes: 1,936
13. Vengeance Valley (1951)
Approved | 83 min | Western
The sons of a Colorado cattle baron, one biological and the other adopted, resent one another and fight for control of their father's cattle empire.
Director: Richard Thorpe | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Robert Walker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest
Votes: 2,444
14. Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951)
Approved | 107 min | Biography, Drama, Family
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.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran, Phyllis Thaxter
Votes: 2,293
good story of our first "super" athlete
15. Ten Tall Men (1951)
Approved | 97 min | Action, Adventure, War
During the Riff War in Morocco, the French Foreign Legion's outpost of Tarfa is threatened by Khalif Hussein's tribes but Sergeant Mike Kincaid devises a plan of survival until the arrival of French reinforcements.
Director: Willis Goldbeck | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Jody Lawrance, Gilbert Roland, Kieron Moore
Votes: 1,117
16. The Crimson Pirate (1952)
Not Rated | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
During the 1700s, pirate Captain Vallo seizes a British warship and gets involved in various money-making schemes involving Caribbean rebels led by El Libre, British envoy Baron Jose Gruda, and a beautiful courtesan named Consuelo.
Director: Robert Siodmak | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat, Eva Bartok, Torin Thatcher
Votes: 6,962
17. Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)
Approved | 99 min | Drama, Romance
An emotionally remote recovering alcoholic and his dowdy, unambitious wife face a personal crisis when they take in an attractive lodger.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, Terry Moore, Richard Jaeckel
Votes: 5,366
18. South Sea Woman (1953)
Passed | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
AWOL marine Sgt. Jim O'Hearn is court-martialed for a variety of offenses that carry 143 years in the stockade or the death penalty but refuses to aid in his own defense.
Director: Arthur Lubin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Virginia Mayo, Chuck Connors, Arthur Shields
Votes: 873
19. From Here to Eternity (1953)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Romance, War
At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed
Votes: 50,670 | Gross: $30.50M
one of the best war dramas of all time
20. Three Sailors and a Girl (1953)
Approved | 95 min | Comedy, Musical
Three navy men run into a shady producer who convinces them to invest into his new show. When they meet the show's female star attraction, they're sold. Have they become the latest showbiz players or just three more suckers?
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Jane Powell, Gordon MacRae, Gene Nelson, Sam Levene
Votes: 464
21. His Majesty O'Keefe (1954)
Approved | 91 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
A Yankee sea captain has adventures in paradise trying to become an entrepreneur in Micronesia.
Directors: Byron Haskin, Burt Lancaster | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Joan Rice, André Morell, Abraham Sofaer
Votes: 1,425
22. Apache (1954)
Passed | 91 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Refusing to let himself be re-settled on a Florida reservation, Massai, an Apache warrior, escapes his captors and returns to his homeland to become a peaceful farmer.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John McIntire, Charles Bronson
Votes: 4,880 | Gross: $6.00M
a good western from the Indian's perspective
23. Vera Cruz (1954)
Approved | 94 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
During the Mexican Rebellion of 1866, an unsavory group of American adventurers are hired by the forces of Emporer Maximilian to escort a countess to Vera Cruz.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero
Votes: 11,241
24. Marty (1955)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up on the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli
Votes: 26,894
25. The Kentuckian (1955)
Passed | 104 min | Drama, Western
A Kentucky widower bound for 1820's Texas with his young son is thwarted in his efforts by a corrupt constable, a long-standing family feud, and a beautiful indentured servant.
Director: Burt Lancaster | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Diana Lynn, Dianne Foster, John McIntire
Votes: 3,100
Burt explores the new frontier of the USA
26. The Rose Tattoo (1955)
Unrated | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A Sicilian seamstress who idolizes her husband must deal with several family crises upon his sudden death.
Director: Daniel Mann | Stars: Anna Magnani, Burt Lancaster, Marisa Pavan, Ben Cooper
Votes: 4,582
27. Trapeze (1956)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, Romance
A crippled circus acrobat is torn emotionally between two ambitious young trapeze artists, one a talented young American and a less-gifted but beautiful Italian.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado
Votes: 5,205
a wonderful circus movie
28. The Rainmaker (1956)
Approved | 121 min | Romance, Western
During the Depression, a con-man promises rain to a desperate drought-ridden Kansas town and marriage to a local desperate spinster.
Director: Joseph Anthony | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Katharine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges
Votes: 4,267
29. The Bachelor Party (1957)
Approved | 92 min | Drama
Five office friends meet up for a night on the town to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of one of them. As the night wears on and the drink starts to tell, they become more confidential in expressing their concerns and hopes.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Don Murray, E.G. Marshall, Nancy Marchand, Carolyn Jones
Votes: 858
30. Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957)
Passed | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Western
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.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet
Votes: 17,333 | Gross: $11.75M
a wonderful and good western
31. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Approved | 96 min | Drama, Film-Noir
Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.
Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner
Votes: 35,537
Lancaster is at his best as the villain
32. Run Silent Run Deep (1958)
Approved | 93 min | Action, Drama, War
A U.S. sub commander, obsessed with sinking a certain Japanese ship, butts heads with his first officer and crew.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden, Brad Dexter
Votes: 13,043
33. Separate Tables (1958)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Romance
The stories of several people are told as they stay at a seaside hotel in Bournemouth which features dining at "Separate Tables."
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Burt Lancaster
Votes: 8,554 | Gross: $7.40M
34. The Devil's Disciple (1959)
Approved | 83 min | Comedy, History, Romance
The black sheep of a family and the local minister discover their true vocations during the Revolutionary War.
Directors: Guy Hamilton, Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott
Votes: 2,861
35. Take a Giant Step (1959)
Approved | 100 min | Drama
A black high school senior struggles with becoming a man, and living in a middle class white neighborhood in the late 1950s U.S. In protest of the paternalistic views of the Civil War ... See full summary »
Director: Philip Leacock | Stars: Johnny Nash, Estelle Hemsley, Ruby Dee, Frederick O'Neal
Votes: 489
36. The Unforgiven (1960)
Approved | 125 min | Drama, Romance, Western
The neighbors of a frontier family turn on them when it is suspected that their adopted daughter was stolen from the local Kiowa tribe.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon
Votes: 9,679
37. Elmer Gantry (1960)
Approved | 146 min | Drama
A fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner convinces a sincere evangelist that he can be an effective preacher for her cause.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger
Votes: 12,760 | Gross: $11.34M
won the Oscar for Best Actor
38. The Young Savages (1961)
Not Rated | 103 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A district attorney investigates three white teenagers accused of murdering a blind Puerto Rican kid.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Edward Andrews, Vivian Nathan
Votes: 2,920
39. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Approved | 179 min | Drama, War
In 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich
Votes: 84,992
Lancaster's highest rated movie by IMDb
40. Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Not Rated | 147 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A surly convicted murderer held in permanent isolation redeems himself when he becomes a renowned bird expert.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand
Votes: 19,213
another excellent prison movie
41. A Child Is Waiting (1963)
Approved | 102 min | Drama
Jean Hansen joins the staff at a state training institution for developmentally challenged children. When she disagrees with teaching methods used for a 12-year-old autistic boy, the principal does not believe her approach is the answer.
Director: John Cassavetes | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Judy Garland, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill
Votes: 3,375
42. The Leopard (1963)
PG | 186 min | Drama, History
The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa
Votes: 28,689
43. The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
Not Rated | 98 min | Mystery, Thriller
A former intelligence officer is tasked by the heir to the Gleneyre estate to investigate the unusual deaths of a disparate group of eleven men on a list.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Burt Lancaster
Votes: 5,729
44. Seven Days in May (1964)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, Thriller