Burt Lancaster, the hugely versatile actor with a background as a circus acrobat. The words form the title of a 1996 documentary about the star, and also serve as a metaphor for the risks Lancaster took in his film career, both as an actor resolutely refusing to be typecast, and as a powerful and fearless independent producer, one of the first Hollywood stars to form his own production company.
And he was as able to straddle the fine balance between working within the studio system and his desire to make films on his own terms as surely as he once traversed the high bar in the big top.
A self-taught natural actor, Lancaster remained a star from his stunning movie debut in 1946’s The Killers until his extended cameo in the much loved Field.
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