Gavin Lambert

Gavin Lambert (born July 23, 1924 - died July 17, 2005) was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood. Image File history File links source:i. ... Image File history File links source:i. ... July 23 is the 204th day (205th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 161 days remaining. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies are made. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... This article needs cleanup. ... ...

Early Life

Lambert was educated at Cheltenham and Oxford, where he became friends with filmmakers Karel Reisz and Lindsay Anderson. At Oxford he also founded, together with Reisz and Anderson, the short-lived but influential journal, Sequence. From 1949 to 1955 he co-edited, together with Anderson, the periodical Sight and Sound. At about the same time Lambert was deeply involved in Britain's Free Cinema movement which called for more social realism in contemporary movies. He also wrote film criticism for The Sunday Times and The Guardian. In 1957 he moved to Hollywood, California, in order to work there as a screenwriter and personal assistant to director Nicholas Ray, whose movie Bitter Victory (1957) he co-wrote. He claimed he became Ray's lover for a period of time. The centre of Cheltenham. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Karel Reisz (born 1926, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, died London, United Kingdom, 2002) was a Jewish refugee who became one of the most important film-makers in post war Britain. ... Lindsay Anderson (April 17, 1923 - August 30, 1994), English film and documentary director. ... Sight and Sound is a British monthly magazine about film. ... Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films. ... The Sunday Times is the name of several Sunday newspapers. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ... ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) Barbara Boxer (D) Official language(s) English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911–June 16, 1979) was an American film director. ...

Screenplays and Hollywood

Lambert became a notable screenwriter of the Hollywood studio era. In 1954, while still living in England, he wrote his first screenplay, Another Sky, about the sexual awakening of a prim English woman in North Africa. In 1955, he also directed Another Sky in Morocco. This was followed in 1958 by the Hollywood screenplay, Bitter Victory and in 1960 by Sons and Lovers. The latter, for which Lambert gained an Academy Award nomination, is based on a novel by D. H. Lawrence. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961), adapted a novella by Tennessee Williams on the affairs of an older actress with a young Italian gigolo. It was not until 1965 that Lambert adapted his own Hollywood insider novel Inside Daisy Clover (1963) for the screen. Clover, starring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford, tells the cautionary tale of a teenage movie star involved in the Hollywood studio system of the 30's and her unhappy marriage to a closeted gay leading man. However, in the film version he was not fully identified as gay because at Redford's request, the husband he played was changed from homosexual to appear as though he might be bisexual. From this time on, Lambert and Wood became lifelong friends. Another of Lambert's screenplays was I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977), based on a novel by Hannah Green it describes in layman's terms a teenager's schizophrenia. Later, the author also wrote the scripts for some TV movies such as Second Serve (1986) on transgender tennis player Renee Richards and Liberace: Behind the Music (1988) on gay performer Liberace. In 1997, he contributed to Stephen Frears's film A Personal History of British Cinema. He was heavily quoted in William J. Mann's book, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969. A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Azores, Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was one of the most important, prolific and controversial English writers of the 20th century, whose output spans novels, short stories, poems, plays, essays, travel books, paintings, translations, literary criticism and personal letters. ... The Roman Spring of Mrs. ... Thomas Lanier Williams (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a noted playwright. ... A male prostitute (or hustler) is a sex worker or prostitute who earns money by providing sexual services to clients. ... Natalie Wood Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981), better known as Natalie Wood, was an American film actress. ... Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. ... A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ... Transgender is generally used as an overarching, general term for a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups centered around the full or partial reversal of gender roles; however, compare other definitions below. ... Tennis balls This article is about the sport, tennis. ... Renee Richards (born Richard Raskind 1934) is a physician and professional tennis player. ... Liberace shows off his rings (circa 1980). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Stephen Frears (born June 20, 1941) is a British film director. ...

Books and Final Years

Lambert was also an accomplished biographer and novelist. He wrote biographies on some Hollywood stars, such as On Cukor (1972) on homosexual film director George Cukor and Norma Shearer: A Life (1990) on the Canadian actress Norma Shearer. His book, Nazimova: A Biography (1997) was the first full-scale account of the private life and acting career of lesbian actress Alla Nazimova. He was the author of the memoir Mainly About Lindsay Anderson (2000) and wrote seven novels primarily with Hollywood settings, among them The Slide Area: Scenes of Hollywood Life (1959), a collection of seven short stories that portray a bevy of tinsel-town lowlifes, Inside Daisy Clover (1963), The Goodbye People (1971) about Hollywood's beautiful people, and Running Time (1982), a portrait of an indefatigable woman from child starlet to screen goddess, but also a unique life history of the American film industry. In 1996, Lambert wrote the introduction to 3 Plays, a collection of works by his longtime friend, Mart Crowley. The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... George Cukor George Cukor (July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director. ... Norma Shearer (August 10, circa 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a naturalized U.S. citizen actress who had been born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman. ... Lesbian describes a homosexual woman. ... Alla Nazimova, (May 22, 1879 - July 13, 1945), was a Ukrainian born stage and film actress, scriptwriter, and producer. ... Lindsay Anderson (April 17, 1923 - August 30, 1994), English film and documentary director. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Inside Daisy Clover is a 1965 film with Ruth Gordon based upon a novel by Gavin Lambert. ...

His final biography, Natalie Wood: A Life (2004) supplied an insider's look at actress Natalie Wood and chronicled everything concerning her life, as Lambert was a Wood friend for 16 years. The Guardian newspaper [1] says that "For bitchy, witty and perceptive high-class gossip about Hollywood, there was no better source." The book was praised by Natalie Wood's daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, as "a wonderful biography on my Mom ... that we are all involved with - everybody that knew my Mom and was close to her ... It will be the definitive biography on my Mother." Lambert's biography includes Wood's relationship with Elvis Presley, interviews with the people who knew Wood best, such as Robert Wagner, Warren Beatty, Paul Mazursky, and Leslie Caron. She also dated many other Hollywood personalities such as Dennis Hopper, Nick Adams, Raymond Burr, and Warren Beatty. Lambert claimed that Wood supported homosexual playwright Mart Crowley (a later lover of Lambert's) in a manner that made it possible for him to write his play, The Boys in the Band (1968). Lambert's final book was The Ivan Moffat File: Life Among the Beautiful and Damned in London, Paris, New York and Hollywood (2004). Natalie Wood Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981), better known as Natalie Wood, was an American film actress. ... Look up Gossip in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word gossip may refer to both: the act of spreading news from person to person, especially rumors or private information: see chat the news spread through the act of gossiping While gossip forms one of the oldest and (still) the most... Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known as The King of Rock and Roll (sometimes shortened to The King) was an American singer and actor. ... Robert Wagner (born 10 February 1930) is an American actor. ... Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beaty (born March 30, 1937 in Richmond, Virginia), now known as Warren Beatty, is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. ... Paul Mazursky is an American actor and film director. ... Leslie Caron (b. ... Dennis Hopper (born May 17, 1936) is an American actor and film-maker. ... Actor Nick Adams in a publicity photo for his US television series The Rebel, about 1960. ... Raymond Burr Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was an actor, most known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. ... Warren Beatty Henry Warren Beaty (born March 30, 1937 in Richmond, Virginia), now known as Warren Beatty, is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. ... The Boys in the Band is the title of a play by Mart Crowley which for the first time truly and honestly dealt with the lives of contemporary homosexuals. ...

Gavin Lambert became an American citizen in 1964. From 1974 to 1989, he chiefly stayed in Tangier, where he was a close friend of the writer and composer Paul Bowles. He spent the final years of his life in Los Angeles, where he died of pulmonary fibrosis on July 17, 2005. He left behind a brother, niece and nephew. 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... View toward the Mediterranean Tangier, or Tangiers (Tanja طنچة in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish, and Tanger in French), is a city of northern Morocco with a population of 350,000, or 550,000 including suburbs. ... Paul Bowles (December 30, 1910 - November 18, 1999), was an American composer, author, and traveler. ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... Diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), also known as interstitial lung disease, refers to a group of lung diseases, affecting the alveolar epithelium, pulmonary capillary endothelium, basement membrane, perivascular and perilymphatic tissues. ...

External links

• Advocate obituary 20 July 2005
• David Thomson, "Mainly about Gavin"
• Recent photo
• Gavin Lambert at the Internet Movie Database