Laird Cregar

A Hollywood Tragedy
Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4766-7899-3
Verlag: McFarland

Buch, Englisch, 329 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 623 g

In 1944, Laird Cregar played Jack the Ripper in The Lodger, giving one of the most haunting performances in Hollywood history. It was the climax of a strange celebrity that saw the young American actor—who stood 6’ 3” and weighed more than 300 pounds—earn distinction as a portrayer of psychopaths and villains. Determined to break free of this typecasting, he desperately desired to become “a beautiful man,” embarking on an extreme diet that killed him at 31. This first biography of Cregar tells the heartbreaking story of the brilliant but doomed actor. Appendices cover his film, theatre, and radio work. Many never before published photographs are included.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mank, Gregory William

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Fernsehen & Rundfunk
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Einzelne Theaterschauspieler & Regisseure
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Radio

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Acknowledgments
- Author’s Note
- Introduction: The Ripper Incarnate
- Part I: If You Try to Find Me, I Will Kill Myself
- 1 Philadelphia
- 2 The “Secret Heart” Thing
- 3 A Grotesque
- 4 Life in a Sedan
- 5 Oscar Wilde
- Part II: The Lion of the Hour
- 6 Success
- 7 The Rabbit with the Glass Teeth
- 8 Gooseberry the Great
- 9 He-Goat Lucifer
- 10The Saint Bernard
- 11 I Wake Up Screaming with Laird Cregar
- Part III: Betsey
- 12 Seven Years Old in Hollywood
- 13 The Man Who Shouldn’t Have Come to Dinner
- 14 Quaking Like Jelly
- 15 Riding the Cannon
- 16 Swashbuckler
- 17 The Hideaway and a Sad Farewell
- Part IV: “We Want You Just As You Are, Mr. Cregar.”
- 18 Who Was Who in the Zoo
- 19 Three in 1943
- 20 Horror
- 21 “Don’t Let Him Catch Ya, Dearie!”
- 22 “Gloomy Sunday”
- 23 The Ripper in Person
- Part V: “A Beautiful Man”
- 24 Hangover Square’s First Draft, and the Debacle of Laura
- 25 A Failed Romance, a Revised Script, Abbott and Costello Meet Laird Cregar, a Female Stalker, and the Tragedy of Henry VIII
- 26 “The Bette Davis of the 20th Century–Fox Lot”
- 27 Blowing Up
- 28 Fox Infernos
- 29 The Last Act
- Part VI: Denouement
- 30 What I Wanted for Christmas
- 31 Legacy
- 32 A Final Tribute
- Filmography
- Theater Credits
- Radio Credits
- Unrealized Film Projects
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Gregory William Mank, a Delta, Pennsylvania, freelance writer, has acted in more than 100 stage productions. He has written numerous books on classic horror films.