William Lancaster (film producer)

William Henry Lancaster (born November 17, 1947 in Los Angeles , California , † January 4, 1997 ) was an American film producer , screenwriter and actor .

Life

He grew up as the second oldest of five children of actors Burt Lancaster and Norma Anderson . He fell ill with polio as a child and had a shortened leg throughout his life. He graduated from Emerson High School in June 1963 and began his writing career soon after.

The first film for which he wrote the screenplay appeared in 1976. The Bears Are On The Go was a comedy starring Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal . Michael Ritchie directed the film . Two years later, the sequel appeared, from which William created and produced a television series in 1979 . He wrote the screenplay for John Carpenter's horror film The Thing from Another World in 1982.

Due to the illness and the shortened leg, the 1 meter 85 centimeter tall man shied away from the big stage. He appeared in only two roles: 1974 in The Midnight Man and 1975 in Moses . In both cases, his father, Burt Lancaster, was his film partner. In Moses , William Lancaster even played the young Moses, while his father played the older Moses.

Lancaster was married to Kippie Kovacs, daughter of film comedian Ernie Kovacs . They had one child, their daughter Keigh Lancaster (* May 20, 1966 - August 20, 2017)

He died of cardiac arrest on January 4, 1997; he only outlived his father by two years.

Web links

• William Lancaster in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ People in the News - Took No Chances . December 14, 1965. Retrieved December 10, 2011. 
2. ^ William Henry “Bill” Lancaster (1947–1997) - Find A Grave Memorial
3. ^ Kippie Kovacs (1949–2001) - Find A Grave Memorial
4. ↑ obituary (eng.)