- Perhaps best known for his biographies of Norma Shearer, Natalie Wood, Alla Nazimova, and George Cukor, Gavin Lambert was also a two-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter.
Gavin Lambert: Shortlisted for 2 Oscars but probably best known for penning Natalie Wood, Norma Shearer biographies
Though probably best remembered for his well-regarded biographies of film people – Norma Shearer, Natalie Wood, Alla Nazimova, George Cukor – Gavin Lambert was also film critic, novelist, and screenwriter.
Born in Sussex, Lambert began his career writing film articles for The Sunday Times and The Guardian, while also editing Sight and Sound pieces from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s.
In 1955, Lambert moved to Hollywood to work as an assistant for director Nicholas Ray. Later on, Lambert turned to writing novels (The Slide Area: Scenes of Hollywood Life, Inside Daisy Clover) and screenplay adaptations (Tennessee Williams’ The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, his own Inside Daisy Clover).
Neither The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone nor Inside Daisy Clover was well-liked, though both movies had a certain appeal thanks to their stars: Vivien Leigh, in top form, was Mrs. Stone spending her Roman spring in the company of escort Warren Beatty (as an Italian), while Natalie Wood – supported by Robert Redford and Ruth Gordon – was troubled 1930s Hollywood actress Daisy Clover.
Gavin Lambert went on to receive two Academy Award nominations as co-screenwriter for the adaptations of Sons and Lovers, which became a 1960 movie directed by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and starring Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, and Wendy Hiller, and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, a 1977 psychiatry drama with Kathleen Quinlan and Bibi Andersson.
notes/references
Gavin Lambert’s Natalie Wood: A Life cover image: Knopf.
See also: “Gay author & screenwriter LACMA Movie Series.”