I just finished a fascinating book on one of my favorite character actors- A Hollywood Tragedy- Laird Cregar by Gregory William Mank (McFarland). It’s one of those books that I knew was in the works and I wondered how detailed it could possibly be, since most of his co-stars are no longer among the living. But it’s a wonderful surprise. The book is smart, revealing, amusing and compassionate towards Cregar. The book is up-front about his homosexuality, and the descriptions of his mesmerizing performances are spot-on.
Cregar is the kind of actor who, when he pops up in films, is larger than life. In size too- he was 6’ 3” and weighed 300 lbs. His performances were always unforgettable. As the foppish pirate in The Black Swan; the sardonic devil in Heaven Can Wait; the obsessed cop in I Wake Up Screaming; the sleazy businessman in This Gun For Hire, not to mention his two critical triumphs- playing Jack The Ripper in The Lodger, and the tormented pianist in Hangover Square.
December 9. 1944, 60 days before the opening of one of his greatest films Hangover Square, it has been said that he died of a heart attack brought on by his severe crash diets. He was only 31 years old. But the reality is more complex- he had put off a hernia operation for years and when they did operate on him (possibly added by the severe dieting) his heart just gave out. On the audio commentary to the DVD of The Black Swan, his co-star and close friend, Maureen O’Hara, who had dinner with Cregar just before he died, was convinced his death was just a tragic side-effect of the operation.
Others were not so forgiving. George Sanders, who acted with Cregar in several films bitterly stated, “Hollywood virtually assassinated Laird Cregar.”
Born in Philadelphia, July 28, 1913, Cregar had a fairly well-adjusted childhood. He stayed quite close with his family- particularly his adoring young niece who came to live with Cregar in Hollywood for periods of time. His struggles as a young actor often had him living out of his car. But he struck gold with a stage performance as Oscar Wilde, which was an incredible hit, drawing famous actors to the theater including Laird’s idol- John Barrymore, who came backstage and raved about his performance, which brought Cregar to tears. (Years later he invited Barrymore over to his house for a dinner party that was beyond disastrous- you need to read the book for that harrowing tale). Cregar was screen-tested by the film studios and eventually landed at 20th Century Fox, lorded over by Darryl Zanuck, or, as Alice Faye jokingly referred to it: “Twentieth Penitentiary Fox.”
One of his early performances was alongside hambone Paul Muni in Hudson’s Bay (1941), a talky saga about French Canadian explorers and fur trappers. Cregar’s character was the larger-than-life “Gooseberry,” and he easily stole every scene he was in which infuriated Muni. Muni demanded reshoots to beef up his character and doomed the film at the box office.
His next movie was a bullfighter melodrama- Blood And Sand– and it starred handsome matinee idol Tyrone Power, who he got on famously with. Laird was outrageous as the foppish fanboy of matadors, and his character drips with homosexual subtext. The book concedes that Cregar was gay, and that fact was commonly known in Hollywood. But what I love is how he was able to interject all these subversive touches in his films that are sneakily perverse.
Charley’s Aunt was a huge stage hit and a perfect comic vehicle for Jack Benny, who plays a college student who is forced to dress in drag and pretend to be a classmate’s wealthy aunt. Cregar plays a down-on-his-luck father, who pursues the “aunt” romantically. He’s a delight in the movie, and there is a great scene where he secretly discovers Benny’s secret and explodes with gales of laughter. It’s one of funniest moments in the film.
I Wake Up Screaming was a black and white film noir gem. It was also an attempt to broaden star (and pin-up queen) Betty Grable’s range with a dramatic role. She plays the sister of a murder victim, who joins up with her late sister’s boyfriend (Victor Mature) to find the identity of the murderer. Cregar plays a psychotic cop who stalks Mature, convinced of his guilt. There’s a great scene in a car where Cregar toys with a tiny noose he has fashioned out of string just to torment Mature’s character. One review raved, “Laird Cregar steals the picture with his performance of menace, so sinister that it will immediately bring comparisons with Peter Lorre’s memorable portrayal in M.”
This Gun For Hire stars Alan Ladd as a mercenary killer. When he gets paid with counterfeit cash he goes after the man who hired him- Willard Gates (Cregar), a shady businessman secretly facilitating selling a poison gas formula to the Japanese. This movie marks the first pairings with Ladd and the sultry Veronica Lake. Cregar plays this sleazy traitor with great flash and villainy. The NY Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote in his review, “Cregar is a double portion of deceit and cowardice, edging his characterization with a touch of elegance.”
The Black Swan re-teamed Cregar with Tyrone Power who played a swashbuckling pirate. Cregar plays the pirate king Captain John Morgan who was been appointed the new Governor of Jamaica- and it’s an uneasy transition from pirate to politician. The lovely Maureen O’Hara co-stars and became very close with Laird. Cregar, as Morgan, bellows and chafes under the wigs and festooned finery he is forced to wear. It’s a hilarious, enjoyable turn and he lights up the screen every time he appears.
Heaven Can Wait offered Cregar the opportunity to work with the great director Ernst Lubitsch in a Technicolor comedy about a playboy (Don Ameche) who dies, and, believing he is not fit to go to heaven, tells his life story to the Devil (played with demonic glee by Cregar). Even film critics mused, “Cregar (who else would be so logical for the role?).”
But it was in The Lodger in which he gave one of his most indelible performances. He plays Mr. Slade, a mysterious man who rents a room in lodging house. Merle Oberon plays Kitty, a showgirl who also lives there, and Slade is often seen leaving in the dead night with his black overcoat and doctor’s bag. Meanwhile women are being slashed to death in the Whitechapel area. George Sanders plays a detective who is also romancing Kitty. (Sanders and Cregar became fast friends on the set.) Director John Brahm’s brilliant, mood-drenched direction ratchets the tension to a frightening showdown with the ‘ripper” being chased through the eaves of the theater. It includes a chilling moment where a cornered Slade reveals his true self- a knife-wielding, feral, snarling beast. The film was a giant hit and gave Cregar the best reviews of his career. But his pleasure with the film’s success was tempered with the fear that he would forever be typecast as the “large” villain in films and never taken seriously as a leading man.
Cregar was, from all accounts a funny, boisterous bear of a guy. He loved to camp it up and threw many star-studded dinner parties and attended costume balls- often in drag. Cregar, in an interview wittily remarked, “It is perfectly monstrous the way people say things against one behind one’s back that are absolutely and entirely true.” There’s a disheartening story in the book about a dinner party he attended with a young male “companion” who was heard yelling at Cregar during the evening, “Oh you fat pig! If you don’t lose weight, I’m going to leave you!” Laird was humiliated and embarrassed and apologized profusely to his host, who was deeply distressed over the incident.
His fear of being typecast compounded with his low-esteem body-issues caused him to go on a drastic weight-loss diet for his next role- which was the lead in the psychological thriller Hangover Square. “Laird Cregar has dropped a total of 102 pounds,” reported the Hollywood Reporter. In the movie he plays a composer who goes bonkers when he hears discordant (loud) sounds and commits murders because of it. The score was by the great Bernard Herrmann, and composer Stephen Sondheim admitted that it was a huge inspiration for Sweeney Todd. Laird also was re-united with director John Brahm. But this time the set was not a happy one. Cregar was playing the diva, angry with the endless re-writes and changes in the script, fearing it was turning into a retread of The Lodger. George Sanders, also in the film and possibly in solidarity to Cregar, also began acting up on set. Brahm said about Cregar, “All through the movie he acted so badly….actually his confused and confusing off-screen personality coincided a good deal with his last screen characterization.”
Tragically, Cregar never lived to see the movie’s premiere. His had a massive heart attack, and the world was denied more from this incredibly unique actor.
If you’ve never seen Hangover Square, it’s out now in a beautiful Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. It’s a dark, truly twisted masterpiece. And the legendary Laird Cregar is just terrifying, heartbreaking and sublime.
