“Everything you hear about Joan Crawford is true. If not today, tomorrow.”
Nicholas Ray, via Gavin Lambert, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson
Nicholas Ray, via Gavin Lambert, Mainly About Lindsay Anderson
 Joan Crawford, "Today" |  Joan Crawford, "Tomorrow" |
Director Nicholas Ray is best for remembered for Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, and Sal Mineo. A year prior to Rebel, he directed Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar, a sapphic western in which Crawford drives a Mercedes (specifically, the Mercedes was her co-star, Mercedes McCambridge, and Joan's on-set antics were driving Mercedes crazy).
Nicholas Ray was bisexual, and in 1956, he had a fling with a young British film connoisseur, Gavin Lambert. With Ray's help, Lambert immigrated to the United States and became a Hollywood insider, both socially and professionally. Though not a household name in Dubuque, those in-the-know in Santa Monica, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills were not only aware of him, they eagerly invited him to their parties.
Lambert's circle of friends included Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, George Cukor, and Natalie Wood. He penned screenplays (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone) and wrote novels based in filmdom (Daisy Clover and The Slide Area) and biographies of Hollywood screen legends (Norma Shearer, Alla Nazimova, and Natalie Wood).
Lambert was reminded of his friend Nicholas Ray's wry comment about Joan Crawford's frequent mood changes by his own experience with her. He was hired to write a screenplay for a television project in which she was to star. Upon meeting Lambert, Joan cooed, “I just hope I can do justice to your wonderful lines.” Though later, within earshot of Gavin, she screeched to her husband, “How the [expletive] does he expect me to say a line like that?”
Nicholas Ray was bisexual, and in 1956, he had a fling with a young British film connoisseur, Gavin Lambert. With Ray's help, Lambert immigrated to the United States and became a Hollywood insider, both socially and professionally. Though not a household name in Dubuque, those in-the-know in Santa Monica, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills were not only aware of him, they eagerly invited him to their parties.
Lambert's circle of friends included Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, George Cukor, and Natalie Wood. He penned screenplays (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone) and wrote novels based in filmdom (Daisy Clover and The Slide Area) and biographies of Hollywood screen legends (Norma Shearer, Alla Nazimova, and Natalie Wood).
Lambert was reminded of his friend Nicholas Ray's wry comment about Joan Crawford's frequent mood changes by his own experience with her. He was hired to write a screenplay for a television project in which she was to star. Upon meeting Lambert, Joan cooed, “I just hope I can do justice to your wonderful lines.” Though later, within earshot of Gavin, she screeched to her husband, “How the [expletive] does he expect me to say a line like that?”
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