A fine biography of the cult star Cregar, who I first heard about when Bill Collins presented Hangover Square on TV. I was surprised I'd never heard of him - a horror star, who died young - because the Cregar cult isn't that huge. I think maybe people have less affection for 20th Century Fox horror movies than say Universal ones. Also he didn't make that many movies.
Mank sketches Cregar's short but eventful life well. He came from a distinguished Philadelphia family - several family members were renowned for their cricket skills, at a time when cricket was big in that part of the country. Cregar was the youngest of several brothers and always a bit different, a bit of a show off - he ran away from home early, later joined the merchant marine, and tried to break into acting. Acting seems to have been the one big passion of his life... he tried to make a go of it in New York but did better in California where he worked at the famed Pasadena Playhouse.
Cregar was there a few years, and it was a struggle but when things happened to him they happened fast. His big break was playing Oscar Wilde in a play... it showed off Cregar's gifts perfectly (wit, charisma, size, intelligence) and he was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox who promptly put him in a series of top character roles.
Actors like Cregar could whinge about the studio system but if they had smart bosses and the right sort of studio they would thrive - they'd get to play all sorts of roles, get PR and build up. Cregar quickly established himself as one of the key character names in the business, stealing his first proper film, Hudson's Bay. He offered some superb villainous turns in I Wake up Screaming, Joan of Paris and This Gun for Hire - the most analogous actors would be Vincent Price and George Sanders and Sydney Greenstreet.
Like those actors Cregar made it to leads - in his case in The Lodger and Hangover Square. But he wasn't happy - while actors like Price and Sanders got to play the odd romantic lead (eg Price in Laura) Cregar was stuck in fatty roles like Greenstreet. He whinged and whined and would diet to play romantic roles... leading to a fatal heart attack.
Even though Cregar was upset at losing out on some roles (Laura to Clifton Webb, Dragonwyck to Price) I think Cregar would've continued to remain in high demand for his entire life, like Greenstreet, Price, Lorre and Sanders (Fox was planning Les Miserables for him when he died). He was just so castable, so charismatic - he could liven up any sort of small role. i could see him headlining a TV show, and being used by Roger Corman, and doing stage appearances.
The book is (perhaps inevitably) sketchy on Cregar's love life - he had a publicised straight romance with a few women, which seem to have been underpinned by genuine romantic feeling, but it's generally recognised he was gay. There's some allusion to a specific boyfriend but we never find out who he is.
Cregar dserved a good book and he got one.
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