I had no idea until last week that Burt Lancaster was a passionate bridge player. I found out after meeting an elderly man who told me that he once partnered the actor at rubber bridge. The man did something terrible in defence, at which point Lancaster reached across the table, grabbed him by the lapels and warned him never to play like that again. When I got home I googled Burt Lancaster and discovered that he did indeed take the game very seriously. I also came across a mention of his second wedding, to which he invited so many bridge players that they joked about holding an impromptu tournament.
I wonder whether he ever partnered the great British player Adam ‘Plum’ Meredith? I ask because I’ve been reading recently about Meredith, and it turns out that he and Lancaster were born in the same year (1913), both had Irish grandparents, and that in 1955 Meredith moved permanently to New York — Burt’s hometown — where he regularly played rubber bridge.
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