Norma Shearer

A Life

Add to my list

by Gavin Lambert

Type: Biographies
Subject: Actor > Norma Shearer
Keywords: Norma Shearer, actress
Publishing date: 1990
Publisher: Knopf
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 391 pages
7 x 9 ¾ inches (18 x 25 cm)

ISBN-10 ISBN-13

0-394-55158-3
978-0-394-55158-6

User Ratings

(0 vote)

Average rating:

0	rating	= We can do without
0	rating	= Good book
0	rating	= Excellent book
0	rating	= Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Report incorrect or incomplete information

Book Presentation:
The biography of a Hollywood star who appeared in films such as "The Student Prince", "A Free Soul" and "Marie Antoinette". Norma Shearer successfully managed the transfer from silent to talking movies and also married MGM's head of production, Irvin Thalberg. The author also wrote "On Cukor".

Press Reviews:
From Publishers Weekly : One of the few stars of the silent era to seque successfully into sound films, Norma Shearer (1902-1983) immersed herself in the art of cinematic illusion, emerging as one of MGM's most talented and glittering early stars. The centerpiece of such classic films as Marie Antoinette , Private Lives and The Women , Shearer was equally well-known for her marriage to boy-mogul cum Hollywood myth Irving Thalberg. Lambert's opening chapter, in which he meets the long-retired, septuagenarian film legend in a Hollywood restaurant, holds the promise of a guided tour to the outer reaches of ambition and vanity. But Shearer's mask is opaque, and Lambert ( On Cukor ) is unable to peel it away. Preposterously vain and steel-willed even from the grave, the actress ultimately triumphs over her biographer as the keeper of her own flame. Photos. (May) .Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:
Norma Shearer was queen of the MGM lot in the 1930s. Married to the studio's head of production, Irving Thalberg, Shearer starred in such movies as The Divorcee , The Women , and Idiot's Delight . She was nominated for five Academy Awards, and won one. Her last film was released in 1942, but Shearer lived until 1983. In comparison to Lawrence J. Quirk's Norma: The Story of Norma Shearer (St. Martin's, 1988), Lambert's book is more detached, although both authors interviewed Shearer. Quirk comes across as more of a fan and features more quotes from Shearer's coworkers. Lambert's book has more insight. Each book has information not included in the other; both are worthwhile.- John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See the publisher website: Knopf

See the complete filmography of Norma Shearer on the website: IMDB ...

> From the same author: