Laird Cregar

Gregory William Mank has written and recorded many DVD and Blu-Ray audio commentaries, has won four Rondo Awards, and has written numerous books on classic horror films. He lives in Delta, Pennsylvania.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments deleteixAuthor’s Note deletexiIntroduction: The Ripper IncarnatePart I: If You Try to Find Me, I Will Kill Myself1 • Philadelphia2 • The “Secret Heart” Thing3 • A Grotesque4 • Life in a Sedan5 • Oscar WildePart II: The Lion of the Hour6 • Success7 • The Rabbit with the Glass Teeth8 • Gooseberry the Great9 • ­He-Goat Lucifer10 • The Saint Bernard11 • I Wake Up Screaming with Laird CregarPart III: Betsey12 • Seven Years Old in Hollywood13 • The Man Who Shouldn’t Have Come to Dinner14 • Quaking Like Jelly15 • Riding the Cannon16 • Swashbuckler17 • The Hideaway and a Sad FarewellPart IV: “We Want You Just As You Are, Mr. Cregar.”18 • Who Was Who in the Zoo19 • Three in 194320 • Horror21 • “Don’t Let Him Catch Ya, Dearie!”22 • “Gloomy Sunday”23 • The Ripper in PersonPart V: “A Beautiful Man”24 • Hangover Square’s First Draft, and the Debacle of Laura25 • A Failed Romance, a Revised Script, Abbott and Costello Meet Laird Cregar, a Female Stalker, and the Tragedy of Henry VIII26 • “The Bette Davis of the 20th Century–Fox Lot”27 • Blowing Up28 • Fox Infernos29 • The Last ActPart VI: Denouement30 • What I Wanted for Christmas31 • Legacy32 • A Final TributeFilmographyTheater CreditsRadio CreditsUnrealized Film ProjectsChapter NotesBibliographyIndex

“decades of research...the author brings Cregar back to vivid life in this culmination of an ‘almost lifelong’ fascination with the actor...as with most good Hollywood biographies, this one interweaves its subject’s life story with the story of the movie business itself...Mank finds joy as well as tragedy in Cregar’s attempt to live his dream...gives rich life to an unknown Hollywood story”—Booklist; “Mank offers one of the first in-depth studies of Samuel Laird Cregar…a compelling, cautionary tale of an actor who held his own”—Library Journal; “Mank quotes many people who knew or researched Cregar. The stories are amazing as are the photos...an incredible entertaining opus. As good as anything you have ever read, or will ever read about an actor and name we knew...yet, we really didn’t know”—Little Shoppe of Horrors; “With his hyper-dramatic style and flawless research, Mank has become one of the finest classic film writers/historians working today, and he has been raising the bar of film scholarship for decades...excellent...Creggar’s life and career has never had the light of scholarship and film criticism sine on it until now, and there is so much here to discover and enjoy..the highest recommendation.”—Midnight Marquee; “incredibly detailed and meticulously researched”—Pop Culture Classics; “scrupulous archive research...Mank has left no stone unturned while searching for personal reminiscences...scrupulously documents Cregar’s various stage appearances”—Film International.