What do you think?
Rate this book
George Cukor: A Double Life
Relates the life of the secretly gay Hollywood director who guided to stardom such legendary actresses as Garbo, Bergman, Garland, and Hepburn
456 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
19 people are currently reading
211 people want to read
About the author
Patrick McGilligan
45 books69 followersPatrick McGilligan is the author of Clint one of America’s pre-eminent film biographers. He has written the life stories of directors George Cukor and Fritz Lang — both New York Times “Notable Books” — and the Edgar-nominated Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. His books have been translated into ten languages. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 5, 2016
“That Jewboy up there!” Clark Gable often referred to David O. Selznik in terms that did nothing to contradict the King’s reputation as a swaggering bigot. His favorite appellation for George Cukor remained simply: “that fag.” Understandably, the shooting of Gone With the Wind commenced under somewhat strained conditions: “I can’t go on with this,” Gable insisted early on. Worse would follow. “I won’t be directed by a fairy!” When rumors began to circulate about homosexual episodes in his own life, Gable apparently found it too risky to continue. He stalked off the set, insisting he needed to work with “a real man!” The director was promptly fired.
George Cukor did not fit Gable’s definition of a real man. One hopes he was proud of that. Growing up in Manhattan, he had haunted galleries and concert stages since childhood, reading omnivorously and dreaming of running a theater company someday. Most of his wishes came true. After a brief stint managing a summer-stock troupe, he found success as perhaps the premier American director of witty, sophisticated films, but the label “woman’s director” stuck almost at once. From Garbo and Harlow to Hepburn and Crawford, virtually every major actress in Hollywood worked with Cukor (in The Women more or less all at once), and he often coaxed from them their most celebrated performances. Set against this backdrop of artistic triumphs, the details of Cukor’s personal life seem all the more poignant.
George Cukor: A Double Life is a triumph of detective work, painting a detailed portrait of a creative, troubled and highly complex individual, of an existence filled with fascinating social connections … and no true intimacy. Patrick McGilligan makes clear his belief that “a deeper knowledge of a man’s life facilitates a deeper appreciation of his work,” and it’s a noble undertaking. Scandalous anecdotes may abound – the wild parties with drunken servicemen, the paid-for sex, the bitchy ripostes that flew between Cukor’s clique and Cole Porter’s, but they don't distract from the real message. In an era when movies tended to revolve about the antics of the madcap rich, Cukor’s preferred subject was forever the outcast, the societal misfit.
The double life may have been, in so many respects, no life at all. Yet in Cukor’s movies, love blossoms: grandly, tragically, beautifully. Treasure those films, and honor the courage they took to make.
George Cukor did not fit Gable’s definition of a real man. One hopes he was proud of that. Growing up in Manhattan, he had haunted galleries and concert stages since childhood, reading omnivorously and dreaming of running a theater company someday. Most of his wishes came true. After a brief stint managing a summer-stock troupe, he found success as perhaps the premier American director of witty, sophisticated films, but the label “woman’s director” stuck almost at once. From Garbo and Harlow to Hepburn and Crawford, virtually every major actress in Hollywood worked with Cukor (in The Women more or less all at once), and he often coaxed from them their most celebrated performances. Set against this backdrop of artistic triumphs, the details of Cukor’s personal life seem all the more poignant.
George Cukor: A Double Life is a triumph of detective work, painting a detailed portrait of a creative, troubled and highly complex individual, of an existence filled with fascinating social connections … and no true intimacy. Patrick McGilligan makes clear his belief that “a deeper knowledge of a man’s life facilitates a deeper appreciation of his work,” and it’s a noble undertaking. Scandalous anecdotes may abound – the wild parties with drunken servicemen, the paid-for sex, the bitchy ripostes that flew between Cukor’s clique and Cole Porter’s, but they don't distract from the real message. In an era when movies tended to revolve about the antics of the madcap rich, Cukor’s preferred subject was forever the outcast, the societal misfit.
The double life may have been, in so many respects, no life at all. Yet in Cukor’s movies, love blossoms: grandly, tragically, beautifully. Treasure those films, and honor the courage they took to make.
Want to read
November 19, 2009OK, so this was on the clearance shelf at Half Price for $3. The first page I open randomly, and my eyes hone in on Clark Gable's references to David O. Selznick as "that Jewboy" and George Cukor as "that fag." (As it happened, Cukor happened to be both). Cukor is probably the greatest film director who also happened to be gay, with maybe James Whale in second place. OK OK, and Sergei Eisenstein, probably. The first part of the book talks about the Cukor family's challenges assimilating as Jews in America.
I just started it and what I like is that he captures the family tree and the flavor of Cukor's early family life without going into too much archeological detail -- the bane of a lot of bios these days that seem more intent on being "the bio of record" rather than telling a good story through judicious editorial selection.
But anyway this looks like a no-nonsense Hollywood bio; quite up my alley.
I just started it and what I like is that he captures the family tree and the flavor of Cukor's early family life without going into too much archeological detail -- the bane of a lot of bios these days that seem more intent on being "the bio of record" rather than telling a good story through judicious editorial selection.
But anyway this looks like a no-nonsense Hollywood bio; quite up my alley.
March 25, 2017
George Cukor made movies starting at the dawn of the talkies and did his final work in the 1980s. Famous for being a "woman's director" and kicking out such cinematic monuments as David Copperfield, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, A Star Is Born and My Fair Lady, he also was known as the guy who got fired from Gone With the Wind because Clark Gable refused to be "directed by a fairy."
A Double Life begins a bit clumsily — put it down to a dearth of living interviewees — but steadily gains force and really hits stride when the hit movies start to get made. McGilligan presents his subject's closeted private life with care and tenderness, but never gloss. Along the way he works through a lot of Hollywood history, because Cukor was there for so much of it, and the author even gets some decent film criticism put to paper.
By the end I was really sorry to see the final credits.
A Double Life begins a bit clumsily — put it down to a dearth of living interviewees — but steadily gains force and really hits stride when the hit movies start to get made. McGilligan presents his subject's closeted private life with care and tenderness, but never gloss. Along the way he works through a lot of Hollywood history, because Cukor was there for so much of it, and the author even gets some decent film criticism put to paper.
By the end I was really sorry to see the final credits.
November 5, 2019
4.5/5. “...No matter how much I cared to downplay this aspect of the book, it loomed in other peoples’ psychologies, setting off alarm bells.” Author McGilligan is talking about the homosexuality of his subject George Cukor, as you might guess, and since so little is known about the private lives of most of Hollywood’s Golden Age directors, you can imagine that pulling on this particularly sensitive thread was for the author more like pulling teeth.
But that aspect, as you also might guess, is what makes Cukor’s story (and therefore this book) special. Time and time again Cukor himself tried to get his biography together, but he wasn’t willing to go deep enough, since he was of a time (not to mention a station) where that would not have been remotely publicly acceptable – what made his story most unique was the one aspect he couldn’t bring himself to address.
So the fact that these pages have come together at all is remarkable. I can imagine what McGilligan had to go through to even get the crumbs he’s gotten. In his extensive afterword (very possibly the most entertaining part of the book) he talks about how Cukor’s executor (George Towers, himself a “character” in the book) was unwilling to allow Cukor’s copywritten personal papers and letters to make print without Towers’ approval of the book, something the author was understandably not willing to negotiate. That obstacle plus protecting the anonymity of the closeted gay men who made up Cukor’s close circle of friends, men who were still hesitant to speak too openly, must have made this research quite effortful.
But it’s all there, sensitively handled by McGilligan and factored into the critiques of all the films. And it’s worth mentioning the films of course, too, the product of all of Cukor’s energy and focus during his time on earth. It’s a staggeringly high quality body of work, though odd to think Cukor rarely if ever looked through the camera to assess what the images would become, and didn’t really have a “style” outside of stories largely about strong women. Cukor was the vehicle for Katharine Hepburn’s meteoric rise, to say nothing of Cary Grant, Vivien Leigh, and Judy Garland; these actors had plenty of credits without him, but with his guidance, they reached incredible new heights.
He must have had quite a way with people, with artists. I’m torn between wanting him to have existed in a time when he could have loved himself more, and being glad that, as a man of his own time, he created iconic films that will live on for as long as movies are discussed.
But that aspect, as you also might guess, is what makes Cukor’s story (and therefore this book) special. Time and time again Cukor himself tried to get his biography together, but he wasn’t willing to go deep enough, since he was of a time (not to mention a station) where that would not have been remotely publicly acceptable – what made his story most unique was the one aspect he couldn’t bring himself to address.
So the fact that these pages have come together at all is remarkable. I can imagine what McGilligan had to go through to even get the crumbs he’s gotten. In his extensive afterword (very possibly the most entertaining part of the book) he talks about how Cukor’s executor (George Towers, himself a “character” in the book) was unwilling to allow Cukor’s copywritten personal papers and letters to make print without Towers’ approval of the book, something the author was understandably not willing to negotiate. That obstacle plus protecting the anonymity of the closeted gay men who made up Cukor’s close circle of friends, men who were still hesitant to speak too openly, must have made this research quite effortful.
But it’s all there, sensitively handled by McGilligan and factored into the critiques of all the films. And it’s worth mentioning the films of course, too, the product of all of Cukor’s energy and focus during his time on earth. It’s a staggeringly high quality body of work, though odd to think Cukor rarely if ever looked through the camera to assess what the images would become, and didn’t really have a “style” outside of stories largely about strong women. Cukor was the vehicle for Katharine Hepburn’s meteoric rise, to say nothing of Cary Grant, Vivien Leigh, and Judy Garland; these actors had plenty of credits without him, but with his guidance, they reached incredible new heights.
He must have had quite a way with people, with artists. I’m torn between wanting him to have existed in a time when he could have loved himself more, and being glad that, as a man of his own time, he created iconic films that will live on for as long as movies are discussed.
June 23, 2017
This is a richly satisfying biography of the film director George Cukor (1899-1983), who was active for an astonishing fifty years. He was responsible for some of the greatest films that came out of Hollywood, including "Little Women" (1933), with Katharine Hepburn; "David Copperfield" (1935); "Camille" (1936, featuring arguably Greta Garbo's finest performance); "The Women" (1939); "The Philadelphia Story" (1940); "Gaslight" (1944); "Born Yesterday" (1950); and "A Star Is Born" (1954), which showcases a brilliant performance by Judy Garland. Cukor won his sole Academy Award for directing for "My Fair Lady" in 1965.
But Cukor is also notorious for having been fired as the director of "Gone With the Wind" after shooting only a few scenes. The reason, as is well known now, was because star Clark Gable was acutely uncomfortable with Cukor's homosexuality, which was an open secret at the time. Cukor was extremely discreet and never acknowledged his sexual orientation openly, but he hosted lavish weekly Sunday luncheons for a coterie of gay friends from the film industry, and Cukor became the unofficial head of Hollywood gay culture in the mid-1930s. Patrick McGilligan did a tremendous amount of research to unearth the details of Cukor's gay life, interviewing survivors from the period, some of whom were extremely reluctant to speak openly. But McGilligan's efforts paid off, and his belief that the private life of artists colors their work is certainly borne out in the way Cukor approached his scripts, actors, and designers.
This is really a riveting biography, and leagues ahead of the usual trashy Hollywood bio. I had a hard time finishing the book because it was such a great read.
But Cukor is also notorious for having been fired as the director of "Gone With the Wind" after shooting only a few scenes. The reason, as is well known now, was because star Clark Gable was acutely uncomfortable with Cukor's homosexuality, which was an open secret at the time. Cukor was extremely discreet and never acknowledged his sexual orientation openly, but he hosted lavish weekly Sunday luncheons for a coterie of gay friends from the film industry, and Cukor became the unofficial head of Hollywood gay culture in the mid-1930s. Patrick McGilligan did a tremendous amount of research to unearth the details of Cukor's gay life, interviewing survivors from the period, some of whom were extremely reluctant to speak openly. But McGilligan's efforts paid off, and his belief that the private life of artists colors their work is certainly borne out in the way Cukor approached his scripts, actors, and designers.
This is really a riveting biography, and leagues ahead of the usual trashy Hollywood bio. I had a hard time finishing the book because it was such a great read.
September 12, 2025
When I initially started reading this book, I found it boring and interminably filled with needless details. The author, a film historian, felt compelled to identify the characters Cukor used in his stage productions in Rochester, New York. I nearly put the book down at that point, questioning whether I could actually finish it. I admit that the author did tremendous research to find these details -- but come on, did anyone really care who was in the cast of these productions?
Once I got past the chapters dealing with Cukor's time in upstate New York, my opinion of the book changed dramatically. I found the pace to be quite good. I enjoyed the detailed accounts of Cukor's work in the movie industry captivating. And his accounts of Cukor's personal life, which had to be difficult given the closeted nature required for gay men in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, was fascinating.
At the end of the day, this was an enjoyable read about a gay man significant in his industry and in his time.
Once I got past the chapters dealing with Cukor's time in upstate New York, my opinion of the book changed dramatically. I found the pace to be quite good. I enjoyed the detailed accounts of Cukor's work in the movie industry captivating. And his accounts of Cukor's personal life, which had to be difficult given the closeted nature required for gay men in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, was fascinating.
At the end of the day, this was an enjoyable read about a gay man significant in his industry and in his time.
June 29, 2019
A Hollywood director whose career began at the very dawn of sound films and ended with a sexually explicit 1981 release, Cukor's life spanned a lot of changes in motion pictures. McGilligan does a decent job of laying out the early life experiences which led to his role as more of an actor's director than a camera director, and of picking out good parts of bad films as well as weak parts in good ones. He also tastefully covers the sex life of the only major director of his time to also be gay. There is an unavoidable distance from the subject who tried again and again to tell his own life story without ever going on record about the most personal parts of it, or for that matter, the many anecdotes about other celebrities he knew. I never grow tired of reading about the ways the studio system worked, both good and bad, and this book tickled my interest without quite satsifying.
June 13, 2023
George Cukor, one of the best studios era directors, was deeply private. The author did a great job of using his work to try and dig at him, but I wish there had been more. He was clearly working with very limited interviews, but he kept mentioning the dozens of Hollywood godkids, and I would have loved to have learned more about who those people were and how that could bring insights into him.
The details about gay community language was super interesting--tricks being guys you have or want to have sex with, trades being a straight guy who will have non-reciprocal sex with a gay man. Clark Gable was a trade for Billy Haines in the 20s and flipped out when George started directing GWTW, refusing to work for a gay man.
Overall, this was very easily readable and I couldn't put it down.
This was written in 1991; the author uses homosexual almost exclusively (except when referring to gay bashing), and is incredibly fat shaming and ableist.
The details about gay community language was super interesting--tricks being guys you have or want to have sex with, trades being a straight guy who will have non-reciprocal sex with a gay man. Clark Gable was a trade for Billy Haines in the 20s and flipped out when George started directing GWTW, refusing to work for a gay man.
Overall, this was very easily readable and I couldn't put it down.
This was written in 1991; the author uses homosexual almost exclusively (except when referring to gay bashing), and is incredibly fat shaming and ableist.
September 7, 2020
An evenhanded biography of a very complicated Hollywood director
Those interested in in the golden age of Hollywood will appreciate this book. Cukor the director had a career strewn with equal parts critical and commercial failure and success. Cukor the man had like so many of the era keep his homosexual proclivities completely in the shadows.
Those interested in in the golden age of Hollywood will appreciate this book. Cukor the director had a career strewn with equal parts critical and commercial failure and success. Cukor the man had like so many of the era keep his homosexual proclivities completely in the shadows.
August 12, 2017
interesting. I was really hoping for more backstage dish esp on working on THE WOMEN, but overall an interesting read.
October 18, 2020
Rather dry, a struggle to get through in parts. Didn't bring the person to life.
February 7, 2017
A solid biography. I was glad to finally get to know the career and story of director and Old Hollywood "peer", George Cukor. The biography gives even coverage to his work, films like The Philadelphia Story and Camille, his friendships, with people like producer and RKO boss David O. Selznick and his wife, Irene, Katharine Hepburn, and Billy Haines, and his conflicted relationship with his sexuality.
This book is twenty years old though and I do think it shows in the way McGilligan writes about Cukor's sexuality in relation to his reputation as a "woman's director." He doesn't exactly say actresses were comfortable with Cukor with him because he was gay and thus, unthreatening, but he does present that view multiple times without examining the ways in which that's reductive and simplistic.
Overall though, a good read, and a great one to pair with Irene Mayer Selznick's autobiography, "A Private View", especially in relation to Cukor's relationship with David, and the events surrounding Cukor's replacement as director of Gone With The Wind.
This book is twenty years old though and I do think it shows in the way McGilligan writes about Cukor's sexuality in relation to his reputation as a "woman's director." He doesn't exactly say actresses were comfortable with Cukor with him because he was gay and thus, unthreatening, but he does present that view multiple times without examining the ways in which that's reductive and simplistic.
Overall though, a good read, and a great one to pair with Irene Mayer Selznick's autobiography, "A Private View", especially in relation to Cukor's relationship with David, and the events surrounding Cukor's replacement as director of Gone With The Wind.
March 2, 2021
I felt motivated to read this biography because I saw a documentary on Sky Arts about the director and it mentioned his relationship with Katharine Hepburn. She is one of my heroines, and I have watched several of the director's films without thinking much about the process of filmmaking. I found this an entertaining read. The director had some notable successes which have gone down in the annals of film making as classics. He also made a few films that did not make money. The research for the biography was incredibly thorough and tells the reader much about the process of filmmaking and about George Cukor’s double life. I recommend it if you are at all interested in either films or Katharine Hepburn or Judy Garland. I am going to read other books by this author.
February 9, 2014
Patrick McGilligan in George Cukor: a Double Life, tries to reconcile the public persona of the famous Hollywood "women's director" [whose career spanned from Broadway in the 1920s to being the oldest director (in his 80s) to direct a film in 1981] with the private role as a closeted Homosexual moving in Hollywood's homophobic macho studio world. I had forgotten how many of the credited films Cukor directed that I had seen and enjoyed: among them Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Camille (1936), The Women (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1944), Born Yesterday (1950), A Star is Born (1954), and My Fair Lady (1964). Just the list of films is overwhelming, but the intensely private Cukor was a fascinating study in America's view of the closeted and ultimately shrouded homosexual professional of the late twentieth century. McGilligan has done intensive research and it shows. His most powerful sobering image is that of Cukor's funeral where few of the friends he had amassed during his Hollywood years failed attend, including Katherine Hepburn who was his close friend for decades.
November 28, 2013
http://xoxoxoe.blogspot.com/2013/11/g...
"Meticulously researched, George Cukor: A Double Life spends equal time investigating what went into the making of his films as it also tries to go behind the facade of Cukor's Hollywood homosexual life. McGilligan manages to portray Cukor as a well-rounded man, but one wonders what the director, who tried so hard to keep his open secret under wraps would think about his "tricks" being discussed alongside his A-list friendships with such movie stars and celebrities as Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Somerset Maugham, and Vivien Leigh. Cukor would never have mixed the two groups in his life. In fact he went out of his way to keep his public and private lives very separate."
"Meticulously researched, George Cukor: A Double Life spends equal time investigating what went into the making of his films as it also tries to go behind the facade of Cukor's Hollywood homosexual life. McGilligan manages to portray Cukor as a well-rounded man, but one wonders what the director, who tried so hard to keep his open secret under wraps would think about his "tricks" being discussed alongside his A-list friendships with such movie stars and celebrities as Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Somerset Maugham, and Vivien Leigh. Cukor would never have mixed the two groups in his life. In fact he went out of his way to keep his public and private lives very separate."
February 19, 2016
Not a bad biography. Good writing (which would have florished with more empathy form the author), amusing annedocteds but I was expecting more. Probably I picked the wrong book to find out more about his films. Despite some prominence attributed to titles and actors, this book is specifically dedicated to put his private life on the front row...I guess by sacrificing innumerable interesting and more appealing behind the scenes recounters.
All in all an enjoyable rollecoaster trip into a fascinating but still not fully delivered biography.
All in all an enjoyable rollecoaster trip into a fascinating but still not fully delivered biography.
December 22, 2011
After reading the biographies of a few directors and actors I have the impression that great movies happen almost by accident -- and the system makes it unlikely. That Cukor succeeded in making _several_ great films speaks volumes. It's sad that Cukor had to live a double life, like just about every other homosexual of the era. It just occurred to me: it's funny that McGillan didn't mention the queerish characters in a couple of the Tracy and Hepburn films Cukor made.
December 2, 2008
Minutious, extremely well-researched and well written bio of one of the greatest Hollywood directors, who also happened to be gay. McGillian does a great job at analyzing Cukor's career and his many films while revealing the hidden part of his life in a very respectful yet honest way. Makes you want to see all of Cukor's movies again.
July 16, 2012
After seeing so many of his films, it was good to finally read a biography of the great George Cukor. I first encountered him when reading the life of Katherine Hepburn a few years ago and it was good to hear his side of the story. His list of "great films" certainly goes on and on and it is fitting that he finally won the Oscar for My Fair Lady.
May 13, 2016
Not as interesting as I wanted it to be.
February 5, 2017
A good read. A little coy about certain subjects but so was Mr. Cukor.
June 6, 2013
Excellent. Intelligent. Insightful. What more could you want?
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews