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Sidney Lumet: A Life
Sidney Lumet: His Life and Films is the first-ever biography of this seminal American director whose remarkable life traces a line through American entertainment history. His biography takes us from the world of Yiddish theater to Broadway spectacles, then inside the Federal Theater, the Group Theatre, the Actors Studio, and the early “golden age” of television –all of which precede Lumet’s astonishing five-decades -long adventure in movie making.
Acclaimed as the ultimate New York movie director, Lumet began his directing career with the now classic 12 Angry Men, and there followed such landmark New York films as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network. Most noted for contemporary urban dramas, his remarkably varied output included award-winning adaptations of plays by Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, whose Long Day’s Journey into Night featured Katharine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson in their most devastating performances.
His renown as an “actor’s director,” attracted an unmatched roster of stars, among them: Henry Fonda, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Ethan Hawke and Philip-Seymour Hoffman, accruing 17 Oscar nods for his actors along the way.
His personal life was full of surprises, with four marriages to remarkable women, all of whom opened their living rooms to Sidney’s world of artists and performers, from Marilyn Monroe to Leonard Bernstein and Michael Jackson. With the help of exclusive interviews with family, colleagues and friends, author Maura Spiegel provides a vibrant picture of the extraordinary life and work of a director whose influence is felt through generations. This is a book that anyone interested in American film of the twentieth century will not want to miss.
Acclaimed as the ultimate New York movie director, Lumet began his directing career with the now classic 12 Angry Men, and there followed such landmark New York films as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network. Most noted for contemporary urban dramas, his remarkably varied output included award-winning adaptations of plays by Anton Chekhov, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill, whose Long Day’s Journey into Night featured Katharine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson in their most devastating performances.
His renown as an “actor’s director,” attracted an unmatched roster of stars, among them: Henry Fonda, Sophia Loren, Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Ethan Hawke and Philip-Seymour Hoffman, accruing 17 Oscar nods for his actors along the way.
His personal life was full of surprises, with four marriages to remarkable women, all of whom opened their living rooms to Sidney’s world of artists and performers, from Marilyn Monroe to Leonard Bernstein and Michael Jackson. With the help of exclusive interviews with family, colleagues and friends, author Maura Spiegel provides a vibrant picture of the extraordinary life and work of a director whose influence is felt through generations. This is a book that anyone interested in American film of the twentieth century will not want to miss.
- GenresFilm
416 pages, Hardcover
First published December 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 18, 2019
I can't get enough of learning about Sidney Lumet and why his films were so compelling. This is an extremely well researched biography in that Spiegel had access to unpublished memoirs not only by Sidney himself, but also from Baruch, his father, who was responsible for his lifelong immersion in the world of theater, beginning with the Yiddish Theater of the Lower East Side from the time he was four. His liberal viewpoints were honed at an early age, and as the material moved into the more familiar territory of film, his attention to detail became most apparent.
September 3, 2020
Maura Spiegel's 2019 biography of Sidney Lumet, an attempt to provide an intimate portrait of the actor-director's life, is informative but grossly disappointing.
You have to give Ms. Spiegel some credit for researching her subject: her bibliography runs to fourteen pages. But while this biography is stuffed with facts and jammed with celebrity names, its insights are more limited.
The biography starts out comparatively well, when Ms. Spiegel draws on a memoir begun but never completed by Lumet. But Lumet had died in 2011, and the biography had to a considerable degree to draw on posthumous reports by surviving family, colleagues and acquaintances of Lumet's. But much of the resulting reportage takes the form of quotes which are either banal or quoted too fully.
In 363 pages, Ms. Spiegel discusses, to some extent or another, 46 plays directed by Lumet. Some of these, of course, are acknowledged classics: to name a few, 12 Angry Men, Long Day's Journey, the Pawnbroker, Dog Day Afternoon, Network; other filmlovers would include many more. But Ms. Spiegel demonstrates the futility of biting off too much and chewing too poorly: the discussion of many of the greatest films is too scant, and the treatment of the rest of his work is woefully inadequate. Some of Lumet's films were of course only modest successes, some flops, but there is little effort expended on explaining the reasons for the disparate results. Similarly, although there is scattered throughout this biography discussion of Lumet's directorial techniques, including lighting techniques and camera angles,the book lacks photographs to demonstrate graphically the effect which is described.
I would imagine that most folks shelled out $29.99 for Spiegel's book to learn more about Lumet's films than his mostly failed marriages. Yet grossly excessive detail was spent in exploring Lumet's four marriages, and pursuing tangents about his wives (especially Gloria Vanderbilt) and his and their children. Does anyone really need (or want) to know that Anderson Cooper once rode in the backseat with Michael Jackson? What I would like to know, and do not understand after slogging through this book, is why this exemplary Old Left, progressive film director had so much difficulty staying married.
The final chapter was of all the most disappointing. More time is spent listing the names of luminaries who attended a memorial service for Lumet than in describing the circumstances of Lumet's death or its aftermath.
In discussing one of Lumet's movies, the author recounts Lumet emphasizing that what an actor wants is "verbs verbs verbs" and that "adjectives are for critics." I suggest that what a biographer wants are objective facts, best provided by means of judgment-free nouns and verbs.
Spiegel's writing is randomly strewn with adulatory adjectives bestowed on Lumet and those around him. Not only is it unworthy of an academic at Columbia to gush like a writer for People Magazine, but Spiegel thereby forfeits the most precious asset of a biographer: objectivity. In that regard, am I the only human alive who finds it strange that all throughout the 367 pages, its prime subject is with rare, if any, exception identified as "Sidney," not "Lumet," as if the departed director was her snuggiest chum? There's just too much of the author and her opinions in this book, and not enough of the vital essence of Lumet and his art.
If the Goodreads rating system were different, I'd bring this down by one half star, but this flawed effort deserves more than a two-star rating.
You have to give Ms. Spiegel some credit for researching her subject: her bibliography runs to fourteen pages. But while this biography is stuffed with facts and jammed with celebrity names, its insights are more limited.
The biography starts out comparatively well, when Ms. Spiegel draws on a memoir begun but never completed by Lumet. But Lumet had died in 2011, and the biography had to a considerable degree to draw on posthumous reports by surviving family, colleagues and acquaintances of Lumet's. But much of the resulting reportage takes the form of quotes which are either banal or quoted too fully.
In 363 pages, Ms. Spiegel discusses, to some extent or another, 46 plays directed by Lumet. Some of these, of course, are acknowledged classics: to name a few, 12 Angry Men, Long Day's Journey, the Pawnbroker, Dog Day Afternoon, Network; other filmlovers would include many more. But Ms. Spiegel demonstrates the futility of biting off too much and chewing too poorly: the discussion of many of the greatest films is too scant, and the treatment of the rest of his work is woefully inadequate. Some of Lumet's films were of course only modest successes, some flops, but there is little effort expended on explaining the reasons for the disparate results. Similarly, although there is scattered throughout this biography discussion of Lumet's directorial techniques, including lighting techniques and camera angles,the book lacks photographs to demonstrate graphically the effect which is described.
I would imagine that most folks shelled out $29.99 for Spiegel's book to learn more about Lumet's films than his mostly failed marriages. Yet grossly excessive detail was spent in exploring Lumet's four marriages, and pursuing tangents about his wives (especially Gloria Vanderbilt) and his and their children. Does anyone really need (or want) to know that Anderson Cooper once rode in the backseat with Michael Jackson? What I would like to know, and do not understand after slogging through this book, is why this exemplary Old Left, progressive film director had so much difficulty staying married.
The final chapter was of all the most disappointing. More time is spent listing the names of luminaries who attended a memorial service for Lumet than in describing the circumstances of Lumet's death or its aftermath.
In discussing one of Lumet's movies, the author recounts Lumet emphasizing that what an actor wants is "verbs verbs verbs" and that "adjectives are for critics." I suggest that what a biographer wants are objective facts, best provided by means of judgment-free nouns and verbs.
Spiegel's writing is randomly strewn with adulatory adjectives bestowed on Lumet and those around him. Not only is it unworthy of an academic at Columbia to gush like a writer for People Magazine, but Spiegel thereby forfeits the most precious asset of a biographer: objectivity. In that regard, am I the only human alive who finds it strange that all throughout the 367 pages, its prime subject is with rare, if any, exception identified as "Sidney," not "Lumet," as if the departed director was her snuggiest chum? There's just too much of the author and her opinions in this book, and not enough of the vital essence of Lumet and his art.
If the Goodreads rating system were different, I'd bring this down by one half star, but this flawed effort deserves more than a two-star rating.
December 5, 2023
I have always been attracted to Sidney Lumet's work because it comes out of the tradition of New York method acting that I deeply admire and his naturalistic form lends itself to authentic well-told stories.
Because Lumet worked in this naturalistic mode, it was often said he couldn't be called an auteur. His most prominent detractor, Pauline Kael, helped to mainstream this argument.
I think that Maura Spiegel's biography of Lumet demonstrates that if an auteur has a distinctive style across their body of work and the level of cinematic technique to warrant examination, Lumet was an auteur. And perhaps more importantly, Spiegel coalesces Lumet's worldview and work into an anti-auteurist argument. For Lumet, an artist works, that's all that matters. Finding a way to work in your time and place is more important than some unified wholeness to your body of work. And in Spiegel's view, the game in filmmaking is to continue working (don't have to tell me lol).
In just a few years, Lumet made Network, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. He began his career in 1957 with 12 Angry Men and he ended it fifty years later with Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. If he hasn't had the dogged persistence and open-mindedness that he did, he wouldn't have made so many films. And isn't that worth more than some kind of academic label?
The central question of the book in terms of Lumet's work: "is he an auteur and does that matter?" (Yes, No) is extremely compelling. And while there is a little too much family life and a little too little inside baseball filmmaking stuff for my liking, Spiegel does justice to an unfairly maligned artist. Moreover, she presents a compelling counternarrative to the academic auteurists that have influenced many film biographers of similarly accomplished artists.
At the end of the day, Sidney Lumet wouldn't care if you thought he was an auteur. He just cared about the work.
Because Lumet worked in this naturalistic mode, it was often said he couldn't be called an auteur. His most prominent detractor, Pauline Kael, helped to mainstream this argument.
I think that Maura Spiegel's biography of Lumet demonstrates that if an auteur has a distinctive style across their body of work and the level of cinematic technique to warrant examination, Lumet was an auteur. And perhaps more importantly, Spiegel coalesces Lumet's worldview and work into an anti-auteurist argument. For Lumet, an artist works, that's all that matters. Finding a way to work in your time and place is more important than some unified wholeness to your body of work. And in Spiegel's view, the game in filmmaking is to continue working (don't have to tell me lol).
In just a few years, Lumet made Network, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. He began his career in 1957 with 12 Angry Men and he ended it fifty years later with Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. If he hasn't had the dogged persistence and open-mindedness that he did, he wouldn't have made so many films. And isn't that worth more than some kind of academic label?
The central question of the book in terms of Lumet's work: "is he an auteur and does that matter?" (Yes, No) is extremely compelling. And while there is a little too much family life and a little too little inside baseball filmmaking stuff for my liking, Spiegel does justice to an unfairly maligned artist. Moreover, she presents a compelling counternarrative to the academic auteurists that have influenced many film biographers of similarly accomplished artists.
At the end of the day, Sidney Lumet wouldn't care if you thought he was an auteur. He just cared about the work.
July 5, 2020
One of the best film directors of actors, Sidneys Lumet's movies were nominated for over 50 Academy Awards and he won the Director's Guild D.W. Griffith award. This overdue biography details his entire career, from his life as a child actor in the Yiddish theatre, to a career directing early television, to his long and varied career in film, including classics like 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Prince Of The City, Network, Q & A, Night Falls On Manhattan, and many others. The book also covers his strained early family life, his 4 marriages and his many friendships. A well-rounded look at an extremely interesting man. BH.
January 1, 2020
This book is written the way a movie is made – out of sequence.
It is more supposition than fact.
A good deal of it is long-winded and rambling.
The parts that were good were very good, the parts that were not, were not.
It is more supposition than fact.
A good deal of it is long-winded and rambling.
The parts that were good were very good, the parts that were not, were not.
October 20, 2020
Sidney Lumet was a better than average director - especially fo the films he made in the 1970's. however, his personal life, with his marriages to Gloria Vanderbilt & Lena horn's daughter, Gail, were actually more interesting than his movie career.
December 25, 2019
Super frustrating book. On one hand, it supplies solid interviews with Lumet colleagues, actors, and family. Lumet's Yiddish theater childhood is an interesting, well-researched section, and there are insights and fascinating information right up through his chilling WWII experiences. Also, his extensive TV resume' is chronicled in detail. On the other hand, the author chooses to explore the petty, privileged (and non-creative) lifestyles of too many of Lumet's wives, rapidly skipping over numerous feature films. Only "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network" warrant chapters out of the whole decade of the 1970s. Meanwhile, the dubious activities of NYC society who, unfortunately, compose Lumet's social circle take up so much space, I thought I was reading Jean Stein. Luckily, "Prince of the City" and "Q & A", plus Lumet's late masterpiece "Until the Devil Knows You're Dead" are given room amidst all the domestic issues. The book does justice to capturing the unique personality of Lumet, but, as evidenced by the man himself, his personal lifestyle was not something he liked to have examined. A lot of neglected material gets replaced by fluff.
December 15, 2019
The directorial career of Sidney Lumet coincides neatly with the growth of movies as a fundamental cornerstone of the entertainment industry. Lumet’s five-decade career as the definitive New York film director began with the classic 12 Angry Men, and was followed by such landmark films as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Find Me Guilty. You may not have seen the latter, but if gangster movies are your thing, I highly recommend it.
Maura Spiegel’s remarkable book, SIDNEY LUMET: A Life, is readable, insightful and entertaining. A great biography offers more than an understanding of its subject. It places that person in history by chronicling one life among many other lives, and one life experience among countless others that shape a generation. Lumet was fortunate to live and work in an era with actors, writers and fellow directors, including Elia Kazan, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, James Dean and Rod Steiger. It is a who’s who of New York theater and Hollywood filmdom. Spiegel’s portrayal of one of cinema’s most socially aware filmmakers is for anyone who enjoys movies or simply wants to learn more about them.
Spiegel had a vast array of material upon which to build her biography. In addition to Lumet’s own unfinished memoirs, many of his friends and colleagues are still available for interviews and reminiscences. Over the course of a 55-year career that included 43 movies and more than 75 television episodes, along with acting and military service during World War II, Lumet was always active and gleaned as many lessons as possible from a career replete with successes and failures. He measured his own life by how true he was to his characters, his craft and himself. All other barometers of success --- fame, wealth and awards --- were unreliable and only indirectly related to work.
Sidney Lumet was the son of Baruch Lumet, a Polish immigrant who would star in the Yiddish theater in New York. At the dawn of the 20th century, a ready audience thirsting for entertainment in their native language filled theaters that often seated 2,000 viewers. The “Yiddish Broadway,” also called the “Jewish Rialto,” was a community of costume houses, music and photography stores, restaurants and cafes. There were Yiddish versions of plays from Shakespeare to Chekhov. Plentiful work was available for actors, and a young Lumet served an early apprenticeship in the theater as an actor and a singer.
When the United States entered World War II, Lumet was only 17 years old. Although rejected for service because of poor eyesight, he found his way into the Signal Corps as a radar repairman. Military service profoundly impacted his life. He had grown up in a city surrounded by Jewish men. In the army, he experienced a culture shock that included regional as well as religious differences. In New York, 30% of Jewish men attended college; in the army, 30% could neither read nor write.
Returning to New York after the war, Lumet attended actors’ studios and began working in a new industry. In its infancy, television was live and demanded that every detail be considered prior to performances. Building upon his experience in the Signal Corps in radio transmission and electronics, Lumet thrived in this environment. One of his early achievements in TV was “You Are There,” a popular and critical success that won Emmys and a Peabody Award.
Appropriately, Spiegel’s biography spends the majority of its time on Lumet’s movie direction. He was an actor’s director, and the roster of talent he worked with included stars such as Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren and Ralph Richardson, as well as young unknown performers, like Nick Nolte, Ali McGraw and Faye Dunaway. Spiegel’s attention to detail as she discusses each Lumet film creates new perspectives for readers and the opportunity to take another view of his classic work with fresh insights and understanding. This book is not to be missed.
Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
Maura Spiegel’s remarkable book, SIDNEY LUMET: A Life, is readable, insightful and entertaining. A great biography offers more than an understanding of its subject. It places that person in history by chronicling one life among many other lives, and one life experience among countless others that shape a generation. Lumet was fortunate to live and work in an era with actors, writers and fellow directors, including Elia Kazan, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, James Dean and Rod Steiger. It is a who’s who of New York theater and Hollywood filmdom. Spiegel’s portrayal of one of cinema’s most socially aware filmmakers is for anyone who enjoys movies or simply wants to learn more about them.
Spiegel had a vast array of material upon which to build her biography. In addition to Lumet’s own unfinished memoirs, many of his friends and colleagues are still available for interviews and reminiscences. Over the course of a 55-year career that included 43 movies and more than 75 television episodes, along with acting and military service during World War II, Lumet was always active and gleaned as many lessons as possible from a career replete with successes and failures. He measured his own life by how true he was to his characters, his craft and himself. All other barometers of success --- fame, wealth and awards --- were unreliable and only indirectly related to work.
Sidney Lumet was the son of Baruch Lumet, a Polish immigrant who would star in the Yiddish theater in New York. At the dawn of the 20th century, a ready audience thirsting for entertainment in their native language filled theaters that often seated 2,000 viewers. The “Yiddish Broadway,” also called the “Jewish Rialto,” was a community of costume houses, music and photography stores, restaurants and cafes. There were Yiddish versions of plays from Shakespeare to Chekhov. Plentiful work was available for actors, and a young Lumet served an early apprenticeship in the theater as an actor and a singer.
When the United States entered World War II, Lumet was only 17 years old. Although rejected for service because of poor eyesight, he found his way into the Signal Corps as a radar repairman. Military service profoundly impacted his life. He had grown up in a city surrounded by Jewish men. In the army, he experienced a culture shock that included regional as well as religious differences. In New York, 30% of Jewish men attended college; in the army, 30% could neither read nor write.
Returning to New York after the war, Lumet attended actors’ studios and began working in a new industry. In its infancy, television was live and demanded that every detail be considered prior to performances. Building upon his experience in the Signal Corps in radio transmission and electronics, Lumet thrived in this environment. One of his early achievements in TV was “You Are There,” a popular and critical success that won Emmys and a Peabody Award.
Appropriately, Spiegel’s biography spends the majority of its time on Lumet’s movie direction. He was an actor’s director, and the roster of talent he worked with included stars such as Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren and Ralph Richardson, as well as young unknown performers, like Nick Nolte, Ali McGraw and Faye Dunaway. Spiegel’s attention to detail as she discusses each Lumet film creates new perspectives for readers and the opportunity to take another view of his classic work with fresh insights and understanding. This book is not to be missed.
Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
March 30, 2026
Writer Maura Spiegel does indeed provide her Sidney Lumet biography with an intimate look at the life of the legendary film director. "Sidney Lumet: A Life" may not be a comprehensive take on the Lumet's body of work over the course of his fifty years as a feature film director, but it does provide the reader some interesting insight and detail into Lumet's personal journey through his storied eighty six years on Earth.
Born in Philadelphia to Polish immigrant parents, Sidney Lumet grew up with a maternal older sister, a troubled mother, and an actor father more dedicated to his art and career than his family. Yet it is through his father Baruch Lumet that Lumet first became exposed to theater and the performing arts. Eventually, Lumet became a successful child actor and family breadwinner, appearing on stage, radio and in one feature film. Yet after joining the army during World War II, Lumet found himself drifting towards directing, first with the theater, then television and finally Hollywood movies.
Yet Sidney Lumet was by no means a "Hollywood" director. He loathed Los Angeles, preferring to shoot his films in New York or in Europe. Beginning with 1957's TWELVE ANGRY MEN, Sidney Lumet set the tone for the type of stories that inspired him: compelling, gritty, realistic drama, working with great writers to adapt for the screen challenging plays from the works of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Anton Chekhov, Peter Shaffer, Ira Levin and others, or adapting books and original screenplays for the big screen. Most directors would have killed to have the career Sidney Lumet had, and his run of great movies.
Some of Sidney Lumet's films are discussed in detail, such as TWELVE ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, THE HILL, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, THE WIZ, THE VERDICT, DANIEL and Lumet's final movie BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, other films are only mentioned at a glance or skipped over entirely (what, no mention of CHILD'S PLAY?). However it's clear from the start that Maura Spiegel wanted more focus on the artist than his art.
On a positive note, Maura Spiegel is generous in her detailed portrait of Lumet's early years, his time working in the Yiddish theater and on Broadway, his time with the legendary Group Theater during the 1930s, his mentors and people who let him down, his years as a top television director, his start on feature films, his complicated relationship with his father, his four marriages, his children and grandchildren, his twilight years and the many facets of his personality.
What hurts the book are the times the author goes off on tangents, such as "WHAT MAKES 12 ANGRY MEN A CLASSIC?" going on about the film's importance and popularity, or time spent on Lumet's daughter's career as a screenwriter and her success with 2008's RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. All of this would be okay if it were not for the fact that other aspects of Sidney Lumet's life and work were left out...such as films like CHILD'S PLAY, or more detail about other Lumet films such as THE ANDERSON TAPES. Also, Maura Spiegel drops the ball when it comes to story of Sidney and his father.
Over the half of "Sidney Lumet: A Life" features the complicated relationship between Sidney and Baruch Lumet. Yet with all that set up, there is nothing written about when and how Baruch Lumet died, and what Sidney Lumet's reaction was. It is a very curious omission, considering the access that Maura Spiegel had with all four of Sidney Lumet's wives, his friends and co-workers, and his daughter Jenny.
Oh well, so "Sidney Lumet: A Life" has its flaws. That said, the biography offers a lot to those who want to get to know the man who made 12 ANGRY MEN, THE FUGITIVE KIND, FAIL SAFE, SERPICO, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK, PRINCE OF THE CITY, THE VERDICT and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR'E DEAD.
Born in Philadelphia to Polish immigrant parents, Sidney Lumet grew up with a maternal older sister, a troubled mother, and an actor father more dedicated to his art and career than his family. Yet it is through his father Baruch Lumet that Lumet first became exposed to theater and the performing arts. Eventually, Lumet became a successful child actor and family breadwinner, appearing on stage, radio and in one feature film. Yet after joining the army during World War II, Lumet found himself drifting towards directing, first with the theater, then television and finally Hollywood movies.
Yet Sidney Lumet was by no means a "Hollywood" director. He loathed Los Angeles, preferring to shoot his films in New York or in Europe. Beginning with 1957's TWELVE ANGRY MEN, Sidney Lumet set the tone for the type of stories that inspired him: compelling, gritty, realistic drama, working with great writers to adapt for the screen challenging plays from the works of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Anton Chekhov, Peter Shaffer, Ira Levin and others, or adapting books and original screenplays for the big screen. Most directors would have killed to have the career Sidney Lumet had, and his run of great movies.
Some of Sidney Lumet's films are discussed in detail, such as TWELVE ANGRY MEN, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, THE HILL, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, THE WIZ, THE VERDICT, DANIEL and Lumet's final movie BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, other films are only mentioned at a glance or skipped over entirely (what, no mention of CHILD'S PLAY?). However it's clear from the start that Maura Spiegel wanted more focus on the artist than his art.
On a positive note, Maura Spiegel is generous in her detailed portrait of Lumet's early years, his time working in the Yiddish theater and on Broadway, his time with the legendary Group Theater during the 1930s, his mentors and people who let him down, his years as a top television director, his start on feature films, his complicated relationship with his father, his four marriages, his children and grandchildren, his twilight years and the many facets of his personality.
What hurts the book are the times the author goes off on tangents, such as "WHAT MAKES 12 ANGRY MEN A CLASSIC?" going on about the film's importance and popularity, or time spent on Lumet's daughter's career as a screenwriter and her success with 2008's RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. All of this would be okay if it were not for the fact that other aspects of Sidney Lumet's life and work were left out...such as films like CHILD'S PLAY, or more detail about other Lumet films such as THE ANDERSON TAPES. Also, Maura Spiegel drops the ball when it comes to story of Sidney and his father.
Over the half of "Sidney Lumet: A Life" features the complicated relationship between Sidney and Baruch Lumet. Yet with all that set up, there is nothing written about when and how Baruch Lumet died, and what Sidney Lumet's reaction was. It is a very curious omission, considering the access that Maura Spiegel had with all four of Sidney Lumet's wives, his friends and co-workers, and his daughter Jenny.
Oh well, so "Sidney Lumet: A Life" has its flaws. That said, the biography offers a lot to those who want to get to know the man who made 12 ANGRY MEN, THE FUGITIVE KIND, FAIL SAFE, SERPICO, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK, PRINCE OF THE CITY, THE VERDICT and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR'E DEAD.
August 11, 2020
I am a big time film buff and have seen most of Sidney's films so this book seemed like a good choice. It opens letting the reader know that Lumet kept no journals, letter, papers, etc from his past and lived a live largely in the present, making the task of telling his story a bit more challenging. My favorite example of his "moving on" was when many years after having divorced his first wife, he runs into her on the street of NYC with wife #3 and truly appears to have no recognition of the woman. That being said, it was an enjoyable read, just a bit light on the film stories I was hoping for. The big takeaway was that he was supremely a kind man whose own daughters only heard him raise his voice once and whose actors seemed to universally enjoy the process with him. And on top of it all, he made some fabulous films and those will live forever
August 23, 2023
Lumet was a much more fascinating person than I ever really suspected -- with his roots in 1930s leftism and New York theater and such -- although Spiegel oddly does a better job illuminating his early life than his dozens of films, all of which she fairly superficially runs right over while making the point that Lumet held his cards very close to his chest throughout his life. It's a good read, and adds on to whatever respect you undoubtedly already had for the man, but so many of its really incisive revelations are in the first half that by the end it all feels more insubstantial than it really is.
January 7, 2020
Maura Spiegel's book, Sidney Lumet, provides wonderful insight on the life and work of the man who was raised in the theater and spent his life telling stories via stage and screen.
Born as the son of a struggling actor, Sidney started as a young boy surpassing what his father could only wish to achieve. He grew up on the stages of New York City which remained his home throughout his life and where he chose to make most of his films. His heart and soul were part of the grit of that city and evident in much of his work such as "The Pawnbroker", "Serpico", "Network", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "12 Angry Men." He liked to tell stories that revealed something about society rather than just retelling old news. This, in part, was what made him one of the most important filmmakers of our time.
This is not a book that gets lost in such details as aspect ratios, why certain film stock or lens were used, or how bigger and better special effects were incorporated. That would be boring. A piece of such workings were mentioned here and there but only enough to provide a little insight in how Sidney worked and a little of what helped to set him above so many others. It's not a film school text. It is a biography on the man, his works, his loves, and his life.
Sidney was a man who loved family and people as much as he loved his art. We are treated to an insider's view of his life with ex-wives Rita Gam, Gloria Vanderbilt, Gail Jones and then his final wife, Mary Gimbel. Don't go looking for dirt though because there's not much there, especially considering that he seemed to remain on quite good terms with all of his exes throughout his life. Gee, what a guy! That sort of tells you what a special man he was and why he was so well loved. That special relationship quality apparently worked its charm on his actors also. He understood that it was essential to make them feel confident and supported in order to get the best work out of them.
This book delves into those sorts of stories. A man with an amazing body of work who had also led a rich, personal life. A man who will live on in the archives of the Silver Screen and within the hearts and minds of those of us who love a good film that stays with us long after the lights go out.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of the eBook for a fair and honest review.
Born as the son of a struggling actor, Sidney started as a young boy surpassing what his father could only wish to achieve. He grew up on the stages of New York City which remained his home throughout his life and where he chose to make most of his films. His heart and soul were part of the grit of that city and evident in much of his work such as "The Pawnbroker", "Serpico", "Network", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "12 Angry Men." He liked to tell stories that revealed something about society rather than just retelling old news. This, in part, was what made him one of the most important filmmakers of our time.
This is not a book that gets lost in such details as aspect ratios, why certain film stock or lens were used, or how bigger and better special effects were incorporated. That would be boring. A piece of such workings were mentioned here and there but only enough to provide a little insight in how Sidney worked and a little of what helped to set him above so many others. It's not a film school text. It is a biography on the man, his works, his loves, and his life.
Sidney was a man who loved family and people as much as he loved his art. We are treated to an insider's view of his life with ex-wives Rita Gam, Gloria Vanderbilt, Gail Jones and then his final wife, Mary Gimbel. Don't go looking for dirt though because there's not much there, especially considering that he seemed to remain on quite good terms with all of his exes throughout his life. Gee, what a guy! That sort of tells you what a special man he was and why he was so well loved. That special relationship quality apparently worked its charm on his actors also. He understood that it was essential to make them feel confident and supported in order to get the best work out of them.
This book delves into those sorts of stories. A man with an amazing body of work who had also led a rich, personal life. A man who will live on in the archives of the Silver Screen and within the hearts and minds of those of us who love a good film that stays with us long after the lights go out.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of the eBook for a fair and honest review.
February 1, 2020
Good bio. Towards the end got a bit dull as the listing of his later movies was a bit boring.
Overall very good. A child of a Yiddish actor, himself onstage very young, and with some very complex family problems, Lumet focused on the future, not the past. He had a belief in justice and idealism that is clear in many of his films (12 Angry Men, Network, Dog Day Afternoon).
Well worth a read.
Overall very good. A child of a Yiddish actor, himself onstage very young, and with some very complex family problems, Lumet focused on the future, not the past. He had a belief in justice and idealism that is clear in many of his films (12 Angry Men, Network, Dog Day Afternoon).
Well worth a read.
May 6, 2020
Best part of this bio on film director Lumet was the section on his childhood and growing up as the son of a Yiddish theater actor. He, himself, had a successful child/teen career on the stage and appeared in a movie or two. This is not to say the rest of the book wasn't as involving (his acting, early TV directing, movies and respect of actors), but the early years were unknown to this reader and were surprising..
January 9, 2021
First half of the book, focusing on Lumet's first 20 years, has far greater detail and emotional depth than the second half which is an often perfunctory run down of his many movies. An interesting character and from all accounts a kind man with an incredible work ethic
May 26, 2024
A must for any Lumet fan. Maybe it's just me, but I found the book to become engrossing and interesting once it gets to Lumet's filmmaking era, beginning in 1957. Still, it's a revelatory and necessary biography that shines a light on one of the most important directors of all time.
February 2, 2020
A very good biography of the director of some of my favorite movies.
March 29, 2020
A well done biography of one of my favorite directors. Even though it’s emphasis is more geared to his personal life the book does well looking at Lumet’s career.
October 13, 2020
3.5. Audible
August 15, 2025
A rather mediocre biography. I thought it went off topic too frequently and spent too much time on his personal life rather than his work life. The subject deserved a better biography.
October 22, 2019
Sidney Lumet was an outstanding film director, perhaps best known for films like 12 Angry Men and Long Days Journey into Night. He went on to direct such greats as the tough-to-watch Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico, as well as the superbly satisfying Network. He worked with Hollywood’s best actors including Paul Newman and Kate Hepburn. In 2005 he was given the Oscar’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, he passed away, leaving huge and numerous memories behind him. This bio by Maura Spiegel has it all. Whether a fan of the work of Lumet or just of good biographies, there’s lots for you to appreciate in this homage to a great director.
I met this book at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane, Washington.
I met this book at Auntie's Bookstore in Spokane, Washington.
March 20, 2021
One big surprise: Lumet doesn't begin Twelve Angry Men--his first film--until nearly two hundred pages in and then we get three pages on Dog Day Afternoon and four on Network. Four pages! These movies are the reason we admire Lumet, not because I’d the kind of husband or father he was. Still, a terrific read.
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