Kirkus Reviews QR Code
ANYTHING FOR A QUIET LIFE: The Autobiography of Jack Hawkins by Jack Hawkins

ANYTHING FOR A QUIET LIFE: The Autobiography of Jack Hawkins

By

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 1974
Publisher: Stein & Day

This is a disciplined and undemonstrative work by a man whose life appears to parallel many of the parts he projected on the screen (all those dependable Major types and conscientious Scotland Yard men). Though his career was silenced by the removal of his larynx in 1966, Hawkins continued to act and mime until his death a year ago. The recollections he includes here range from his early theatrical success as a child actor, through the army shows he organized in India during the War, culminating in the post-surgical hardships he faced which his wife postscripts. Despite sharing center stage for most of his life with Gielgud and Olivier, Guinness and Niven, Hawkins emerged an ever-steady performer and Britain's #1 box office draw of 1954. As might be expected, there's only a handful of behind the scenes anecdotes -- from Mandy, The Cruel Sea and The Bridge on the River Kwai -- if flat and ungossipy, then at least tactful. Although this veteran actor's stable, unflashy life is presented in a highly condensed form, what's there manages to bring to mind a final close-up of his Gideon-like proficiency.