The son of screen legend Burt Lancaster, he was perhaps best known for his screenplays for The Bad News Bears and The Thing.

He was born November 17, 1947, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) and Norma Anderson (1917–1988).

Lancaster, who resembled his famous father at the time, guest-starred in an episode of the television series The Big Valley in 1967.

Lancaster played the role of "King", the boyfriend of a murdered college student in The Midnight Man (1974), a mystery film starring and co-directed by his father.

Months later of the same year, Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to work on a rewrite of Lancaster's draft.