Lawrence Tierney (eBook)

Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy

Burt Kearns (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
432 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-9652-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Lawrence Tierney (19192002) was the kind of actor whose natural swagger and gruff disposition made him the perfect fit for the Hollywood "e;tough guy"e; archetype. Known for his erratic and oftentimes violent nature, Tierney drew upon his bellicose reputation throughout his careera reputation that made him one of the most feared and mythologized characters in the industry. Born in Brooklyn to Irish American parents, Tierney worked in theater productions in New York before moving to Hollywood, where he signed with RKO Radio Pictures in 1943. His biggest roles would come in Dillinger (1945), in which he played 1930s gangster and bank robber John Dillinger, and Robert Wise's film noir classic Born to Kill (1947). Despite his natural talents, Tierney was trouble from the start, struggling with alcoholism and mental instability that emboldened him to start fights whenever and wherever he could. The continued bouts of alcohol-fueled rage, his subsequent stints in jail, and his continued attempts at rehabilitation curtailed his acting career. Unable to find work throughout much of the 1960s, he did a stint in Europe before eventually returning to New York, where he took odd jobs as a construction worker, bartender, and hansom cab driver. In the mid-1980s Tierney returned to acting. With a somewhat cooler head, he established himself again with recurring roles in shows such as Seinfeld and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He would take on his final projects as a septuagenarian in Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Armageddon (1998), where his on-set behavior would once again draw the ire of his colleagues and studio representatives. He would go down swinging just shy of his eighty-third birthday, his tough-guy image solidly intact until the end. In Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy, author Burt Kearns traces Tierney's storied life from his days as Dillinger, to his clash with Quentin Tarantino at the end of his film career, to his final public appearances. The first official biography of the late actor, the book draws on the writings of Hollywood reporters and gossip columnists who first reported on Tierney's antics, and exclusive interviews with surviving colleagues, friends, family membersand victims. Through their words and his research, Kearns paints a portrait of Tierney's brutish behavior and the industry's reaction to the pugnacious star, drawing parallelsand the linebetween the man and the characters that made him a Hollywood legend.

Autor

Burt Kearns is an author and writer who produces and directs nonfiction television and documentary films. A veteran print and broadcast journalist, he wrote the exposé memoir about his life in television, Tabloid Baby. He also cowrote the book, The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage.

Inhalt

1. Violence, Chaos, and Drunkenness
2. Poverty Row
3. Public Enemy #1
4. The Battle of Decker's Lawn
5. Falling Off the Table
6. Not So Tough – and Not Gene Tierney
7. The Drunk Farm
8. The Milk Wagon
9. "Hello, sucker."
10. The Anti-Tierney
11. In Like Dillinger
12. Taxicab Confessions
13. Again.
14. The Payoff
15. The Respectful Prostitute
16. 5:30 AM
17. Barefoot
18. Socialite Socked
19. Making Faces
20. Year of the Wag
21. Pink Elephants
22. Banished
23. Diminishing Returns
24. The Burglar
25. Get Your Kicks
26. Skidville Avenue
27. In Like Flynn
28. Chinatown
29. Incident at P.J.'s
30. Fights
31. "Highly confused and largely incoherent"
32. World's Fair
33. Exile
34. Fatso
35. Stabbed
36. "From Stardom to Hansom"
37. "I think I'm going to jump"
38. Bad
39. All in the Family
40. Renaissance Man
41. Reservoir Dog
42. Natural Born Killer
43. Armageddon
44. Dead As Dillinger
45. Epilogue

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 6.12.2022
• Reihe/Serie: Screen Classics
• Reihe/Serie: Screen Classics
• Zusatzinfo: 64 b&w illustrations
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 160 x 160 mm
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Theater / Ballett
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Actor • Bodyguard • Cops • crime boss • crime films • edward tierney • Junior • michael tierney • Quentin Tarantino • scott brady • seinfeld • the devil thumbs a ride • the hoodlum • Violence
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-9652-3 / 0813196523
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9652-7 / 9780813196527