Lawrence Tierney

After writer/director Rick McKay published a magazine article "Lawrence Tierney: Crack-Up - The True Story of a Hollywood Tough Guy", Tierney called and asked him to collaborate on an autobiography of the screen legend. After a tumultuous, chaotic week in Los Angeles with Tierney, McKay bowed out, exhausted. The book was never written and Tierney passed away in February of 2002.

Became a seven decade actor with a sole credit in a 2000 film appearance.

Was a brawler up until the end of his career, provoking almost all of the younger actors he worked with on Reservoir Dogs (1992) and actually having nearly come to blows with director Quentin Tarantino.

When he guest-starred on Seinfeld: The Jacket (1991) as Elaine's father, he scared the cast so badly that they never had him back on. He stole a butcher knife from Jerry's TV kitchen and hid it under his jacket. When Seinfeld undauntedly confronted him about it (much to the dismay of the entire cast), Tierney pretended that he was going to use the knife as a gag in reference to the movie Psycho (1960) during the episode and quickly returned it.

He was one of a handful of classic Hollywood stars to make a Guest Star appearance on Star Trek, playing the role of Dixon Hill's holodeck adversary Cyrus Redblock in Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Big Goodbye (1988). He later made an appearance on the Star Trek spin-off series Deep Space Nine in the episode Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Business As Usual (1997).

Has the very last line in the TV series Hill Street Blues (1981): "Hill Street .", answering the phone in a burned-out police station.

Was considered for the role of Perry White in Superman (1978).

(In a 1973 incident, he managed to get himself stabbed.

Was considered for the role of Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night (1967).

Never married but has a daughter named Elizabeth born in 1961.

Was offered the role of Charlie "The Gent" Malloy, the mob lawyer, in Elia Kazan's classic On the Waterfront (1954). Tierney lost out on the part when he demanded more money than was offered. Subsequently, Rod Steiger played Charlie, and won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Accepting the part likely would have revitalized Tierney's career, at least in the short-term. [Note: Although this story is rumored it includes no attribution and has never been corroborated.].

Off-screen, the actor's arrests for drunken brawls at bars and Hollywood parties took a heavy toll on his once-promising Hollywood career in the 1950s. Booze was always at the root of his misbehavior, which included tearing a public phone off the wall, hitting a waiter in the face with a sugar bowl, breaking a college student's jaw and attempting to choke a cab driver.

Legendary Hollywood "tough guy", on screen and off. Remembered as the title character in Dillinger (1945) and as the consummately brutal lover of Claire Trevor in Born to Kill (1947). Notorious also for his frequent, well-publicized past involvements in public altercations - like barroom brawls - and other real-life manifestations of rowdiness.

His Father (Lawrence H. Tierney) was the Chief of New York City's Aqueduct Police force from the early 1930's to the early 1950's and during all of World War II.