- Born
- Died
- Birth nameLawrence James Tierney
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- 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 for his frequent, well-publicized barroom brawls and the like, including being stabbed in 1973. In his later years, he continued as a screen actor projecting the hard-as-nails mien that has been ingrained since his younger days, as evidenced in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992).
- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Takacs <kinephile@aol.com>
- RelativesEdward Tierney(Sibling)Michael Tierney(Niece or Nephew)Scott Brady(Sibling)Terence Tierney(Niece or Nephew)
- B-movie leading man whose two-fisted, tough-guy image on screen in the 1940s and '50s rivaled that of his off-screen personal life.
- Deep, gravelly voice
- Known for being immensely difficult and intimidating to those he worked with
- Often played criminals
- Thick New York accent
- 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 the Seinfeld (1989) episode 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 Seinfeld'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.
- After writer/director Rick McKay published a magazine article entitled "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.
- Arrested in July 1961 in Beverly Hills, California for attempting to crash a party thrown by Elizabeth Taylor and her then-husband Eddie Fisher. Tierney was extremely drunk at the time and spent the next few days in jail awaiting a hearing regarding his arrest.
- He is mentioned in Shelley Winters autobiography where she tells the story of their brief affair in May 1945 on the same day that World War II ended. When they ran into each other again in 1990 at Silver Spoon diner in West Hollywood, Shelley said, "You never called me!" before laughing hysterically.
- [during a 1987 interview] "I haven't had a drink in, oh, five years now. I finally wised up. I'd say it was about time. Heck, I threw away about seven careers through drink."
- In 1964, I was arrested and convicted for third degree assault after this cab driver said that I tried to choke him. The whole beef could have been settled for $1.45. That's what the cabbie wanted, but I wasn't going to pay because I didn't like the way he was driving. So this cop comes along and says, 'Why don't you pay him the $1.45?' and I said to the cop, 'What the hell are you, a collection agency?' and the first thing you know I was under arrest. I just reached over the cabbie's shoulder to turn off the ignition and he said I was trying to strangle him. But all that's academic because they found me guilty anyway.
- [on his role as John Dillinger] I never thought of myself as that kind of guy. I thought of myself as a nice guy who wouldn't do rotten things. But obviously that miserable son-of-a-bitch in the film would! I hated that character so much, but I had to do it for the picture.
- [in 1947] I haven't had a drink in three weeks. When I drink, I drink a lot of it, and when I drink a lot of it, I'm just as likely as not to climb a wall.
- [interview with National Enquirer on his stalled career in the 1970s] Basically, I need a job. I'm still alive, but not doing well. I had a big problem with alcohol, but I don't drink anymore. I began drinking very heavily and getting into trouble. I used to hit the headlines with all this nonsense: bad behavior, drunken brawls. I'd look to do a film... a good film. I'm a good actor, and I'm ready to go. But reputations are hard to live down.
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