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Lawrence Tierney

Birthday: Mar 15, 1919

Place of Birth:

Bio: A one-time model with a long rap sheet of less-than-ideal behavior, character actor Lawrence Tierney nevertheless managed to amass scores of film credits over a five-decade acting career before he passed away in 2002. Born in Brooklyn, NY, five years before actor/ brother Scott Brady, Tierney excelled in high school track, winning a scholarship to Manhattan College. Rather than stay in school, however, Tierney dropped out and became an itinerant laborer before his looks brought him a job as a catalogue model. In the early '40s, Tierney began acting in theater and was subsequently signed by RKO. Strengthening his skills with supporting roles in such films as Val Lewton's moody thriller The Ghost Ship (1943) and early teen drama Youth Runs Wild (1944), Tierney sealed his fame, and his image, with his performance as the eponymous gangster in the superb B-picture Dillinger (1945). Cashing in on Dillinger's success, RKO slotted Tierney into numerous tough guy roles, including two turns as archetypal Western outlaw Jesse James in Badman's Territory (1946) and Best of the Badmen (1950), a murderer in cult noir Born to Kill (1947), a sociopath in The Devil Thumbs a Ride (1947), and a career criminal in The Hoodlum (1951). His B-movie stardom also garnered Tierney a typically villainous role in Cecil B. De Mille's Oscar-winner The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Tierney became just as well known in this period, though, for his offscreen exploits involving copious booze and physical violence. Tierney was such a regular in the Los Angeles jail that cops assured fellow RKO star and hell-raiser Robert Mitchum after his famous 1948 drug arrest, "We're keeping Lawrence Tierney's cell warm for ya." By the mid-'50s, Tierney's roles were becoming smaller and scarcer. His professional situation unchanged despite appearing in John Cassavetes' praised mental hospital drama A Child Is Waiting (1963), Tierney moved to Europe but he continued to get in trouble with the law. After he returned to New York in the late '60s, Tierney supported himself with a variety of jobs, including bartending, and maintained his pugnacious, drunken ways; he was stabbed in a brawl in 1973 and questioned in connection with a woman's suicide in 1975. Still, Tierney managed to score the occasional acting gig, appearing in Otto Preminger's Such Good Friends (1971), Andy Warhol's Bad (1977), and the blockbuster comedy Arthur (1981). Dry by 1983, Tierney returned to Hollywood to resurrect his career in earnest, and soon landed regular work on TV as well as in movies. Along with a role on NBC's Hill Street Blues, Tierney also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation and played a sheriff in the TV movie Dillinger (1991). On film, Tierney was as comfortable in John Sayles' thoughtful drama City of Hope (1991) as in John Huston's esteemed Mafia black comedy Prizzi's Honor (1985) and the tastelessly hilarious The Naked Gun (1988); he drew attention for his vigorous turn as Ryan O'Neal's alcoholic father in Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987). Tierney's most memorable late-career performance, however, was his no-nonsense, dryly funny criminal mastermind Joe Cabot in Quentin Tarantino's heist film Reservoir Dogs (1992). His longevity assured by Dogs, Tierney remained active into the late '90s, appearing in the Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy Junior (1994) and stylish Tarantino rip-off 2 Days in the Valley (1996), as well as playing Joey Buttafuoco's father in the TV yarn Casualties of Love: The "Long Island Lolita" Story (1993). Following the crime drama Southie (1998) and playing hard-nosed oil driller Bruce Willis' gruff father in Armageddon (1998), Tierney's health began to fail. He died in his sleep in February 2002. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Filmography

Year	Title	Credit
2004	Evicted	Actor
2000	Evicted	Bob
1998	Southie	Colie Powers
1998	Armageddon	Hollis Vernon (Grap) Stamper
1996	2 Days in the Valley	Old Man
1994	Junior	Mover
1994	Portrait in Red (Fatal Passion)	Actor
1994	Kiss Goodnight	Sgt. Harwood
1993	Eddie Presley	West
1992	Reservoir Dogs	Joe Cabot
1992	Wizards of the Demon Sword	Slave Master
1991	Dillinger	Sheriff Sarber
1991	The Death Merchant	Actor
1991	Wizards of the Demon Sword	Actor
1991	The Runestone	Chief Richardson
1991	City of Hope	Kerrigan
1991	Red	Actor
1990	Why Me?	Actor
1989	The Horror Show (House 3)	Actor
1988	The Naked Gun - From the Files of Police Squad!	Angel Manager
1987	From a Whisper to a Scream	Official at Execution
1987	Tough Guys Don't Dance	Dougy Madden
1986	Murphy's Law	Cameron
1985	Silver Bullet	Owen Knopfler
1985	Prizzi's Honor	Lieutenant Hanley
1982	Midnight (Backwoods Massacre)	Actor
1981	Midnight	Bert Johnson
1981	The Prowler	Major Chatham
1979	Never Pick Up a Stranger	Actor
1978	Kirlian Witness	Detective
1977	Arthur	Man in Coffee Shop
1977	Bad	O'Reilly
1975	Abduction	FBI Agent
1973	Naked Evil (Exorcism at Midnight )	Actor
1971	Such Good Friends	Guard
1968	Custer of the West	Gen. Philip Sheridan
1963	A Child Is Waiting	Douglas Benham
1956	Singing In The Dark	Biff
1956	Female Jungle (The Hangover)	Det. Sgt. Jack Stevens
1952	The Greatest Show on Earth	Henderson
1952	Bushwackers	Sam Tobin
1951	Hoodlum	Actor
1951	The Bushwhackers	Actor
1951	Best of the Badmen	Jesse James
1951	The Hoodlum	Actor
1950	Shakedown	Coulton
1949	Bodyguard	Mike Carter
1947	Born to Kill	Sam Wild
1947	The Devil Thumbs a Ride	Steve Morgan
1946	San Quentin	Jim
1946	Step by Step	Johnny Christopher
1946	Badman's Territory	Jesse James
1945	Mama Loves Papa	Sharpe
1945	Back to Bataan	Lt. Cmdr. Waite
1945	Dillinger	Dillinger
1944	Youth Runs Wild	Duncan
1943	The Ghost Ship	Louie