Lawrence Tierney
| Lawrence Tierney | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 15, 1919 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Died | February 26, 2002 (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1943–2000 |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives |
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Lawrence James Tierney (March 15, 1919 – February 26, 2002) was an American actor known for his many screen portrayals of mobsters and tough guys, roles that mirrored his own frequent brushes with the law. In 2005, New York Times critic David Kehr observed that "the hulking Tierney was not so much an actor as a frightening force of nature".
Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mary Alice (nee Crowley) and Lawrence Hugh Tierney. His father was an Irish American policeman. Tierney was a star athlete at Boys High School, winning awards for track and field and joining Omega Gamma Delta fraternity. He earned an athletic scholarship to Manhattan College but quit after two years to work as a laborer on the New York Aqueduct. He bounced around the country from job to job, working for a time as a catalogue model for Sears Roebuck & Co. After an acting coach suggested he try the stage, Tierney joined the Black Friars theatre group, moving on to the American-Irish Theatre. He was spotted there in 1943 by an RKO talent scout and given a film contract.
Early in his career, Tierney appeared in supporting roles in B movies, including The Ghost Ship (1943), The Falcon Out West (1944), Youth Runs Wild (1944), and Back to Bataan (1945). His breakthrough was starring as famous 1930s bank robber John Dillinger in 1945’s Dillinger. Advertised as a tale "written in bullets, blood, and blondes", Dillinger was initially banned in Chicago and other cities where the felon had operated. A low-budget film costing just $60,000 to make, Dillinger nevertheless proved popular, with Tierney being described as "memorably menacing" in the title role.
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