Tim Tierney is the son of classic actor Scott Brady. Scott has appeared in films like Canon City, He Walked By Night, The Model and the Marriage Broker, and Johnny Guitar, among many others. Scott also had a famous brother named Lawrence Tierney, who is perhaps most famous for his roles in Dillinger, Born To Kill, and The Devil Thumbs A Ride. Mike Tierney is the son of Edward Tierney, who was the third Tierney brother and himself an actor for a short time. I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim and Mike about each of their fathers and about their uncle Lawrence, who they both remember as a larger than life character. They spoke very candidly about their family life, the real men behind the Hollywood personas, and some of their most memorable experiences. This is a family whose credits span from film noir to westerns, and is highlighted by various television performances over numerous decades. You can read the transcription and listen to the audio below. If your browser is not equipped with Flash, you can download it right here.

MP: I?m on the phone with Tim and Mike Tierney. Tim and Mike are cousins and part of a very famous Hollywood family. Tim is the son of classic actor Scott Brady, whose real name was Gerard Tierney, and mike is the son of Ed Tierney who most don?t know also had an acting career. Both Tim and Mike have a well-known uncle named Lawrence Tierney, who most people have probably seen in films like 1945?s Dillinger and 1947?s Born to Kill, among many others. Tim and Mike, thanks for your time today, I really appreciate it.

Mike: Sure.

Tim: Hello Gary.

MP: Just so there?s no confusion, there were three Tierney brothers: Lawrence, Gerard, also known as Scott Brady, and Edward. Tim and Mike, this question is for both of you. What kind of relationship did you have with the three of them? Tim, why don?t you start?

Tim: Well I was Scott?s son, so of course I had a good relationship with my dad and also with his younger brother Ed, Mike?s dad. Scott and Ed got along well for the most part; the two families saw a lot of each other. I have many fond memories of my uncle Ed as coming to the house, teaching my brother and I how to play chess, and joking around ? a good relationship there. With Uncle Larry ? I never knew I had an Uncle Larry or the man existed until I was about ten years old because Scott and Larry were on bad terms. So I only heard about him when I was 10 and met him a few years later when my uncle Ed died and Larry came out for the funeral. That?s the first time I met Larry and he was kind of a scary person to me at that time. I only got to know Larry a little better years after that when I was in my 20s, I was about 25, this was in the early 1990s, when I made an effort to get to know him because he was living in Hollywood at that time, near to where I was. He was the only link back to the history of the family because by that time Ed and Scott had both died. As a young adult I was having questions about the old days and what it was like and Larry was the guy to go to for that information so I got in touch with him to try to get to know him better and what he could tell me about the early days of the family. I did get to know him pretty well but learned almost nothing about the old days of the family because he didn?t want to talk about it. I?ll end my answer there.

Mike: Scott was my godfather and he was always great to me, I grew up around him and of course my father. We lived in the Laurel Canyon area, close to Scott, until I was about six years old. We moved down to Orange County because my dad was in the real estate and construction business and my grandparents lived down there. So it was always an event to go up and visit Scott and our cousins, so we?d always drive up and visit. We got heavily involved in chess, competing in chess, and Scott would come to the tournaments and cheer us on and bring our cousins Tim and Terence. We had a nice relationship but we didn?t see them all the time but it was always great when we did see them because we lived 75 miles down the road. We?d go up there on the weekends often. A lot of the chess tournaments were in Los Angeles so we?d visit him when we were in Los Angeles for a chess tournament. I always had a great relationship with Scott; I don?t have anything negative to say about Scott, it was just awesome. I had a good relationship with my father even though my parents divorced. My dad was very much involved in our lives on a regular basis with the chess tournaments and just really looking out for us. With Larry, I knew about him from a young age. Of course, Scott was an actor; his only job was an actor. So Scott was always doing something, we?d look him up on TV or a movie and see what he was doing, it was always exciting. Larry was the one that used to be an actor and played Dillinger way back when. I always knew that but I never had a chance to meet him. Larry did, once in a while, call and send us letters and he would send us money for tennis rackets. He was on this tennis kick and he thought tennis was a great sport for young adults or teenagers, so he would send us money for tennis rackets and we started taking tennis lessons in our early teens and I still hadn?t met him. Finally I was in Philadelphia right around 1979, I was 14, and Larry came into Philadelphia ? my dad arranged it ? to meet us, we were there for a team chess tournament in high school, and I got to meet him for the first time. I thought it was pretty funny and pretty awesome; he was a really funny guy. There was definitely some drama between him and my father because they had a lot of bad blood going from way back. My dad made an attempt to get along with him and introduce him to his boys. I remember the funny thing is ? Larry showed up to the hotel room, the first time I met him, he walks in and greets me and my brother kind of solemnly, and he has this big old suitcase filled with the most outrageous ties I?ve ever seen, clown-looking ties, and he really thought these were ties we would wear. We just kind of held our breath and tried not to laugh, it was very comical. We ended up giving these ties as gag gifts for years. Larry was kind of a funny guy, in many ways. But yeah, I met him in Philadelphia, and then I met him again when my father died four years later in 1983. He stayed and we became very close. Larry and I, after my father died, were really close and spent a lot of time together until his death in 2002. We became like father and son, looking out for each other and fighting. I helped him a lot with his career and he helped me a lot in my life, so we were very close until his death. I had to look out for him a lot in the later years with his health problems.

MP: For each of you, what kind of balance was there between working and real life at home with your fathers?

Tim: By the time I came along, my dad?s real celebrity days were behind him. He was, at that point, what I would call a journeyman actor, meaning that he would be brought into a job, people knew by his reputation and his many credits that he could do a good job at certain kinds of roles. He would go in, do his job, and come home, and not talk about it; there was just no fanfare about it at home. He could?ve been a plumber for all we knew. By the way, he regarded what he did for a living, at that point in his career anyway, he didn?t make a big deal about it. In fact, he would describe himself as an ex-celebrity; that was one of his favorite sayings. So he was often at home because he wasn?t working a great deal back in those days. When he was working, you always knew it because he would be up and out of the house very early before any of us got up, and often be on the set all day. He would always arrive early and leave the job late; he was very professional about that. When he was home and not working, he was doing other things - he was working his crossword puzzles, reading books, he was a big reader of books, always on the phone with friends; he had a lot of friends all over the country, and just doing his other things in life. So there was a very high degree of separation between work life and home life.

Mike: Well one thing as a character actor, you get to spend a lot of time with your family, and as long as you?re confident that you?re going to get the work you need, it can be nice because you?re not really worried about things, and I just remember Scott had a lot of time for his family, and he?d read a lot, do a lot of crossword puzzles. [He was] very actively involved in the Notre Dame alumni and the Notre Dame football team in South Bend, Indiana, and he would travel to games. He took me to the USC/Notre Dame game in 1974. Notre Dame had been the national champions in 1973 so it was a highly anticipated game; it was a very important game. Notre Dame lost but we had a great time. He had great seats on the 50-yard line. We were going to go in the locker room but after a loss, he didn?t really want to bug the guys. But he took me to some of the Notre Dame breakfasts and dinners around that time, introduced me to some of the players. I went on set with him once, on a TV show, and he introduced me around. He was sitting in some helicopter, playing a TV reporter in a helicopter. I just remember we got there before sunrise and they didn?t start shooting him until after dark; it was kind of ridiculous, typical thing that happens on some of these sets.

Tim: Hey Mike, let me interject there. It?s funny you should bring that up because I was just researching that matter. That was an episode of a short-lived TV show called 240-Robert (Side note: the episode was called ?First Loss? and aired in 1981), and Scott told me a story about that ? they wanted him to get into that helicopter, which was sort of perched on the side of a cliff, because he was supposed to have crashed the helicopter and needed to be rescued, and he noticed that the helicopter was just being held by rope by a couple of set guys, and he said ?I?m not getting into that thing, it?s too dangerous?, and he made them chain it up to the fenders of some cars before he would get into the helicopter.

Mike: I wasn?t there the second day when they finished it but I just remember it was a long, aggravating day. They wanted the shadows of the blades going across his face, and so they wanted to turn the thing on and he said ?No way?. This is right around the time that Vic Morrow got killed. People get so obsessed sometimes with getting the right shot, they forget about safety. But he got it all done and he did a good job, it was just a little aggravating. But he used to spend time with me whenever he had a chance and spend time with his sons; he had a pretty quiet lifestyle outside of acting. Because he?d given up drinking at least ten years before his death, I think more?

Tim: I think it was around ?74, Mike, that he quit drinking, 1974 I think.

Mike: Oh ok yeah, so a good eleven years before he passed away. So he had a real low-key lifestyle, but very involved with his family and Notre Dame, and his friends.

MP: Tim, how was your dad Scott influenced by his older brother Lawrence?

Tim: Well I know that Larry did actively help him get into the movie business when Scott was just starting out. Scott, as a kid, was very athletic and at that time was thinking about being a football coach or maybe a radio announcer. Then he went into the Navy for World War II, and while he was in the Navy, Larry?s film career started taking off and Scott started to think about himself for a film career. When he was discharged from the Navy in April of ?46, he was offered the option to either get off the ship in New York City or in Los Angeles. So he picked LA, since that?s where Hollywood was, and he used his G.I. Bill to go to drama school and he began working odd jobs, things like cab driving and whatnot to pay the bills, and he started hanging around his older brother Larry who was already making it as an actor. Through Larry, he got access and started meeting people and by 1948 he was playing starring roles himself. So his journey to success was a rather quick one. But in regards to influence, I can?t answer that directly just because I never heard Scott talk about whether he was influenced by Larry or not. Maybe Mike knows something about it.

Mike: I would only be able to guess. I?ve kind of tried to analyze the brothers a little bit because Larry could be so crazy and so destructive, and at the same time Larry was a great guy with a great sense of humor and incredibly generous and compassionate. He had all these other qualities that a lot of people didn?t see. But Larry could be so unreasonable and nuts and violent and emotional, and I was always thought Scott was well-adjusted, he had a lot of friends, he was well-liked and he just seemed to handle his life pretty easily. I always wondered, ?How did these guys come from the same family?? My dad was a real emotional guy and he?d get angry but he built homes for a living, he did acting for a little bit, but he was a contractor and real estate guy, and he handled things, he handled life pretty well. The only thing I can say, as far as Scott?s influence by Larry ? maybe Scott was set on handling his life better just because he was using Larry as a bad example, because Larry really went off the deep end in the early ?60s before he left Los Angeles. Right around that time, their mother died. So maybe he just used Larry as a bad example of what not to do in his career. I know he thought his brother was crazy and that he couldn?t deal with him, so he?d rather just not think about him and that?s probably why he never mentioned him to his sons. When they did meet up again right after my father died, right around the funeral, they tried to talk to each other a few times but it?d just get real emotional, because Scott was having health problems himself with his breathing problems and Emphysema, so he just had to get Larry away from him because it was too upsetting. I sometimes think, from what I remember of some of the stories I heard Larry tell me, Larry was really influenced by his grandfather Crowley. Crowley was a sailor, and a tough guy and a fighter, and from what I understand he died in a bar room fight in the ?40s.

Tim: Mike, I was just looking it up, 1939.

Mike: 1939 he died in a bar room fight outside of a bar in Manhattan. He was a real tough guy that taught Larry how to fight by throwing him across the room when he was seven years old. Larry was also raised by eleven aunts because our grandfather Lawrence Hugh Tierney was the youngest of twelve children, and they thought they were never going to have a boy, and finally Lawrence Hugh Tierney comes along, then he had Larry. So Larry had eleven aunts looking after him as the first boy of the next generation, and he had that for about five or six years before Scott was born. So I can only conjecture that Larry was a little spoiled and could get anything he wanted. He also said he saw a lot of his parents fighting and talking about getting divorced, and it settled down by time Scott was born and Eddie was born. I sometimes say that Scott and Eddie were more Tierneys and Larry was more of a Crowley, and why I say that is because it seems like the madness comes from the Crowley side - our grandmother Mary Alice Crowley, the daughter of Timothy Crowley - a lot of the alcoholism seems to come from that side of the family, a lot of the violence. Whereas I see Lawrence Hugh Tierney, our grandfather, and Scott and Eddie seem to be a little more stable and consistent in terms of their behavior. That?s just my theory, that the madness comes from the Crowley blood rather than the Tierney blood, and Larry was very influenced by his grandfather, Timothy Crowley.

MP: Mike, your dad Ed was the youngest and sort of followed Scott the same way that Scott followed Lawrence. Do you think that acting was something that all of them genuinely wanted to do or do you think it became a family business of sorts?

Mike: I think it?s kind of like anything. You see an opportunity when you see somebody else do it. Larry didn?t invent the idea himself, he saw people in movies. He had to make more of a leap perhaps because he was not living in Los Angeles and he didn?t know any actors. He got involved with some theatre back east as I understand, before he came out to LA. But Scott ? yeah I think if you see your brother do something, I think Scott saw it as an opportunity and you think you can be good at it. Really, we all do act on a regular basis; some people are more extroverted than others. A hundred years before that, there was no such thing as movies. But Scott - I think he really enjoyed acting, he did Broadway, he did the stage and he had a lot of fun with it.

MP: And your dad did the same thing ? he followed Scott the same way Scott followed Larry.

Mike: Yeah and Eddie was married to a woman in his early 20?s, he was the first one to get married, he married a woman named Hanna Axmann, she was a real Hollywood socialite, she was older than him, she was about 28, she was a dancer and an actress; she just knew everybody. They were always in Louella Parsons? column at events and this and that. But Eddie was kind of disillusioned with the whole acting thing, he didn?t like his future based on somebody else?s opinion of him. So in his mid-to-late 20?s, he started getting involved in construction and he saw opportunities with all the vacant lots in the Hollywood Hills, right around Scott?s place ? Scott lived up on Hollywood Hills Road, up Lookout Mountain past Wonderland Avenue. So he started building homes, he built a bunch of homes on Wonderland Avenue in the Hollywood Hills, he learned how to do that and that?s kind of where his future went. I don?t think our family would?ve been involved in the movie business had Larry not broken through and come out here in the first place, but after that, once the possibility is present, people want to get involved.

Tim: Hey Gary, I want to interject something into this point as well, in regards to Scott. I think that if Larry had not been acting, Scott may have never had the idea to try it for himself, but given the idea and having the opportunity of a brother who could help open doors, I think that Scott went for it not just because it was something to do ? because making it as an actor is always a long shot ? but because he did want to do it and he did enjoy it, and it was what he did for his entire working career thereafter. Now in the case of myself, when I was young, I considered going into acting because it was, like you said, the family business so to speak, but as I thought about it, I realized that it?d be one thing to be cast in a movie right away without working for it and struggling, but I thought ?What if this takes me years, and I?ve got to pay my dues and wait tables and be broke and really suffer for my art? Do I want to do that?? And I realized ?No, I don?t really care about acting to the point that I want to suffer for it.? So I realized right away that it wasn?t for me and I went in a totally different direction.

Mike: Yes it was Scott?s only job as an adult, he only acted. I think he enjoyed it, he was good at it and then after awhile it?s just your job, like you said before, it?s no big deal, and it?s just something you do.

MP: Aside from being known for his film work, Lawrence was also known for being somewhat of a loose cannon. Could that have been a reason that he often played characters who were similar in nature?

Mike: Well I would say, with Larry, it was actually kind of vice versa. I think that Larry had the elements of explosive behavior in his persona but he was actually a pretty nice guy up to a point, and if you look at him in the movie The Ghost Ship, he?s having fun and he?s a nice guy, he?s a member of this crew. I think the Dillinger role kind of brought out and made him discover some of this other behavior and took him over a little bit. I see it in actors today, they play a tough guy and then they start going out and getting in fights and getting in trouble. As an actor, I think it can tend to mix up who you are with the characters you play. I think Larry did a little bit of that because he didn?t start getting into trouble until after he played Dillinger. So I would think that it was the other way around, because how he got the role is ? he heard they were casting the script, he went in and they told him it was cast, and then he stole a copy of the script, went and read it, and he just kept coming back and they kept telling him it was cast, and he would just go into the room as the character and talk to them as Dillinger. Finally they just said ?you?ve got the role?. So he had to become that character and bring out how he felt that character would be to get the role. He wasn?t that character before Dillinger.

MP: So this reputation that he established for himself after that, where people began to know him as having that kind of a temper, do you think that caused him to lose work?

Mike: Oh definitely, it destroyed his career. Larry was really sensitive and he used take things that people would say, especially when he was drinking, as challenges. I?ve seen numerous examples and I?ve heard of numerous examples where somebody would come up to him and say ?Hey Dillinger!?, and he would take that as some sort of a challenge, like ?Don?t call me Dillinger, I?m not Dillinger, call me by my name?, and it would turn into a fight. There wasn?t much stopping Larry from just throwing punches in those days, and he would throw punches often. I?ve interviewed friends of his back from the day that said he just liked to fight and it was fun for him to just fight. But yeah it destroyed his career because they want you to act; they don?t want to hire the real Dillinger! They don?t want to hire some guy that?s going to be getting in fights on set; they want you to be able to turn it off at a certain point. They want to be able to predict your behavior; if they invite you to a party, they want to know that you?re going to have a couple drinks and leave at 11 o?clock, not cause a ruckus and have the police there. So yeah it definitely hurt his career.

MP: Tim, your dad Scott starred in some film noir classics also like Canon City and He Walked By Night, and then later in a great deal of westerns. In your opinion, beside changing his name to separate himself from Lawrence, what made him different than his older brother? Do you think he was ever in Lawrence?s shadow?

Tim: Well I?m really not an expert on Scott?s early career since all of that happened before I was born. By the time I was old enough to be interested in it and want to know about those days, Scott had died so I couldn?t go to him for those answers. My attempt to talk to Larry about it never was fruitful. So all I know about his early career is really second and third hand stuff. In regards to whether or not he was in Larry?s shadow professionally, during those days at least, is a matter for film buffs and film historians to debate. I could only offer my own opinion based on those films of theirs that I?ve seen, and that would be ? I have never, in the books and articles I?ve read of their career, I?ve never heard anyone mentioning Scott in a way that would imply that he somehow junior or in the shadow of Larry. Often they were always mentioned together of course because everyone knew they were brothers, but the impression I always got is that they were both standing well on their respective feet.

Mike: I would definitely say that he wasn?t in Larry?s shadow; he had very much his own style from the beginning. He started out in some tough guy roles playing criminals or a guy in jail, I think in Canon City they were in a jail. He started doing comedy roles in the 50?s, he was doing a lot of romantic comedies, and then he had his own thing in the westerns. Larry?s career was so sporadic and then by 1960 Larry pretty much didn?t have a career. Scott ? I think it was probably smart to change his name because it really did separate him from Larry?s legacy and who Larry was. I don?t know if that?s why he did it, maybe he just didn?t like the way Gerry or Gerard Tierney sounded, I?m not sure. But I think Scott definitely had his own thing going on, very different. To me, some people say they looked totally alike, but more so when they were older. People would mistake them for each other after they got a little older and started losing their hair or they gained a little weight. But early on I didn?t think so at all. I thought they looked like brothers but I didn?t think they looked like each other. Scott was not as harsh looking at Larry. I think Scott was a little more handsome in his own way and he definitely had his own thing going on there. Scott did all those guest stars on all those TV shows in the 70?s, and Larry doing Reservoir Dogs when he was 72 years old, I think they very much had their own style and their own path as actors.

Tim: Following up to what Mike said, I think that by their mid and later careers, they were very distinct people, Scott doing the westerns and then a lot of television work, so no doubt at that point that they were very different from each other. In regards to where Scott came up with the stage name Scott Brady ? he told me, and it?s quoted in the press in lots of places, that he invented that name because he did not want to trade upon his brother?s name that had already been established, and I think that it did turn out to be a lucky thing given where Larry?s career went, that Scott had a distinct name. Though later on, much later on, he said that he regretted it, that he would?ve preferred to have been remembered as Gerard Tierney rather than Scott Brady but by that time it was too late.

MP: Mike, your dad Edward went overseas and the majority of his film career took place in Germany. Do you know what led him to go to Germany?

Mike: Well he married a German woman, this Hanna Axmann when he was 21, and he married before any of the other brothers did. It was around 1949, right around the time that Scott?s career was taking off. He was married to her for a couple of years and then after they divorced, he was good friends with her and I think she introduced him to some people. He wanted to travel Europe. He went over to Germany, so I think he had some contacts. He went over there, he did a few movies, and he also sold cars. He lived over there for several years; he learned German fluently, he studied the language. I think the connection was originally he had married this woman and she was from Germany. Although she wasn?t there when he was there, I think she was still in Hollywood. She did send me some of his letters; I?d have to go through them. But they used to stay in touch after they got divorced, so he was there in the 50?s, he was in Germany. But the connection was that he married this woman.

MP: While he was in Germany, he acted under the name Ed Tracy. Do you know where that name came from?

Mike: Yeah it kind of bugs me that everyone is changing their names so much sometimes when I look back at all these things. Again, I think that Larry?s reputation, or maybe he was trying to make his own name; I think he just liked it and he just changed it temporarily, came up with a different stage name. Later on in life he would sometimes go by Michael Brady just for the heck of it I guess. I don?t know all the reasons though.

MP: Scott lobbied for roles in which he could play the leading man, but it always seemed to elude him in favor of other actors who were pushed by the studio. So he began to freelance for a number of different studios. Tim, do you think that hurt Scott?s career?

Tim: I?ve never considered that. I?ll need to do some thinking on my feet here. A conversation comes to mind that I had with a girlfriend of Scott?s back from the old days who I met through a film noir event. We had lunch one day and were talking about a lot of things. This is someone who is very well-informed about the days of old Hollywood, so I will just pass on to you her words, which were: Scott was up and coming right during the days where the studio system was losing the power that it once had. So Scott appeared on the scene during this transitional period where, previous to him, an actor would be pushed by the studio, but now the paradigm was shifting to one where an actor was intended to be much more entrepreneurial or to hire that kind of entrepreneurial talent in the form of a manager or an agent. Scott was quite in step with those times and so that caused his career to, not fail or founder, but he made some missteps.

MP: Tim and Mike, if you could pick one film for each brother that best represented their individual talent, what would you say they were?

Mike: Well I haven?t seen every one of either of their films. In fact, Scott has a bigger body of work and more varied body of work throughout the 50?s where he was playing romantic comedies and various kinds of roles. I?ve seen some clips that I thought were very good. With Larry I would have to say, for his young career, Born To Kill, or Dillinger just because it was his first real breakout role, and for his later career, Reservoir Dogs. For me, those put bookends on his career. He was a gangster actor primarily, he did some comedy, he did some television, he did some silly things, but primarily Larry will always be remembered as a gangster actor and I thought it was kind of cool that he got a good part in a gangster-type movie later in his life with Reservoir Dogs and they were almost 45-50 years apart. So I would say basically one of his first movies and one of his last movies.

Tim: Well for Scott, I would say it?s either Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes or Bloodhounds on Broadway, and I pick those two films as representative of Scott because not only was Scott playing a leading man character in both who had tough guy elements as well as romantic elements, but also because both films had a comedic factor to them, which Scott was quite good at, though often didn?t do.

Mike: Bloodhounds on Broadway, because it was in color I believe ? I haven?t seen it recently and I only saw some clips recently but that seemed to be Scott at his peak as a leading man. There?s the whole underworld element of the story and he?s a tough guy, but its intent is also to entertain and to make people laugh too, the characters. It looked like a really well-done production and a really good job by Scott.

Tim: Yeah so those two films seemed to have a little bit of everything that made up Scott?s screen persona and also I?ve heard it said that those films represented Scott as knocking on the door to enter the A-list of actors. So it did represent him at the apex of his career.

MP: Was there any kind of film that they preferred over another kind of film?

Tim: I never heard Scott talk about that.

Mike: As far as Larry, he used to say that he hated all these tough guy roles that had him doing these terrible things and committing crimes. I do think that maybe there?s some truth in that but I kind of tend to not believe him totally. I think he liked the persona, I think he liked those roles, but I think he did feel limited by them at times, because I know that Larry was a funny guy, he was a really funny guy in person, he?d do silly things and he did do a little bit of comedy. But I think Larry?s strength was definitely dramatic. As far as what he preferred, I think he just liked to work but he would definitely gravitate toward the tough guy roles.

Tim: You know what, I did think of something, though this is taking a different interpretation on your question I think. The kinds of roles Scott did not like to do were in low budget, trashy films, which unfortunately he did his fair share of in the latter part of his career. He was often embarrassed by those films, especially because those would be the ones that would run repeatedly on late night television. I know that one film he was particularly tortured by was Journey to the Center of Time, which I think he did in 1967, because that film, ever since it was made up to today, you can catch it at 3 A.M. on television, even tonight. He was always hearing from somebody ?I saw you on TV?, and he?d say ?Really? What?? ?Journey to the Center of Time?, he?d say ?Thanks for telling me about that?.

MP: Tim, I found it interesting that Scott, from what I read, was originally offered the role of Archie Bunker in All in the Family, which of course went to Carroll O?Connor and became a very controversial character. Do you think he would?ve turned it down because of that or because of another reason?

Tim: I?ve heard that story as well but never heard it from Scott. I just read it on Wikipedia I think. I?ve spoken about this with my brother and we don?t think it?s true because Scott was very candid about his career and the good moves and the bad moves he made along the way. As a typical American family, we watched All in the Family, the TV show, all the time, and my brother and I agreed that Scott would have mentioned it every single time that show came on TV, what a dumb mistake he made by turning down that role. So I just don?t think it happened, I think there?s no truth to that rumor.

Mike: Yeah I don?t think there?s any truth to that rumor either because Scott used to talk about some of the roles he did turn down, one of them being The Blob that Steve McQueen did in the 50?s, and he thought it was a stupid idea ? The Blob, and he turned the movie down, and Steve McQueen ? it was his breakout role as an actor. I think somebody?s got their wires crossed here; I think maybe he auditioned for the role, which is a whole different thing. A lot of people audition for a role on a new series like that. I know he did play a character on the show for maybe three or four episodes and he was friendly with Carroll O?Connor, he knew him, but I don?t ever think he was ever offered the role. If you look at Scott?s career at that point, he had just done Dollars with Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty. He was pretty much a second or third lead or a journeyman character actor, and that was a character role. But I honestly don?t think they offered him that role, not flat-out offered it. He might?ve auditioned for it but I don?t think they just offered it.

MP: In their later years, did either of them ever talk about their co-stars, who they enjoyed or didn?t enjoy working with?

Mike: Larry didn?t talk a lot about his co-stars but he really liked Elisha Cook, Jr. Elisha Cook, Jr. lived up on Big Pine near Lone Pine, and he used to go visit him up there in the early 90?s and the late 80?s. He didn?t talk a lot about the other stars. He really liked Jimmy Cagney, and when he was down and out in New York, Jimmy Cagney was getting older and sicker in the late 70?s, early 80?s; he used to go up and visit Jimmy Cagney in upstate New York. He ended up getting a role out of that in a TV movie. I think it was Jimmy Cagney?s last role and he was in a wheelchair during the role; it was called Terrible Joe Moran, 1984. Larry had become friends with him because he?d go up and visit him and they?d talk about the old days. They never did a movie before together, but because they were friends, they did this one little thing and Larry played a punch drunk fighter from Jimmy Cagney?s old days. It was a fun little role. It was right before my father died that he did that role. When he came out to LA, it was playing on TV and we watched it. Then I met somebody else, an old friend of Larry?s from New York, and he was one of the people that used to drive Larry up to Jimmy Cagney?s house for those visits. He told me they did it several times. But he didn?t talk a lot about his co-stars, no not really.

Tim: Scott?s favorite leading lady was Barbara Stanwyck and he also liked Anne Bancroft. In regards to male actors he worked with, he never mentioned it to me so I don?t have anything for you there.

MP: Lawrence and Scott seemed to have gotten along in their early years. In fact, as we said earlier, Lawrence helped to jump start Scott?s career and again later their relationship began to deteriorate to where they eventually got into a physical fight and became estranged. Tim, why do you think their relationship worsened; and Mike, what did Edward think about the change in his two brothers?

Tim: Well I think that the relationship deteriorated because Larry was doing things that were destructive to himself and were traumatizing to the rest of the family and I think that was a big thing. Also, Larry, at least in my own experience, Larry could be a very hard person to deal with and I?m sure Scott probably found him the same way and must?ve had a lifetime worth of incidents that were accumulating. Their mother died in 1960 and their father died in ?64, which must?ve been very stressful on everybody. Perhaps it was that which was the final straw, though earlier in this phone interview, I heard Michael mention that in the 1960s, Larry really went off the deep end, so maybe if Mike could elaborate on what he meant by that it might shed some further light on what finally happened between Scott and Larry. I know that, from sometime in the mid-60?s, they apparently did have a fist fight and then didn?t talk from that point onward until their brother Ed died, that being almost 20 years.

Mike: A little more than 20 years, yeah. Larry used to say in his later years, long after Scott had died, Larry would say that Scott took over his career. But I don?t think that?s true at all because Scott had a very different career than Larry, and Scott was definitely his own man, doing the romantic comedies and Bloodhounds on Broadway, and all this different kind of stuff that was not really Larry?s style. So I do think there was a little bit of animosity. Larry was the kind of guy at times, God bless him, but if he did something for you, he wanted to keep reminding you, and I think that probably bothered Scott. I heard some stories that Larry would come up to the house that Scott had up in the hills, and climb over the fence with a girlfriend at three in the morning and start swimming in the pool. He?d be drunk and my dad would come out because my dad would be staying with Scott, and he?d say ?Get the hell out of here!? and it would start into a fight, ?I got you started in this business. You wouldn?t even have this house if it wasn?t for me?. You do that enough to a person ? how many times can you say thank you? It?s like ?Are you going to keep rubbing it in my face for the rest of my life?? Larry had, I think, a little bit of jealousy or animosity towards his younger brother. He didn?t need to have that because he had his own thing going on. But everyone was drinking a lot in those days, it was the norm. I don?t think that helped any, when everyone?s pretty loaded most of the time. When their mother died, Scott blamed the mother?s death on Larry, that she was upset about Larry?s behavior. She used to drink a lot; she was Timothy Crowley?s daughter, she was a big drinker and she would apparently call up people upset on the phone all the time. Not to air too much dirty laundry but the bottom line was he blamed her death on Larry, and I think that was their splitting point, I don?t think they talked again after that.

MP: The only time that any of the three brothers acted together was when Ed appeared with Scott in 1950?s Undercover Girl, and then when Ed appeared with Lawrence in 1951?s The Hoodlum. Scott and Lawrence never made a film together. Was that by choice or did it just never come about?

Tim: I think in the early days there was potential for them to do a film but as their relationship worsened, it was more by choice. I?ve heard rumors that Scott has an uncredited walk-on in Larry?s film, Born To Kill, but I have gone through that film frame-by-frame trying to find him in the crowd and wasn?t able to do it. So, that may not be a true rumor.

MP: To my knowledge, there?s never been a biography written on Lawrence or Scott, despite the fact that they were highly recognizable actors. Have either of you considered writing one or do you know of any plans for a book on either of them in the future?

Mike: Well Larry used to talk about writing his biography, and he made some attempts. He used to bait people a lot with ?I want you to write my biography? and he?d have people around his house. He was sincere but also he liked people to hang out with and he was very difficult to work with so you really wouldn?t get anything done. You?d turn the recorder on and he would get upset that you were moving your arms too much, and he?d yell and want to shut the recorder off. But Larry left a lot of stories with his friends and I?ve recently taken on doing this biography of Lawrence. I know who his friends were; I know who the people are to talk to, so I?ve taken this on with C. Courtney Joyner, who?s a screenwriter and an author of Hollywood books, and he was very good friends with Lawrence, he was like another son to Lawrence, he spent a lot of time with Larry. So me and Courtney have just begun this process of collecting the information. A lot of people do want to hear Larry?s story; there?s a lot people don?t know about Lawrence?s life. So it is something that?s in the works just recently.

Tim: In recent years, as a lot of the actors who knew Scott are getting older and writing their own biographies, Scott is getting mentions in a number of these books. Actor Gary Kent wrote a biography where he mentions Scott three or four times and even includes a photo of him. Gary Kent worked with Scott on a number of movies, most of them by Al Adamson, a well-known low budget director. Another actor, Jordan Rhodes, who I was talking to recently, mentioned that he referred to Scott in his own biography as well. So Scott knew a lot of people and he was a very well-liked guy who made an impression when you met him, so because of that, his story, at least in little bits and pieces, is coming out through the biographies of other actors. I?m going to help Mike in any way I can on the work he?s trying to do with Larry, and I?m looking forward to seeing some of Scott?s story come out through that as well. Depending on how I see Michael?s project go, maybe down the road I?ll attempt to do something dedicated to Scott as well.

Mike: I think that the Lawrence story could bring more attention, because obviously Scott?s story will be told in a very peripheral sense. I think it could bring more attention to Scott?s career and make for more interest in a biography on Scott, which I think should be done. I remember meeting an actor in The Breakfast Club, Paul Gleason. After Scott died, me and Larry had dinner with Paul Gleason on Sunset Blvd. one night. He had just met Larry randomly, and Paul just recently died in 2006. He played the teacher in The Breakfast Club, and he had an Excedrin commercial out at the time, it was the mid-80?s, and he started talking about Scott. He said Scott just did wonders for his career as an actor. When he was first starting out, Scott turned him on to some agents and some people, encouraged him as an actor, and really just helped him make it. Scott was really a generous guy that way; he would really help other people. I think there are a lot of fond memories of people that Scott helped out. So yeah, I wouldn?t be surprised if you see his name pop up in biographies and people saying nice things about him. I think Scott?s story should definitely be told but I do think that Larry?s story will probably bring more attention to that and make that more of something that needs to be done. It doesn?t have to be that Larry?s story comes first but it seems like it might go that way and Tim might feel the heat a little stronger as things get a little farther along with Larry?s story.

Tim: Yeah I think that?s the natural progression of it because now that the two of them are passed away, Larry?s fame continues to endure. It?s really been a surprise to me how strongly he is remembered. You can do some Google searching, people are still writing articles about him and his career. He was mentioned in the Reservoir Dogs special edition DVD; they did a special piece about Larry. You can go to The Simpsons Season 5 DVD and they talk about Larry Tierney, you can go to Star Trek: Next Generation websites and they talk about the time Larry Tierney guested on that, and again on the Seinfeld DVD, they make mention of the time we had Larry Tierney on the show. I think it?s because Larry private life was similar in a lot of ways his screen life, him being the wild person that he is, he really was a larger-than-life individual. So he continues to be talked about even today as a result of that. Given that there?s all this continued attention on him, I think it?s natural to see what Mike can do with a biography on him and then that will, in turn, cast more attention on Scott and even Eddie. That?ll help define where we want to take that project. That?s how I?m considering approaching it.

MP: Once again, I?ve been talking to Tim and Mike Tierney, whose Hollywood family is responsible for some of the most entertaining walks through film history. Tim and Mike, I?d like to thank each of you for your time and I hope we have the chance to speak again sometime in the future.

Mike: Beautiful, thank you!

Tim: Thank you Gary.