Sunday, March 20, 2011

This Goes Double For Writers (Part 2)

"Jack [Elam] did a nice piece of work for director Sam Peckinpah in the 1973 Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. (He gets gunned down by Kris Kristofferson's Bill Bonney.) Peckinpah's drinking was legend around Hollywood. When William Holden died after hitting his head on a coffee table and bled to death in 1982, Peckinpah said, 'It isn't the booze that gets us, it's the goddamned coffee tables. Get rid of the coffee tables.' Sam once said to Lee Marvin, when they were drunk, 'I hate all actors.' To which Lee replied, "All actors do.'"

--Burt Kennedy
Hollywood Trail Boss
Boulevard Books, 1997