Biographie

Spoke fluent Russian, Lithuanian and Greek.

Perhaps the biggest late bloomer in Hollywood history, he did not get the marquee treatment he deserved until his late 40s. He was already 53 when Un justicier dans la ville (1974) premiered.

Once told Roger Ebert that getting drafted into World War II was one of the best things that happened to him. For the first time in his life he was well fed and well dressed, and it afforded him the opportunity to improve his English.

Was drafted into the US Army in 1943 and assigned to the Air Corps. At first he was a truck driver, but was later trained as a bomber tail gunner and assigned to a B-29. He flew 25 missions and received, among other decorations, a Purple Heart for wounds incurred in battle. He was based at Guam, Tinian and Saipan.

His father died when he was 10, and at 16 he followed his brothers into the coal mines in Scooptown, PA, to support the family. He was paid $1 per ton of coal and volunteered for perilous jobs because the pay was better.

I guess I look like a rock quarry that someone has dynamited.

Acting is the easiest thing I've done, I guess that's why I'm stuck with it.

Someday I'd like a part where I can lean my elbow against a mantlepiece and have a cocktail.

I don't look like someone who leans on a mantelpiece with a cocktail in my hand, you know. I look like the kind of guy who has a bottle of beer in my hand.

[in 1971] Maybe I'm too masculine. Casting directors cast in their own, or an idealized image. Maybe I don't look like anybody's ideal.

Le justicier - L'ultime combat (1994) - $5,000,000 -$6,000,000

Le justicier braque les dealers (1988) - $4,000,000

Le Justicier de New York (1986) - $1,500,000

Le Justicier de minuit (1983) - $2,000,000

Un justicier dans la ville N°2 (1982) - $1,500,000