Through her he met Aldous Huxley, Tennessee Williams and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon. In 1950, while at the McKinley Home for Boys, Bunker met one of the home's prominent benefactors, Louise Fazenda, a star of the silent screen and wife of the producer Hal B Wallis, who gave him support and encouragement. Criminal life and early writing 1950s − 1960s Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade he stated this was a ruse designed to make people leave him alone. Some thought he was unhinged, but in his book Mr. In Los Angeles County Jail, he stabbed another inmate (Bunker claims it was convicted murderer Billy Cook, although circumstantial evidence shows Cook couldn't have been the victim) and soon gained a respectful reputation as a fearless young man. There, he believed, he could either be predator or prey, and did his best to establish himself in the former category. However, two years later he was caught on a parole violation, and was this time sent to adult prison. Īt the age of fourteen, following his first criminal conviction, Bunker was paroled to the care of his aunt. A long string of escapes, problems with the law and different institutions-including a mental hospital-followed. He soon learned to hide his fear and embrace his dog-eat-dog surroundings. Although young and small, he was intelligent (with an IQ of 152), streetwise and extremely literate. īunker spent time in the juvenile detention facility Preston Castle in Ione, California, where he became acquainted with hardened young criminals. Some sources cite that this incident, along with extreme experiences such as the severe beating he experienced in a state hospital called Pacific Colony, created in Bunker a life-long distrust for authority and institutions. By age 11, Bunker was picked up by the police and placed in juvenile hall after he assaulted his father. While Bunker eventually was apprehended by the authorities, this established a pattern he followed throughout his formative years. He attended a military school for a few months, where he began stealing and eventually ran away again, ending up in a hobo camp. I didn't like it and I ran away and rebelled and that set a pattern and the pattern went on." Ĭonsistently rebellious and defiant, young Bunker was subjected to a harsh regime of discipline. I went overnight from being an only child - kind of pampered and spoilt - to a 'Lord of the Flies' situation with a lot of boys. "My parents divorced when I was four and I was put in boarding homes, which I didn't like. His first clear memories were of his alcoholic parents screaming at each other, and police arriving to "keep the peace", a cycle that led to divorce. His mother, Sarah (née Johnston), was a chorus girl from Vancouver, and his father, Edward N. 3.1 No Beast So Fierce and early successĮarly life 1930s − 1940s īunker was born on Decem into a troubled family in Los Angeles.Bunker was released from prison for the last time in 1975, after which he focused on his career as a writer and actor. He was convicted of bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery, and forgery. He began running away from home when he was five years old, and developed a pattern of criminal behaviour, earning his first conviction when he was fourteen, leading to a cycle of incarceration, parole, re-offending and further jail time. He also played a minor role in Reservoir Dogs (1992). He wrote the scripts for - and acted in - Straight Time (1978) (adapted from his debut novel No Beast So Fierce), Runaway Train (1985) and Animal Factory (2000) (adapted from his sophomore novel of the same name). He wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films. Edward Heward Bunker (Decem– July 19, 2005) was an American author of crime fiction, a screenwriter, convicted felon and an actor.