"Why don't you quit cryin' and get me some bourbon?

M. and I watched The Asphault Jungle the other night, and it prompted me to look up some background info on Sterling Hayden (Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove) who plays sociopathic-hick turned two-bit-hoodlum Dix Handley.

His mini bio on IMDB is enough to make me want to buy his autobiography, Wanderer, published in 1963 (M's already read it, and loved it). Here's some high points:

Ran away [from prep school] to sea at 17, first as ship's boy, then as doryman on the Grand Banks, as a seaman and fireman on numerous vessels before getting his first command at 19...Prior to Pearl Harbor, abandoned Hollywood to become a commando with the COI (later the OSS)...[Ran] guns and supplies to Yugoslav partisans through the German blockade of the Adriatic, as well as parachuting into Croatia for guerilla activities. Won the Silver Star and a citation from Tito of Yugoslavia...He cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee, confessing his brief Communist ties. Ever after regretted this action, holding himself in enormous contempt for what he considered "ratting"...Made headlines defying court order not to sail to Tahiti with his children following divorce decree...Died of cancer in 1986.

Quotes:

"To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about."

On his films: "Bastards, most of them, conceived in contempt of life and spewn out onto screens across the world with noxious ballyhoo; saying nothing, contemptuous of the truth, sullen, and lecherous."

"I have yet to invest the first dime because I don't believe in unearned income. The question is inevitable: 'If you don't believe in taking what you don't earn, then how could you be reconciled to the astronomical figures [you make]?' I never was. Furthermore, I couldn't stand the work."

"I wonder whether there has ever before been a man who bought a schooner and joined the Communist Party all on the same day."

"There is not enough money in Hollywood to lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford. And I like money."