Biography
Edward Bunker’s life is beyond the imaginings of most fiction writers. He was born in Hollywood, California, the son of a stagehand and Busby Berkeley chorus girl, whose early divorce propelled him into a series of boarding homes and military schools.
From the age of five he repeatedly ran away, roaming the city streets at night. A proud character, combined with an IQ of 152, resulted in a series of altercations with the authorities. He became the youngest ever inmate of San Quentin at the age of seventeen, and there he learned survival skills and faced down the toughest prisoners in the system. He was befriended by Mrs Louise Wallis, a former star of the silent screen and wife of movie mogul, Hal Wallis, who produced films starring Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. She introduced Bunker to her circle of friends, including Jack Dempsey, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and William Randolph Hearst, whose guest he was at San Simeon.
A parole violation resulted in a spell crossing America as a fugitive on the FBI’s most wanted list. His eventual capture led to Folsom prison. Encouraged by the example of Dostoevsky, Cervantes and Caryl Chessman, and by the kindness of Mrs Wallis, he determined to write his way out of prison.
It took him 17 years, six novels and over a hundred short stories before his first book was published - as well as surviving on the proceeds of crime, he used to sell his own blood to raise the money to send his writing to publishers and magazines. His first published novel, No Beast So Fierce viewed by many including Quentin Tarantino as the finest crime novel ever written, changed his fortunes. It was filmed as Straight Time, starring Dustin Hoffman. He has written three other novels, The Animal Factory, Little Boy Blue and Dog Eat Dog (all published by No Exit Press), admired by writers as diverse as William Styron and James Ellroy. His autobiography Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade, recounts the story of his extraordinary life in brutal detail and has been described as a literary triumph. He received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Runaway Train, and has appeared in a score of films, most notably his legendary role as Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs.
Bunker On the Web
There are interviews with Eddie Bunker available online, at the Richmond Review site,
on Crime Time Online, on Bookends, RTE online and Bizarre amongst others. He gets numerous honorable mentions on the plethora of sites dedicated to Reservoir Dogs, although of course he has considerably more experience in the film industry, having appeared in several films, written screenplays and acted as advisor on many more. In 1978 a documentary was made about the making of Straight Time and includes interviews with Eddie Bunker who was incarcerated at that time in Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. More can be found on the Straight Time documentary site and while the video of Straight Time is deleted in the UK at present, Blackstar have a video search service that may turn it up. More recently, Edward Bunker has contributed the screenplay for the film of The Animal Factory, directed by Steve Buscemi, Mr Pink from Reservoir Dogs. There are reviews from the Sundance film festival, from dbmedia.org and information at Kodak.com on the making of the film. Obviously more to come.
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Edward Bunker published by No Exit Press The Animal Factory - new edition Dog Eat Dog/Little Boy Blue Two novels in one. Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade Edward Bunker's autobiography (hardback edition) Mr Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade Edward Bunker's autobiography (paperback edition) Forthcoming:
an exclusive 500 copy signed and numbered limited edition
due Spring 2003
of Eddie Bunker's first published book
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