Lawrence Tierney Book Launch: ‘Born to Kill’ and ‘Shakedown’ double feature & book signing hosted by acclaimed screenwriter Larry Karaszewski Friday Dec 16

It’s a double-feature, book launch, book signing and special Q&A at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica!

Burt Kearns’ acclaimed new biography of the notorious and pugnacious actor Lawrence Tierney made its  official debut on December 6, 2022.  Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy was published by the University Press of Kentucky, as part of its Screen Classic series.

Jeff Mantor of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard, with author Burt Kearns and some Tierney
swag, arranged the event and is selling signed first edition copies of Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood’s Real-Life Tough Guy.

And two screen classics will launch the action-packed bio: a special one-night-only screening of Tierney’s 1947 classic film noir Born to Kill and the 1950 newspaper crime film Shakedown at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, California. Sponsored by the Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood and the American Cinematheque, the evening will feature book signings by author Kearns and a Q&A discussion with acclaimed screenwriter and producer Larry Karaszewski -- who was Tierney’s next-door neighbor early in his own career.

 

“The last time Larry Tierney came to see ‘Born to Kill’ at the American Cinematheque he sat in the back rown & pissed in a popcorn bucket,” Karaszewski tweeted on December 7 (read Czar of Noir Eddie Muller’s account here). “But they are saluting him anyway 12/16 - I’ll Q&A the author of the new book on his life to get even more crazy stories.”

Larry Karaszewski (r) and his screenwriting and producing partner 
Scott Alexander both recount tales of Tierney in the new book.

What a line-up!

What a night!

What a book!

Order tickets here.

Order a signed copy of the book here.

And thanks to Jeff Mantor at Larry Edmunds Bookshop.