tough guys finish

Edward Bunker died earlier this week, and it was kind of sad hearing his voice on NPR the following day after reading his bio. Bunker started off his illustrious career as a criminal in his teens. He later learned to write and started turning out crime novels. If you're younger, or watch movies more than you read books, you would probably know him better as Mr. Blue in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.

Bunker's voice was something else. It reminded me of the first time I'd heard Charles Bukowski on tape, and the expectation with tough guys like that is that you're going to get some growling, macho baritone or bass. But these guys had higher registers, mild-mannered voices that I might associate more with accountants or shoe salesmen, not badass drunken poets or guard-shivving reprobates.

I learned that Bukowski's Factotum has been made into a film starring Matt Dillon, who would not have been my first guess were anyone to ask me. I'm instantly in love with anything of Bukowski's that is made into film, as I've always felt a few of his stories were made for pulpy, down-and-out celluloid transfers. Bunker's work was translated into several films, most notably Straight Time starring Dustin Hoffman (and considering the actor's voice, maybe not so far off the mark) and The Animal Factory with Edward Furlong characterizing Bunker as a first-time inmate.

Going back through old scraps I have not yet written on, I found the notice for Evan Hunter's death. Hunter (born Salvatore Lombino) was the writer who created the pseudonym Ed McBain. He died early in July of cancer. I never heard his voice, but somehow I bet it was not what I would have expected.



somewhere, norman mailer is weeping