Actor Ed Begley Jr. Struggled With Family Lies and Alcohol Until He Found Himself
By Marc Myers, Oct. 3, 2023, WSJ
Ed Begley Jr., 74, is a movie and TV actor who has appeared in more than 100 films. He is the author of the memoir “To the Temple of Tranquility—and Step on It” (Hachette). He spoke with Marc Myers.

I was quite the liar as a kid. Mostly I lied when accused of something that I feared would result in horrible punishment.

As a young liar, I loved adding details, thinking it made my story more believable. Later I realized making up stories had an upside: It was good training for acting.

My father, Ed Begley, was an Oscar-winning actor. For my first two years, we lived in Van Nuys, in Los Angeles. Then my dad moved the family to Merrick, a New York suburb. We stayed there whenever he appeared on Broadway. I lived in Merrick from kindergarten through seventh grade but spent summers in Van Nuys. I loved California.

The woman I knew as my mother, Amanda, was a different story. Just before I turned 16, I was with my father en route to take my driver’s license test. On my birth certificate, the box for my mother’s name was blank. Amanda had died of cancer in 1957, when I was 7.

I asked about the empty space. Dad was silent but eventually told me that my real mother was Sandy, someone I long thought was a family friend.

Later he told me Sandy had been an NBC page with whom he had an affair. The result was my sister, Allene, then me, 11 months later. Nothing in our family was what it seemed. Our older brother Tom turned out to be our cousin.

In earlier years, Allene and I would meet Sandy with my father regularly at Grand Central Station. We didn’t know who she was then, but we were crazy about her. When I first found out about her, I felt cheated and lied to. It took me a while to realize how grateful I should have been.

I wasn’t big on gratitude then, a major character defect and part of my budding alcoholic brain that would start abusing substances later. Nearly everyone in my family suffered from alcoholism.

I met Sandy as my mother for the first time at 16. She never married. Her only family was her mother, and she didn’t hide us from her. We’d see Sandy about once or twice a year, and she saw my success before passing in 1998.

At home, after Amanda died, Allene and I had a streak of questionable caregivers. One was our aunt, who once fell into a ditch drunk. We had to pull her out.

Finally, my father called a nanny service, and Jeanette appeared. She was with us from the time I was 7 to 12. She was French and played the organ, painted, grew vegetables and was tough. Then my father married a much younger woman. They were married for less than a year.

I wasn’t a very good student. I was a daydreamer who didn’t understand why I had to learn stuff that didn’t apply to me or help me in any way.

My first acting job was in TV’s “My Three Sons.” I was 17 and was instantly hooked. But little work followed, and I was upset that my mother’s identity had been hidden from me for so long. Both led me to start drinking and stealing pills from the medicine cabinet.

After Los Angeles Valley College, I was a camera assistant. Then friends helped me break into acting. I learned on the job.

My father died when I was 20, in 1970. I took it very badly. To lose him was frightening and hard.

In 1979, I finally got sober, stayed sober and began to grow up. Most of my roles were as character actors. “The In-Laws” in 1979 was a big break. The film was hugely popular, and I became fairly employable at that point.

Today, I live with my wife, actress Rachelle Carson, and our daughter, Hayden, in L.A. We moved into our French Mediterranean home in 2016 after we had it built and outfitted with environmentally friendly technology.

It’s a LEED platinum-rate home. I have plenty of room for my vegetable garden out back, for a 10,000-gallon rainwater tank and for nine kilowatts of photovoltaic energy.

One of my prized possessions is my father’s Oscar for “Sweet Bird of Youth” (1962). I long believed my father had shortchanged me. Later, I realized he was a great dad. Gratitude had finally kicked in.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/actor-ed-begley-jr-struggled-with-family-lies-and-alcohol-until-he-found-himself-9c3a5137

Just last eve I happened to watch for the first time "Billion Dollar Brain" with the late Ed Begley Sr. That was the third (and by far weakest) in the Bond takeoff trilogy of Brit spy Harry Palmer, portrayed by Michael Caine.. Caine--for my money, pretty much always top-notch whether drama or comedy, or anything in between--made the best of a seriously lame seriocomic film.

Begley Sr. wildly overplayed his wild-eyed, neo-Nazi Texas oil magnate role, to the point of ruining the whole narrative. It has occurred to me that the senior Begley, a serious actor who was among the standouts in "12 Angry Men", was perhaps just following Ken Russell's typically over-the-top direction. It has also occurred to me that some viewers might have seen some parallels between Begley's bigwig schemer and our 45th President.

As for the not-in-the-least-late Ed Begley Jr., the by-all-accounts gentlemanly fellow happens to be one of the few celebrities I ran into more than a single time in L.A., first at The Improv one summer Sunday night in 1981, and then again a few years later up in Universal City at an event I was covering on radio for Metro News. Regret not at least saying hello to Begley Jr., rather than merely exchanging acknowledgment glances each time. And glad to learn he's confronted his personal demons, so thanks for the posting, Dave.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

On Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 10:49:03 PM UTC-4, radioacti...@gmail.com wrote:
> Just last eve I happened to watch for the first time "Billion Dollar Brain" with the late Ed Begley Sr. That was the third (and by far weakest) in the Bond takeoff trilogy of Brit spy Harry Palmer,............ Blah. Blah, blah. You sure do use the words "I" and "me" a lot, Mr. B S . Not that you're a shameless narcissist or egomaniac or anything like that.

radioactiveseattle@gmail.com wrote:

>Just last eve I happened to watch for the first time "Billion Dollar
>Brain" with the late Ed Begley Sr. That was the third (and by far
>weakest) in the Bond takeoff trilogy of Brit spy Harry Palmer, portrayed
>by Michael Caine. Caine--for my money, pretty much always top-notch
>whether drama or comedy, or anything in between--made the best of a
>seriously lame seriocomic film.

>Begley Sr. wildly overplayed his wild-eyed, neo-Nazi Texas oil magnate
>role, to the point of ruining the whole narrative. It has occurred to
>me that the senior Begley, a serious actor who was among the standouts
>in "12 Angry Men", was perhaps just following Ken Russell's typically
>over-the-top direction. It has also occurred to me that some viewers
>might have seen some parallels between Begley's bigwig schemer and our
>45th President.

The Harry Palmer movies are not a James Bond takeoff. Len Deighton was a
very different writer than Ian Fleming. You simply don't get the English
snobbery in the character, which was supposed to represent the author's
opinions. Bond was retconned Scottish in the late novels for Sean
Connery, given the commercial success of Dr. No movie adaptation.

Yes, Harry Saltzman was the producer and brought over John Barry for
music and Ken Adam for set design from the Bond movies.

There are more adaptations than you know of Deighton's Spy With No Name.
Harry Palmer was used in the movies only.

Four of the novels in the series weren't adapted. However, Spy Story
was, staring Michael Petrovitch as Patrick Armstrong (an alias used in
the novel). Then Showtime brought back Michael Caine for two original
scripts in the mid '90s, Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in Saint
Petersburg. One is bad, the other is worse.

The best novel in the series is Funeral in Berlin. The movie adaptation
is adequate. Billion Dollar Brain is an inexcuseably rotten movie and
murdered the movie series. The novel is weak but better than the movie.
Yes, Ed Begley chews too much scenery.

>As for the not-in-the-least-late Ed Begley Jr., the by-all-accounts
>gentlemanly fellow happens to be one of the few celebrities I ran into
>more than a single time in L.A., first at The Improv one summer Sunday
>night in 1981, and then again a few years later up in Universal City at
>an event I was covering on radio for Metro News. Regret not at least
>saying hello to Begley Jr., rather than merely exchanging acknowledgment
>glances each time. And glad to learn he's confronted his personal
>demons, so thanks for the posting, Dave.

>BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

Appreciate the background on Deighton, whose work I've read none of (and who shows up frequently in crossword puzzle clues, as you may have noticed).

And you hugely enlightened me with the "retro-conning" of the written iteration of Bond after 1962 to match Connery's Scottish heritage; I've read all of Fleming's Bond novels, and never noticed that the Scottish thing was only in the post-'62 novels. (I DID, however, notice that Fleming's SOLE physical description of his celebrated protagonist--in Fleming's first, still gaining-his-writing-sea-legs effort, "Casino Royale"--is a LOT closer to Roger Moore's looks than to that of that cinematic-Bond-for-the-ages Connery. But as you know, Adam, looks are only surface-deep, and there's NOTHING deep about Moore's sad excuse for acting.)

Anyway, in his "Billion Dollar Brain" intro on TCM, Ben Mankiewicz did explain that Leighton never gave his anti-hero a name (or perhaps even a secret-agent number, single-0, triple-O or otherwise?), something not required as he wrote each novel in the first person. He also said that prior to the first movie, the Broccoli-less Saltzman told Caine they obviously needed a character name for him in the film series, so come up with something British but not in the least flashy. (I suppose Caine's selection of Harry Palmer filled that bill as well any choice.)

You're PRECISELY on the mark about my being utterly clueless re British humor, Adam! Indeed, I've NEVER enjoyed any of the U.K. sitcoms PBS has loved to recycle for decades now, and doubt it's merely because I got tired of sex jokes (funny or strained) not long after graduating college. (Not that all or even most Monty Python, AbFab, Benny Hill, et al. gags are sexual; I don't usually get the CLEAN ones, either.)

(By the way, I've only watched a single episode of "'Til Death Do Us Part"--which as you surely are well aware became "All in the Family" when transmogrified by [101-year-old!] Norman Lear for American television audiences--and I didn't find TDDUP even MILDLY funny...and certainly not as consistently witty as those Bunker/Stivic arguments were, at least during the premier half-season starting in January 1971 and through the second and third seasons; later seasons and "Archie Bunker's Place" were uniformly lousy--both comedically and culturally, alas.)

Anyway, a few of the more subtle sight gags in "Billion Dollar Brain" were amusing, but I wonder why Russell and Saltzman upped their frequency in BDB over the first two Palmer films. Too few filmmakers realize, Adam, how difficult it is to deftly mix comedy into serious narratives without tainting the entire enterprise. That's what ruined the Bond movie thing FOREVER for me, starting with "Diamonds Are Forever" but climbing to absurdly stupid levels as soon as Moore was (mis!)cast. And of course its preposterous plotting made that almost moot with BDB. (Also, I didn't realize there were four un-filmed Palmer books, so thanks for that, too.)

As for Palmer trilogy not being a Bond knockoff, okay--you clearly know what you're talking about. But would you not concur that if not for the Connery craze through "Thunderball", Saltzman would never have tapped Caine--or anyone else--to portray Leighton's nameless Brit spy?

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

radioacti...@gmail.com <radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:

>Appreciate the background on Deighton, whose work I've read none of (and
>who shows up frequently in crossword puzzle clues, as you may have
>noticed).

>And you hugely enlightened me with the "retro-conning" of the written
>iteration of Bond after 1962 to match Connery's Scottish heritage; I've
>read all of Fleming's Bond novels, and never noticed that the Scottish
>thing was only in the post-'62 novels. (I DID, however, notice that
>Fleming's SOLE physical description of his celebrated protagonist--in
>Fleming's first, still gaining-his-writing-sea-legs effort, "Casino
>Royale"--is a LOT closer to Roger Moore's looks than to that of that
>cinematic-Bond-for-the-ages Connery. But as you know, Adam, looks are
>only surface-deep, and there's NOTHING deep about Moore's sad excuse for
>acting.)

Ian Fleming wanted to cast David Niven; that's who he was describing.
Fleming wrote the novels to get rich as movie adaptations, but no one
adapted the novels for a decade. Niven was too old, although he would
appear in the Casino Royale spoof.

>Anyway, in his "Billion Dollar Brain" intro on TCM, Ben Mankiewicz did
>explain that Leighton never gave his anti-hero a name (or perhaps even a
>secret-agent number, single-0, triple-O or otherwise?),

Certainly not

>something not required as he wrote each novel in the first person.
>He also said that prior to the first movie, the Broccoli-less Saltzman
>told Caine they obviously needed a character name for him in the film
>series, so come up with something British but not in the least flashy.
>(I suppose Caine's selection of Harry Palmer filled that bill as well
>any choice.)

They wanted a bland name (which is why "James Bond" was chosen for that
matter), coming up with "Palmer" first. Saltzman asked for suggestions
on a bland first name. Michael Caine came up with "Harry", totally
spacing out that he had just insulted his producer.

>. . .

>As for Palmer trilogy not being a Bond knockoff, okay--you clearly know
>what you're talking about. But would you not concur that if not for the
>Connery craze through "Thunderball", Saltzman would never have tapped
>Caine--or anyone else--to portray Leighton's nameless Brit spy?

Billion Dollar Brain got its mis-spent set pieces because it was trying
to compete with the Bond movies, but it was a complete waste of money.
The movie is just incompetent film making. I don't know what Saltzman
was thinking.

For novels, Fleming popularized spy fiction, which was a tiny literary
genre, and that allowed Deighton to write novels that could be
published, but Deighton was not trying to immitate Fleming.

Saltzman was always broke. He and Broccoli never got along all that well
and Saltzman clearly wanted a film series that was independent of
Broccoli that was much more realistic, similar to movies that Saltzman
had produced before Dr. No.

Billion Dollar Brain not only didn't make Saltzman rich, it exaccerbated
his financial problems. Eventually he'd sell his half of Bond (Man With
the Golden Gun was Saltzman's last Bond movie) to the studio and not to
Broccoli and it didn't hurt that it certainly pissed off Broccoli. But
after UA bit the dust because of Heaven's Gate and other disasters and
MGM bought them, Bond's fate was thereafter tied to MGM's precarious
finances. MGM went bankrupt several times which is what counts for very
long gaps between Bond movies, at least prior to COVID delayed the
release of No Time to Die.

On Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 3:04:22 PM UTC-5, radioacti...@gmail.com wrote:

> You're PRECISELY on the mark about my being utterly clueless re British humor

Hi, Bryan.

Same here. My wonderful and beloved wife passed away two months ago tomorrow. She was a Brit, and she was able to translate that humor for me. Most of the time, I STILL didn't find it very funny, but there were gems in there if you knew British history, politics, and lifestyle. Although we often traveled to England, I never got all that close enough to genuine social life there to really be in on the jokes.

Obviously, I've been feeling as horrible as I can ever imagine feeling, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. Relating to this conversation, I've lost my translator. I still love the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band but, beyond that, I guess I'll be lost in the British comedy woods for the rest of my life.

This post gave me the impression Begley, Jr died.

I thought that first too, Tommie; that's why I made it a point to type "Meanwhile, the not-in-the-least-late Ed Begley, Jr.". I don't think Dave P. meant to alarm us all, but yeah, something about "NOT DEAD" should have been in Dave's original headline.
---------------------------
Meanwhile, MJ:

Sorry to learn that you lost your wife, and just this summer! As most of us learn, it's hard to find true love, often even more difficult to make it lasting, and forever heart-wrenching when one loses it to death. (And yeah, I miss Marci Fulton [November 13, 1946-August 6, 2015] probably as much as you do your late mate.)

Oh, one other point, MJ: for a long time I presumed you DID appreciate Brit wit, simply because I assumed your surname Emigh was Indian, so you probably grew up in Bombay or Calcutta (and perhaps even post from somewhere on the so-called sub-continent) and thus were intimately familiar with the British ways and sensibilities--including humor--which still linger from the days of The Raj.

(But then awhile back you revealed that you're American, posting from somewhere stateside, and even a former stand-up comic too, right? Kindly refresh my pushing-70 memory!)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

On Thursday, October 19, 2023 at 7:05:12 AM UTC-5, radioacti...@gmail.com wrote:
I assumed your surname Emigh was Indian, so you probably grew up in Bombay or Calcutta.
> (But then awhile back you revealed that you're American, posting from somewhere stateside, and even a former stand-up comic too, right? Kindly refresh my pushing-70 memory!)

It's a screwed-up version of a Dutch name taken from a ship's manifest. And you're close....I'm a retired mentalist. And also in my 70th year.

MJ