When production began on the Season 2 Seinfeld episode “The Jacket,” the show’s cast and crew couldn’t possibly have known what they were getting themselves into by welcoming guest star Lawrence Tierney into their world. In the episode, which originally aired on February 6, 1991, Tierney played Elaine’s father, Alton Benes, a gruff, imposing man whom Jerry and George have the misfortune of being stuck eating dinner with one night. Tierney had a long career in Hollywood dating back to the 1940s and a history of wild behavior that dated just as far back. By the 1950s, the actor had been arrested about a dozen times for fighting, including with police officers.
Tierney’s off-screen antics continued well into the 1990s, practically up until the time he retired. Quentin Tarantino famously fired him following a huge argument on the set of Reservoir Dogs that led to a fistfight between the two. According to Tarantino, the crew hated Tierney so much that they actually burst into applause when he was given the boot. Tierney went home afterward and, for some reason, fired a shotgun at one of his nephews.
As you probably could’ve guessed by now, he didn’t leave the greatest impression on his co-workers over at Seinfeld, either. Tierney gave a memorable performance as Elaine’s dad, and it was likely that his character would’ve returned eventually, but a peculiar behind-the-scenes incident left everyone involved a little too shaken up to consider collaborating with him moving forward. At one point, Tierney was caught attempting to steal one of the knives from the kitchen in Jerry’s apartment. Seinfeld decided to confront him, and that’s when things got even weirder.
“Hey, Lawrence. What do you got there in your jacket?” Seinfeld asked Tierney. The Hollywood veteran then pulled the knife out and motioned toward Seinfeld like he was about to stab him, all while mimicking the music from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. “We’re in the land of the sick now,” Jason Alexander remembered thinking at the time. For her part, Tierney’s on-screen daughter, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, said, “I’ll tell you something about Lawrence Tierney: He was a total nutjob.” Needless to say, he was never asked to do the show again.
The post The ‘Seinfeld’ Guest Star One Cast Member Called a ‘Total Nutjob’ appeared first on VICE.
