Farewell to a Great Artist

With Edward Bunker out of this world, Hollywood will need to find that same amount of creative talent to fill his shoes. Surely, he will be missed amongst those audiences hungry for a good novel and actor.
He was best known for his hard-boiled crime novels that he wrote based on his own experiences within the criminal underworld of Los Angeles. He did also serve time behind bars which must also have fueled his creative juices.
Bunker also appeared in major Hollywood motion pictures including Tarantino”s popular independent film Reservoir Dogs in which he played the role of Mister Blue. Although Tarantino did not utilize him again in Pulp Fiction or any of his later films, they remained close friends. Tarantino could not be reached for comment about Bunker”s passing but he is believed to attend his funeral.
Bunker was convicted of a bank robbery which is the central theme of Reservoir Dogs. He was also convicted for other childhood crimes including setting fire to a neighbor”s garage, sticking a fork into a boy”s eye, and orchestrating numerous robberies. At one point, he was on FBI”s “Top ten most wanted” list.
Using all these incidents and experiences, Edward Bunker breathed new life into the murder mystery-crime novels beginning with his most popular work in no Beast So Fierce that was later adapted to Michael Mann”s Straight Time.
A lot of new films are coming out this year that will remind audiences of those great Bunker one-liners and unapologetic characters with an insatiable hunger for life. After starring in Longest Yard, rumor has it that Bunker was considered for one of the supporting leads in the Quentin Tarantinoesque independent project Machiavelli Hangman.
Machiavelli Hangman also has a plot driven by a bank robbery and the story interweaves between four characters. The film is very reminiscent of Michael Mann”s Straight Time and Animal Factor and we are all very disappointed that such a genius is gone. We have gotten a lot of inspiration from his passion for the crime genre, said Julia Strumfeld, one of the producers on Machiavelli Hangman.
I was amazed at the film and without lifting anything from his stories, Machiavelli Hangman (http://www.hangmanmovie.com) manages to breathe, walk and talk like an Edward Bunker novel. I”m happy that we will have these great films made in the spirit of independent filmmaking that will keep reminding us of how great of an artist Edward was.”