What was the next step after dropping out of junior college?
I talked my parents into paying for me to go to the Pasadena Playhouse, and I met Gene Hackman there. He had been in the Marines and he was a few years older, but the two of us bonded immediately. We seemed to be the antithesis of what the student body was like. It was the ’50s and the young guys all seemed so beautiful: blonde hair, blue eyes. They would actually wear fake guns in holsters and practice drawing in the hallway between classes. Because they wanted to land a role on a TV Western? Exactly. That was their goal. I spent two years there, then went to New York, stayed at Gene’s apartment on the floor, and wouldn’t leave because I was scared of New York. It was supposed to be three days, and it turned out to be three weeks. He later told me that the only way to get rid of me was to find me a roommate. And he knew this guy, Bob Duvall… It’s amazing to think of you three hanging out together in ’50s New York… And we were basically three actors who were rejected over and over
