RIP Edward "Mr. Blue" Bunker

[Mick]

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Crime novelist Edward Bunker, who learned to write in prison and appeared in the movie "Reservoir Dogs," has died in hospital in Burbank, California. He was 71.

Bunker, a diabetic, died on July 19 from complications arising from surgery to improve circulation in his legs, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing Bunker's longtime friend, screenwriter Robert Dellinger.

Bunker's hard-boiled and unapologetic crime novels were informed by his personal experiences in a society of criminals in general and by his time in the penal system in particular.

He started on a criminal career at a very early age, and became a repeat prison inmate, serving time for bank robbery, drug dealing, extortion, armed robbery and forgery.

The turning point in his life came with the 1973 publication, while he was still in prison, of "No Beast So Fierce," a novel about a paroled thief whose attempt to reenter mainstream society fails.

When he was paroled in 1975, Bunker, who had spent eighteen years of his life in various institutions, turned his back on the criminal life to earn a living writing and acting.

His other novels dealing with crime and life behind bars included "The Animal Factory," "Little Boy Blue" and "Dog Eat Dog."

As well as Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs," in which he played the character Mr. Blue, Bunker also appeared in such movies as "The Running Man," (1982) and "Tango and Cash" (1989).

[GoGo Yubari]

Whilst Mr. Blue was the most expendable/unremarkable of the Reservoir Dogs (I mean, Mr. Brown was Quentin Tarantino and all), I love the scenes he's in (like all two of them) and I'm sorry to learn of Eddie Bunker's death. RIP Eddie. Has anyone read his novels? I wasn't aware that he was also an author.