Now that was one thing, but from an actor's point of view, this poor young man, crying from the moment I opened the door to the moment he left. Now if an actor did that they would say he's over-acting.

Marshal Bill Tilghman in Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981) and mob boss Sam Giancana in the TV miniseries Sinatra (1992). He never knew his father a vaudevillian who had been part of a traveling song-and-dance team with Steiger's mother (who subsequently left show business). Signing a studio contract at that time would "pigeon-hole" Steiger as to the roles he would later play and image portrayed on screen; those were two things Steiger objected to throughout his career.