Well, one of the problems of working on a story with a character that sacred in the religions of the world or in a picture about that person, is that you have to forget about that and play it as real as you can because you can't look at yourself and judge yourself.

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.