Torn grew up in Texas and, after a comfortable childhood in a close-knit family, studied acting at the University of Texas, where he was trained by the renowned Shakespeare professor B. Iden Payne. By the mid-50's, Torn had made his way to New York with his wife, the actress Anne Wedgewood, whom he divorced a few years later. Handsome with a reckless, self-assured grin, Torn performed frequently in live-television serials and quickly fell in with the Actors Studio, home of the director and legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg and a launching pad for other magnetic male leads like Marlon Brando and James Dean.

For his first major theater gig, Torn was an understudy for the role of Brick in Kazan's production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Around the same time, he started seeing Geraldine Page, who was also a member of the company. Like Woodward and Newman or Bancroft and Brooks, the two became a glamorous couple in theater circles, assuming roles on the board of the Actors Studio and organizing bashes at the Chateau Marmont when they were in Los Angeles. Lena Horne and Judy Garland would show up at their parties, and once Torn, with the help of his friend Miles Davis, cooked up a feast for 50 using fowl that Torn, a lifelong hunter, had bagged in the Imperial Valley. In New York, Torn worked out at Sig Klein's gym alongside Laurence Olivier and afterward hung out across the street at Jack Dempsey's with comics like Milton Berle and Jack E. Leonard. When Torn's cousin Sissy Spacek decided to pursue acting in New York, she moved in with Torn and Page, who introduced her to Strasberg, helping start her own successful career.

Along the way, Torn acquired a reputation as a volatile personality — both onstage and off. He was the kind of performer who won rave reviews for the convincing way he tore doors off hinges. The actress Sally Kirkland remembers one time when Torn, playing Richard III to her Lady Anne, spontaneously lifted her by her shoulder and dress to deliver an angry speech as he held her suspended in the air. By that time, James Dean had died, Brando had distanced himself from the Actors Studio and Torn, says Kirkland, "had totally inherited the throne of that combination — he was young and gorgeous, and he was that guy."

Offstage, Torn worked to racially integrate the theater world. He vehemently defended every line, no matter how shocking at the time, of James Baldwin's unsparingly violent play "Blues for Mr. Charlie" and helped coax Baldwin, who was procrastinating, into finishing it. According to "A Player's Place," David Garfield's authoritative history of the Actors Studio, Torn was ultimately dismissed from his role in a London production of the Baldwin play for his "corrosive attitude" after he insulted both Baldwin and the play's director for making changes to the script (including softening the language to appease British censors). When I read the passage of Garfield's book to Torn, he seemed unsurprised that the book referred to him as "volatile." "What do they say about all the guys that are tremendous actors?" he said, as he cut his chicken cutlet. "Don't they say they have a volatile temper and emotions? Yeah, sure they do! They're not saying they like a nice mild guy. Look at Sean Penn."

Torn's most famous career turn occurred in 1967, when he had dinner with the writer Terry Southern and his wife and the actors Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper to discuss the possibility of his appearing in a film they were pulling together called "Easy Rider." Of course, the role eventually went to Jack Nicholson, and years later Hopper maintained that Torn lost the role after he pulled a knife on Hopper at the dinner. Torn recalls the event differently: it was Hopper who pulled the knife on him, and Torn merely disarmed him. At that point, Torn told me, "Dennis jumped back and knocked Peter on the floor, and I said, 'There goes the job."'

Torn says that Hopper's version of the tale hurt his career, spreading an unjustified image of him as unstable and violent. In 1994, just as Torn was starting to enjoy his newfound success on "Larry Sanders," Hopper repeated his version of the events on the "Tonight" show. Fed up, Torn sued Hopper for defamation. Southern and his wife testified to Torn's version of events, the judge sided with Torn and Hopper ended up paying Torn close to $1 million in damages, including compensation for lost career revenue. (Through his agent, Hopper declined to comment.)