Don Defore

Jack Warner was the meanest executive of any studio, ever. If an actor had a contract with him and argued about it, Warner would do lousy things. He did some lousy things to Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and many others. That's why we needed a union, because of producers like that. Working conditions were rough before SAG. We had to report to an assistant director named Jack Sullivan, who was a mean bastard. Warner Bros. hired him as a "herder" for some of the big Western pictures where they used lots of extras. He carried a cane and beat it on the floor and actually herded them. We needed a strong union with strong representatives to sit at the table to look out for actors and protect them from such abuse and that's what SAG has done.