German-American writer who traveled throughout the U.S. A lifetime of poems, novels and screenplays reflected his boozy, gritty, carnal view of the universe, including his screenplay for the critically praised 1987 film “Barfly,” which starred Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway as a pair of dissolute drunks. Bukowski became a celebrity with influential friends in 1987 with the release of the film, which was based on his life by the time he was 25. As a lush, he spent much of his life drinking cheap booze, cavorting with cheap broads and brawling in cheap bars around the country. He supported his lifestyle by working odd jobs such as driving a truck, janitorial work and working for the post office. He found the time along the way to write short stories for underground magazines. At 35, he began to write poetry. In his 50-year career he wrote over 1,000 published poems, 32 books of poetry, five books of short stories, six novels and the screenplay for “Barfly.”
Bukowski was a four-year-old kid in Andernach, West Germany when the family moved to Los Angeles. His Prussian milkman father delivered regular beatings to the boy. He took his first swigs of alcohol at 13 to ease the emotional and psychological pain. He attended Los Angeles City College for two years, 1939-1941, taking journalism courses but dropped out of school at the beginning of WW II. He spent the next ten years drifting around the country as portrayed in the autobiographical film, “Barfly.”
At 36, Bukowski wrote pornography and short stories for underground magazines with large readership in national prisons. In the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, he poured out a literary output to the disenfranchised around the world. He had a small devoted audience in the U.S. but had a bigger audience overseas; he was flooded with letters of appreciation from the insane and the incarcerated. He later wrote a weekly column called “Notes of a Dirty Old Man” for “Open City” magazine. As his works began to receive attention from the film community, Madonna, Sean Penn and Norman Mailer began to visit Bukowski at his home in San Pedro or out at the racetrack.
Bukowski married wealthy Texan Barbara Frye, the owner of a small poetry magazine, in 1956; they divorced the following year. His only child, Marina Louise, was born in 1964, the daughter of a former girlfriend. In 1976, he met Linda Lee Beighle a health store owner, and they married in 1985. She made him give up his love of red meat and hard liquor. They lived in a one-bedroom house with a garden in San Pedro, CA. Bukowski visited the racetrack daily then returned by 10:00 PM in order to start his projects. He listened to classical music and drank wine or beer while he hammered away at his typewriter.
At 36, Bukowski was hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer in LA. On his release, he promptly left for the nearest bar. He died of leukemia on 3/09/1994 and buried at Green Hills Cemetery, San Pedro, CA.
Link to Wikipedia biography