Actors who are/were also writers

And then there's Tom Tryon -- journeyman actor who got a big career break and the bad luck to be cast in the lead title role in the big-budget religious epic THE CARDINAL. Directed by bullying Otto Preminger, the actor had to work with him again two years later in IN HARM'S WAY.  Both pictures were such a miserable working experience that it soured him on acting, and so Tom turned to writing and hit it big with his first novel 'The Other,' a best seller that was quickly optioned for a film to be directed by Robert Mulligan -- with Tryon doing the screenplay.  Other novels and film versions followed.