Editing Rod Steiger (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Claire Bloom - Karamazov - B.jpg|thumb|Actress [[Claire Bloom]], in 1958, who was married to Steiger for ten years]]
Steiger was married five times: he married actress Sally Gracie (1952–1958),<ref Name="Obt"/> actress [[Claire Bloom]] (1959–1969),<ref Name="Obt"/> secretary Sherry Nelson (1973–1979),<ref name="Obt">{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/10/guardianobituaries.filmnews1?INTCMP=SRCH | title=Rod Steiger | work=The Guardian | date=July 10, 2002 | access-date=August 26, 2015 | author=Baxter, Brian | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928065945/http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jul/10/guardianobituaries.filmnews1?INTCMP=SRCH | archive-date=September 28, 2015 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3271528/sherry_nelson/ | title=Steiger to wed Sherry Nelson | work=[[Redlands Daily Facts]] | date=April 5, 1973 | access-date=September 22, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928070615/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3271528/sherry_nelson/ | archive-date=September 28, 2015 | url-status=live | via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref> singer Paula Ellis (1986–1997)<ref Name="Obt"/><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3271531/paula_ellis/ | title=Rod Steiger weds for fourth time | work=[[The Salina Journal]] | date=February 11, 1986 | access-date=September 22, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928070628/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3271531/paula_ellis/ | archive-date=September 28, 2015 | url-status=live | via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref> and actress [[Joan Benedict Steiger]] (married 2000 until his death).<ref Name="Obt"/> He had a daughter, opera singer [[Anna Steiger]] (born in 1960) by Bloom, and a son, Michael Steiger (born in 1993), from his marriage to Ellis.<ref Name="Obt"/> In an interview with journalist [[Kenneth Passingham]], Steiger stated that Bloom was "all I ever wanted in a woman", and that "maybe our marriage was better than most because we were both established when we met".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=55}} The couple bought a home in [[Malibu, California]], a community that appealed to Steiger but which Bloom found boring. They also purchased an apartment in Manhattan and a cottage in [[County Galway]], close to [[John Huston]]'s home.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=118}} Financial considerations led Steiger to sell their New York apartment in the mid-1970s.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=138}} It upset him greatly when his marriage with Bloom ended in 1969 and that she quickly remarried Broadway producer [[Hillard Elkins]] the same year, a man whom Steiger had entrusted to care for her while he was away shooting ''Waterloo''.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=61}} Steiger was also close friends with actress [[Elizabeth Taylor]].<ref name="BBCO"/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3271547/rod_and_liz/ | title=Rod and Liz: Just Pals | work=[[The Paris News]] | date=October 17, 1999 | access-date=September 28, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928071632/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3271547/rod_and_liz/ | archive-date=September 28, 2015 | url-status=live | via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref>

Steiger was an outspoken critic of [[McCarthyism]]. He later clashed on the subject with [[Charlton Heston]], and referred to Heston as "America’s favourite fascist."<ref name="ST interview"/> For example, Heston published a column in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' saying that he was shocked that the [[American Film Institute]] had not honored [[Elia Kazan]], who had cooperated with the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] and [[Hollywood blacklist|named several Communists]]. Steiger wrote a response letter, describing himself as "appalled, appalled, appalled," and saying that Kazan's actions had resulted in actors and writers being forced to drive cabs because they were blacklisted and even committing suicide as a result. Heston did not reply.{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=69}}

Steiger suffered from [[depression (mood)|depression]] throughout much of his life. He described himself as "incapacitated for about eight years with clinical depression" before his Oscar win for ''In The Heat of the Night''.<ref name="ST interview"/> His career problems from the 1970s onwards were often exacerbated by health issues. He underwent open-heart surgery in 1976 and again in 1979 and struggled with obesity,{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|p=90}} though certain roles, such as Napoleon, required him to intentionally gain weight.{{sfn|Talbott|2009|p=244}} After the decline of his third marriage in 1979, a deep depression, partly a side effect of his surgery, negatively affected his career during the 1980s.<ref name="RSBBC"/> He became increasingly reclusive during this period, often confining himself to his apartment, watching [[American football]] for several hours. He said of the experience: "You begin to lose self-esteem. You don't walk, you don't shave and if no one was watching you'd go to the bathroom right where you were sitting". He would lie in bed at night thinking, "You'll never act again. Why bother? You're no good".{{sfn|Hutchinson|1998|pp=142–43}} Despite these challenges, Steiger continued to act into the 1990s and early 2000s.<ref name="NYT bio"/> In one of his final interviews, he stated that there was a stigma wrongfully attached to sufferers of depression and that it was caused by a chemical imbalance, not a mental disease. He commented: "Pain must never be a source of shame. It's a part of life, it's part of humanity."<ref name="MAB"/>