Natural-Born Killer: Woody Harrelson's Father Infused Actor's Movie Career

March 22, 2007 — -- Actor Woody Harrelson, who rose from playing the dimwitted bartender on television's "Cheers" to a psychopath in "Natural Born Killers," finally put a family skeleton to rest this week with the death of his father -- convicted murderer Charles Harrelson.

The 45-year-old renegade actor always insisted his father was innocent of charges that he killed a federal court judge in Texas and openly supported him throughout his movie career.

"Woody had kind of a rough-hewn image," Michael Musto, gossip columnist for the Village Voice, told ABC News. "There was something very trailer-park about him and his appeal, so his father didn't destroy his career."

Charles Voyde Harrelson -- a reputed professional gambler and hired assassin -- died of an apparent heart attack in his maximum security cell at the Colorado federal prison known as "Supermax." The same facility where Unabomber Ted Kaczynksi is held.

The 69-year-old Harrrelson was convicted of shooting U.S. District Judge John H. Wood, who was killed on his way to work in May 1979. Harrelson was first sent to a prison in Atlanta, but an escape attempt prompted his transfer to Colorado.

Charles Harrelson had been prosecuted four times in three murders and was serving two life sentences. He claimed he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and some reports assert the actor's father was one of the tramps photographed on the "grassy knoll."

Woody was 7 years old when his father was sent to jail. In some ways the actor's role in "Natural Born Killers" mimicked his father's life -- a victim of a traumatized childhood becomes a serial murderer.

"I'm not saying my father is a saint, but I think he's innocent of that [judge's killing], yeah," Woody Harrelson once told ABC's Barbara Walters.

The colorful actor, who was once married to screenwriter Neil Simon's daughter Nancy, is not the first celebrity to deal with a rogue relative.

Just recently actress Lindsay Lohan's father was released from a New York state prison after serving almost two years for driving while intoxicated and other charges.

"Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher revealed in Vanity Fair last year that her uncle had sexually abused her as a child.

Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron experienced a family homicide while growing up in South Africa. She was 15 when her mother shot her father, who had threatened them in a drunken rage. It was ruled self-defense.

"Spiderman" star Tobey Maguire's father -- beset with financial troubles -- staged a botched bank robbery in 1993. He served two years in jail after a neighbor saw him carrying a bag of cash into his California garage.

Harrelson has always been open about his father's checkered past and supported him. In 1987 he served as his incarcerated father's proxy in a marriage ceremony.

The actor has also been vocal about his own values: He has admitted to being a sex addict and was himself arrested in a 1996 challenge of marijuana laws. He is reportedly a strict vegan, eating only raw and dried foods, and an environmental activist.

"When a celebrity has a black sheep in the family they have a choice," said columnist Musto. "They can totally pretend they don't exist or embrace it. Woody embraced his father and I think that...most families try to keep a distance from loose-keg relatives."

Publicists and public relations experts make a living managing the secrets of their celebrity clients. "I've seen a 1,000 scandals in 53 years," Howard J. Rubenstein, founder of the renowned agency that advises high-profile clients, told ABC News.

The best policy for handling a publicity crisis is telling the truth, said Rubenstein. "The rule of thumb is to stick to the truth, get it out quickly and then shut it down," he said. "We are never in favor of just trying to cover up. It's going to come out if you lie about it."

Nowadays, the public is more accepting of all familial transgressions and has a notorious short memory, said Rubenstein.

"When someone has problems and the public reads about it, they love it and they lap it up," Rubenstein said. "But later, if you ask them about it, they don't have the slightest recollection."- Sometimes a family crisis can inspire success. Actor Tobey Maguire said in an interview reported in the Daily News that criticism over his father's arrest gave him "a fervor, an angry ambition that cannot be stopped."

Psychologists say positive things can happen when a child recognizes that "life can turn negative quickly," said Charles Figley, a psychologist from Florida State University, who specializes in celebrity cases and grief counseling

"The turning point is whether a person embraces it," said Figley. "Woody did, so he has already worked this out psychologically."

In fact, said Figley, Harrelson took advantage of his father's tragedy in developing his public persona as an actor.

"In 'Natural Born Killers,' Woody was against the grain and challenging the system," said Figley. "He turned it into an asset. But he still probably still feels a certain degree of unmitigated sadness and regret."

Carrying the sins of the father can take its toll, and nearly every person -- celebrity or not -- has a family secret, said syndicated columnist Dr. Joyce Brothers.

"The stress is enormous," said Brothers. "There are times when you have to get something off your chest and other times when you have to keep things to yourself."

Mental health experts agree that today's society places a great value on revealing secrets, with reality television where contestants compete for shock-value revelations.

"It's difficult in our culture to deal with secrets, because we have a culture that to some extent is built on revealing secrets," said Brothers. "It takes a lot of energy to keep a secret and even more to push it down before it comes back up to the surface."

Whether in the open or bottled up, family skeletons really never go away, said Dr. Jenn Berman, a Beverly Hills psychotherapist who counsels celebrities.

"Woody's father led a lifestyle that impacted his morals, values and emotional abilities," she said. "There is no way he wasn't affected by that. In childhood a parent has to make you feel safe, and love is the basis for all sense of self."

Grief is also complicated when family shame is so public. Often it is more difficult for family members to deal with illness or an accident than a parent's lifestyle choices -- like murder and prison.

"Children always love the parent, even if he is an abusive or bad parent," said Berman. "As an adult, Woody has learned to make peace with that in some way."