the story behind palance's face was repeated numerous times (including in respected film reference works), but upon his death, several obituaries of palance quoted him as saying that the entire story had been contrived: "studio press agents make up anything they want to, and reporters go along with it. one flack created the legend that i had been blown up in an air crash during the war, and my face had to be put back together by way of plastic surgery. if it is a 'bionic face', why didn't they do a better job of it?"