Actor Who Posed as War Vet: I Cut Off My Own Arm

Actor Todd LaTourrette has long claimed to have lost his right arm as a soldier serving overseas. In what seemed a change of luck, the narrative ushered him into roles alongside Ewan McGregor (in 2009's The Men Who Stare at Goats) and, more recently, Bob Odenkirk of Better Call Saul (season 4, episode 5). And it was a lie. "I severed my own hand with a Skil saw" in the midst of "a psychotic episode" while off medication for bipolar disorder 17 years ago, the New Mexico-based actor told KOB 4 in a Monday interview. LaTourrette—who also appeared in Manhattan in 2015, as well as in Longmire the year before that, per People—said he cauterized the wound before reinventing himself as a war veteran.

"I was hired because I lied," but "it's been so difficult to live with since then," he said. "I was dishonorable." And while he noted he was "killing my career" with the admission, LaTourrette said he hoped to help others struggling with mental illness. "The power is in your hands to take that medication" so "this discourse of my life doesn't need to necessarily be yours," the actor said. LaTourrette previously described his mental health struggles in his memoir Consumed. In an interview with KRWG about the book, he discussed constant strains on his work life, including "an attempted career with the United States Army." (A comedian lied about escaping the World Trade Center on 9/11.)