Tierney had a more substantial supporting role as the father of protagonist Ryan O'Neal in Norman Mailer's movie adaptation of his own novel Tough Guys Don't Dance (1987).
In 1988, Tierney played a tough holodeck gangster in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in 1990 had a memorable turn by guest starring as Elaine Benes's father Alton Benes in the Seinfeld episode "The Jacket".