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== Personal life ==
== Personal life ==
[[File:Gary Busey 2007.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Busey in September 2007]] he is constantly being made fun of by a group of you tubers name the creatures
[[File:Gary Busey 2007.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Busey in September 2007]]


===Family===
===Family===

Revision as of 02:41, 27 February 2014

Gary Busey
Busey at 2008 Oscar party
Born
William Gary Busey

(1944-06-29) June 29, 1944 (age 80)
Goose Creek, Texas, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1968–present
Spouse(s)Tiani Warden (1996–2001)
Judy Helkenberg (1968–90)

William Gary Busey[1] (born June 29, 1944), better known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor. He has appeared in a variety of films, including Lethal Weapon (1987), Point Break (1991), and Under Siege (1992), as well as guest appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1978 for his role in The Buddy Holly Story.

Early life

Busey was born in Goose Creek (now Baytown), Texas, the son of Sadie Virginia (née Arnett), a homemaker, and Delmer Lloyd Busey, a construction design manager.[2] He graduated from Nathan Hale High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1962. While attending Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas on a football scholarship, he became interested in acting.[3] He then transferred to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, where he quit school just one class short of graduation. He is of Irish and Native American descent.

Career

Early career

Busey began his show-business career as a drummer in The Rubber Band.[citation needed] He appears on several Leon Russell recordings, credited as playing drums under the names "Teddy Jack Eddy"[4] and "Sprunk",[citation needed] a character he created when he was a cast member of a local television comedy show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, called The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting[4] on station KTUL (which starred fellow Tulsan Gailard Sartain as "Dr. Mazeppa Pompazoidi"). For his skits on Uncanny Film Festival, Busey drew on his American Hero, belligerent, know-it-all character. When he told Gailard Sartain his character needed a name, Sartain replied, "Take three: Teddy, Jack and Eddy."[4]

He played in a band called Carp, which released one album on Epic Records in 1969.[5] Busey continued to play several small roles in both film and television during the 1970s. In 1975, as the character "Harvey Daley," he was the last person killed on the series Gunsmoke (in the third-to-last episode, No. 633 – "The Busters").

Rise to prominence

In 1974, Busey made his major film debut with a supporting role in Michael Cimino's buddy action caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.

In 1976, he was hired by Barbra Streisand and her producer-boyfriend Jon Peters to play Bobby Ritchie, road manager to Kris Kristofferson's character in the remake film A Star is Born. On the DVD commentary of the film, Streisand says Busey was great and that she had seen him on a TV series and thought he had the right qualities to play the role.

In 1978, he starred as rock legend Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story with Sartain as The Big Bopper. For his performance, Busey received the greatest critical acclaim of his career and the movie earned Busey an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and the National Society of Film Critics' Best Actor award. In the film, he changes the lyrics to the song "Well All Right" and sings, "We're gonna love Teddy Jack..." a reference to his Teddy Jack Eddy persona.[citation needed] In the same year he also starred in the small yet acclaimed drama Straight Time and the surfing movie Big Wednesday, which is now a minor cult classic.

In the 1980s, Busey's roles included the critically acclaimed western Barbarosa (1982), the comedies D.C. Cab (1983)[6] and Insignificance (1985), and the Stephen King adaption Silver Bullet (1985). Perhaps most notably, he played one of the primary antagonists in the smash hit action comedy Lethal Weapon (1987).

In the 1990s, he had prominent supporting roles in successful action films such as Predator 2 (1990), Point Break (1991) and Under Siege (1992), which remain some of his best known roles today. He also appeared in a number of other notable films such as Rookie of the Year (1993), The Firm (1993), Black Sheep (1996), Lost Highway (1997), and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), further establishing himself as a prolific actor in major films. Many of these characters are defined by their dynamic yet odd and offbeat personalities.

Busey sang the song "Stay All Night" on Saturday Night Live in March 1979, Episode 14, Season 4, and on the Late Show with David Letterman in the 1990s.[7]

Late career

Busey has since appeared in very few mainstream films. However, in 2002, Busey voiced the character Phil Cassidy in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, then again in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories in 2006.[citation needed] In 2005, he also voiced himself on an episode of The Simpsons[8] and appeared in the popular miniseries Into the West. Busey controversially appeared in the 2006 Turkish nationalist film Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, (Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak, in Turkish), which was accused of fascism, anti-Americanism[9] and anti-Semitism.[10]

Busey in Kazakhstan, 2007.

In 2007, he appeared as himself in a prominent recurring role on HBO's Entourage, in which he parodied his eccentric cultural image. He ultimately appeared on three episodes of the show.

In 2008, he joined the second season of the reality show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.[11] Busey returned to reality television in Celebrity Apprentice 4, which premiered in March 2011,[12] and appeared again in Celebrity Apprentice 6. There, he briefly reprised his role as Buddy Holly by performing "Fade Away".

In a series of 2010 YouTube advertisements for Vitamin Water, Busey appeared as Norman Tugwater, a lawyer who defends professional athletes' entitlements to a cut from Fantasy Football team owners.[13]

Personal life

Busey in September 2007

Family

In 1971, Busey's wife Judy Helkenberg gave birth to their son, William Jacob "Jake" Busey. Busey and Helkenberg divorced when Jake was nineteen.

Busey has a daughter named Alectra from a previous relationship.[14]

On December 9, 2009, it was announced that Gary Busey and girlfriend Steffanie Sampson were expecting their first child in May 2010. On February 23, 2010, their son Luke Sampson Busey was born.[15]

In 1996, Busey publicly announced that he was a Christian, saying, "I am proud to tell Hollywood I am a Christian. For the first time I am now free to be myself."[16][17]

Motorcycle accident and brain damage

On December 4, 1988, Busey was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in which he was not wearing a helmet. His skull was fractured, and doctors feared he suffered permanent brain damage.[18]

During the filming of the second season of Celebrity Rehab in 2008, Busey was referred to psychiatrist Dr. Charles Sophy. Sophy suspected that Busey's brain injury has had a greater effect on him than realized. He described it as essentially weakening his mental "filters" and causing him to speak and act impulsively. Sophy recommended Busey take a medication called Depakote (valproic acid), to which Busey agreed.[19]

Filmography

Television

Video games

Everything

  • 2013: Everyone (TreeTopia Ep 45 "Gary Busey" (Minecraft))

See also

References

  1. ^ "Texas Births, 1926–1995". familytreelegends.com. Retrieved December 19, 2010.
  2. ^ "Gary Busey Biography (1923)".
  3. ^ "Gary Busey". eBiog. Retrieved August 5, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c Tulsa TV Memories.com, Gary Busey reference as Teddy Jack Eddy in Tulsa, OK.
  5. ^ Carp at Allmusic
  6. ^ People May 15, 1989, pp. 65–68
  7. ^ Gary Busey - Stay All Night on YouTube
  8. ^ "On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister". The Simpsons. Season 16. Episode 11. June 3, 2005. Fox. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Turkish rush to embrace anti-US film". BBC News. February 10, 2006. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  10. ^ "Turkish Film Uproar: Attacking the American Enemy on Screen – International – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News". Der Spiegel. February 22, 2006. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
  11. ^ Archive of "Celebs Check Into Rehab 2 With Dr. Drew", VH! press release, June 10, 2008
  12. ^ Wright, Adam (November 18, 2010). "Celebrity Apprentice Season Four Cast Revealed". TVDoneWright.com.
  13. ^ Cassens Weiss, Debra (August 30, 2010). "'Lawyer Norman Tugwater' Ready to Sue for Pro Athletes' Fantasy Rights". ABA Journal. American Bar Association.
  14. ^ James Peragine. "First Photos: Gary Busey Introduces Son Luke".
  15. ^ Kate Stanhope. "Gary Busey and Girlfriend Are Expecting". TVGuide.com.
  16. ^ Cramberg, Joanne. "Tulsa's 'Bad Boy' Gary Busey Accepts Jesus". Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  17. ^ Virtue, David. "Rescued From The Present Evil Age". Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  18. ^ Moran, W. Reed (July 5, 2001). "Gary Busey ministers to brain injury community". USA Today. Retrieved August 5, 2007.
  19. ^ "Celebrity Rehab 2 with Dr. Drew , Episode 2 , VH1.com". Retrieved March 26, 2009.
  20. ^ "'Two and a Half Men': Gary Busey joins as a mental patient – From Inside the Box – Zap2it". Blog.zap2it.com. November 4, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
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