By nishtha toshniwal | February 24, 2014 0 Comments

Net Worth: $500,000

Career/Profession: Actor, Drummer

William Gary Busey shortly called as Gary Busey is an acclaimed American actor and prominent stage artist. The fame he has got is all due to his talent and skills which led him to pursue his profession as an actor. All the efforts and endeavors, he has put is shown in various well known films such as The Firm, Lost highway, Point Break, The Buddy Holly Story etc. These movies helped him to achieve numerous awards such as Academy Awards for best acting, etc. He had some time portrayed his image as a rock icon too.

Early Life:

He is the son of Delmer Lloyd Busey and Sadie Virginia who was born on June 29, 1944. He took birth in Goose Creek in Texas. His father was a design manager and mother was a homemaker. He grew up in Oklahoma and completed his schooling from Nathan Hale High School in 1962. He attended Pittsburg State University in Kansas, where he was a football scholar. He also used to perform in the band as a drummer with Willie Nelson and was passionate about riding bulls. But due to a knee injury he had to drop his career as a footballer and moved on to pursue his profession in acting. He then got transferred to Oklahoma State University, where he dropped his studies and joined acting.

Drumming As his Passion:

He firstly built his image in the industry as a drummer who used to perform for ‘Rubber Band’. Then he was found playing drums on Leon Russell albums where he was named as Teddy Jack Eddy and also Sprunk. These are the names of the character he played in his show ‘The Uncanny Film Festival and Camp Meeting’ and which used to be telecasted on KTUL station. This show helped him build his identity as a belligerent American hero. After that, he merged with the band called ‘Carp’ whose first album ‘Epic Record’ was released in 1969.

Transition from Local shows to Movies:

He began his career as an actor in 1970’s and it was going very smooth and slow till 1975. He got some small roles in local TV shows and low budgeted movies. In 1974, he was fortunate enough to get high budgeted action movie ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot’. In 1975 he started with ‘Gunsmoke’ series as Harvey Darley. In 1976, he was hired by Jon Peters and Barbra Streisand in the remake of ‘A Star is born’ to play a role of Bobby Ritchie. He and his acting were appreciated by the whole crew of the movie. In 1978, he starred in ‘The Buddy Holly Story’ as rock icon Buddy Holly and was supported by Sartain. His performance was acclaimed all over the country. He also changed the lyrics of ‘Well All Right’ song to ‘We’re gonna love Teddy Jack’ to maintain his identity as Teddy Jack Eddy. He also starred in ‘Straight time’ drama and ‘Big Wednesday’ in the same year.

Back to Back Performance:

In 1980’s, back to back performance in various acclaimed movies was observed. Starting with Barbarosa in 1982, the Comedies D.C Cab in 1983, Silver Bullet in 1985 followed by Insignificance in the same year. Lethal Weapon, action as well as a comedy movie released in 1987 added more stars to his success. In the 1990’s he got some supporting roles which are still seemed to be the best one in several movies such as Predator in 1990, Point Break in 1991, Under siege in 1992. He also maintained his prolific character by performing in movies such as ‘The Firm’ and ‘Rookie of the Year’ in 1993, ‘Black Sheep’ in 1996 or ‘Lost Highway’ in 1997 etc. In 2002, he gave his voice in ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’. In 2008, he joined ‘Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew’. He also appeared in Celebrity Apprentice 4 and Celebrity Apprentice 6.

Personal Life:

Gary Busey had a very complicated love life. He was married to Judy Helkenberg in 1971. They together had one son named William Jacob Jake Busey. But unfortunately they did not manage to carry on this relationship and got divorced when their son was nineteen years old. He also had one daughter named Alectra from the pre-marital affair.  In 2000, he was criminally charged and arrested and this incident separated him from Tiani Warden, his second wife. In 2009, it came to know that he had an affair with Steffanie Sampson and they were expecting their child. In 2010, she gave birth to a son called Luke Sampson Busey.

Big Break due to accident:

In 1988, his success chart dropped due to a fatal motorcycle accident. He got injured, in which his skull got fractured because of not wearing helmet. Doctors were in doubt that he may suffer from brain damage. In 1995, he was hospitalized because of his drug addiction and its overdose.

Famous quotes:

• There has got to be more to life than being a really, really, ridiculously good actor.
• If you take shortcuts, you get cut short.
• It’s a very strange silence that I’m living in right now. It’s a silence that has a lot of activity and noise in it from a zone that I don’t live on this earth.
• I love, love, and I love life. I love. I just love. It’s just great. It’s the most enduring element we have is love.