It’s been quite a long time since Gary Busey was taken seriously as an actor of considerable talent, but back in 1978 he almost took home an Oscar for his spectacular portrayal of Buddy Holly in director Steve Rash’s controversial bio-pic, The Buddy Holly Story. Playing a 19 year old kid from Texas on the cusp of making rock and roll history at the age of 33, Busey lost a considerable amount of weight to embody the 146 pound front man, and more impressively, performed all of the songs sprinkled throughout the film live with a fictionalized version of Holly’s backing band, The Crickets. Though Busey’s portrayal was lauded, the film itself was harshly criticized not only for this fabricated characterization which reduced his real life three piece band, featuring Niki Sullivan, Joe B. Mauldin and J.I. Allison, to a fictional drum and bass duo in Jesse Charles (Don Stroud...
- 9/2/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
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