Gravel voiced greats #2. Gary Busey

Born William Gareth Jacob Busey Sr. in Goose Creek, Texas on 29th June 1944, the talented rough-hewn, blonde actor was a gifted musician who had aspirations for a life in show business. With a visage sculpted by God for the purpose of playing screen villains and characters with indistinct moral agendas it didn’t take long for Busey to hit the big time.
Few actors manage to make an impression as enduring villains in movies. For every truly imposing, nefarious baddie there’s one that doesn’t quite make the grade. Comparing Bond villains Eliot Carver with Ernst Stavros Blofeld for instance is simply no comparison whatsoever. Gary Busey falls into the former category, each one of his movie evildoers a fully fleshed out, note perfect performance. It’s impossible not to recall Busey’s star turns as bad guys in films like Lethal Weapon (1987), Under Siege (1992) and Drop Zone (1994), each one a lesson in screen villainy that will be etched into your brain forever once you’ve been fortunate enough to witness them. That shark-toothed grin, a subtle, ambiguous glint in the eye suggesting higher, more complex Machiavellian machinations: Busey brings extra dimensions to potentially 2-dimensional characters. His characters are 5D. Mr. Joshua, Commander Krill and Ty Moncrief rank among the greatest movie bad guys of all-time, deserving a place alongside Hans Gruber (Die Hard), John Doe (Se7en), The Joker (Batman) and Ursula (The Little Mermaid) as the best ever to grace the silver screen.

To pigeonhole Busey in bad guy roles however is to see only one of his five sides, for Gary Busey is an acting pentagon where most other actors only manage to be triangles (De Niro) or at best squares (Pacino). Some only manage parallel lines (Brando), unable to form complete shapes. Boasting a stunning career that began with his portrayal of a biker in Angels Hard As They Come (1971), Gary Busey has continued to work consistently over the years garnering numerous supporting roles and bit parts in more than a hundred movies. Wowing critics as Buddy Holly in the imaginatively The Buddy Holly Story (1978) Busey won plaudits and an Oscar nomination for his performance. His subsequent career glossed over this minor achievement as he went on to achieve mega stardom in a plethora of fantastic, popular movies such as Steel Sharks (1996), Hot Boyz (1999) and G-Men From Hell (2000). Criminally, few of these roles have been leads as shortsighted studio execs fail to see talent when it’s right up in their faces. Gary Busey is Hollywood’s greatest nearly man, deserving of so much more. Hearing his trademark gravel-voice is to hear the voice of a god, a sure vocal assertion, like the sound of gargled razor blades belying the mixed intentions of his character. In contrast, Busey’s good guys radiate confidence, reliability, toughness and an underlying vain of selfless heroism: men who will put their lives on the line to save the day. On the flipside, Busey’s bad guys exude playful menace, a steely, determined drive to achieve malicious goals in addition to an all too chilling suggestion of other psychotic, sadistic traits.

A salute then, to not only a great actor, but also a great man and above all an under appreciated hero of modern cinema. An unstable nitro-glycerine-plutonium smart bomb of unpredictable brilliance, Gary Busey, now in his twilight years remains an enigma. A man who may still be destined for far greater things, Busey is set to wow again in a number of films now in post-production. For now, check out his voice in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories as he reprises the role of one-armed Phil Cassidy on PSP. Then watch this space and listen out for more of those gravelly tones in the near future. You won’t want to miss out: trust us. He'll be back smoking on a fat stogie, ready to eat Steven Seagal's face.