Celebrity Apprentice!
Who is Gary Busey and why is he famous?
[Mar. 13]
Green celebrity Gary Busey, famous for Lethal Weapon and The Buddy Holly Story, is also an accomplished musician. With blond hair and a fair complexion, Gary Busey is known for his toothy grin. For a time, Busey was a professional drummer for the likes of Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson.
According to IMDb, Busey first made it big in film for playing the lead role of Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story (1978). His perfromance in the film earned him a nomination for Best Actor. As a matter of trivia, Gary Busey not only played the guitar himself in the film, but he sang all the vocals as well.
The green celebrity was quickly picked up by Hollywood agents and went on to star in the mega-hit Lethal Weapon (1987) with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. He appeared again with Danny Glover in Predator (1990). A less known film is Big Wednesday (1978), a surfing cult classic. He again starred in another surfing related movie, Point Break (1991), when he starred with Keanu Reeves as his FBI partner hunting down the ex-Presidents with Patrick Swayze leading the group disguised as Ronald Reagan. Busey appeared again in Under Siege (1992), who played the arch-enemy of star and aikido teacher Steven Seagal.
Most Recently, Gary Busey has surfaced as one of the contestants for the 2011 season of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 (The Apprentice 11) with Donald Trump. Busey will be competing to benefit The Center for Head Injury Services, an organization near and dear to the green celebrity.
From LookToTheStars.Org:
Busey was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in 1988. At the time, he was not wearing a helmet and suffered a fractured skull, a brain injury and a four week coma. After recovery, he returned to his film career and has since worked as an advocate for traumatic injury treatment and prevention, particularly urging the use of motorcycle helmets.
“You are always working to get back to where you once were. I want to be a role model for brain injury survivors and show them, with hard work, you can get your life back,” said Gary Busey said in a news release.
Busey shocked the organization when he announced his would-be beneficiary for his stint on The Celebrity Apprentice 4. “It was a huge surprise,” said Shannon Keaveny, Development Associate for The Center for Head Injury Services, “We’re not a national organization. We serve people here in the St. Louis metro region. It was awesome and such a wonderful, wonderful shock. We are so excited.”
It was precisely because the organization’s personal attention to survivors of brain injury in a regional area that the 66-year-old green celebrity felt The Center for Head Injury Services was an appropriate choice to benefit from any winnings he may achieve on The Celebrity Apprentice.
The Celebrity Apprentice 4 will air its second episode Sunday, March 13, 2011, at 9 p.m.