Gary Busey Claims That He's Been To Heaven – And Even Had A Fight About How It Looks On A Film Set
Gary Busey getting into a fist fight with another actor about how Heaven should look is one of the most bizarre Hollywood anecdotes you’re likely to hear. Given his off-the-wall reputation, though, it’s not too hard to believe. And while it’s easy to laugh at Busey’s antics, there’s actually much more to the story – and it says a lot about how this once sought-after actor became the man he is today.
Leaning into his niche
These days, Busey leans into his wacky persona. He recently starred in the Amazon reality show Pet Judge, in which he delivered his unique verdicts on cases of people arguing about their pets. He can also be relied upon to lend his brand of manic madness to low-rent schlock like the Sharknado franchise and Bunker of Blood: Chapter 8: Butcher’s Bake Off: Hell’s Kitchen. Whatever that is.
A life-changing injury
It’s all a far cry from the glory days when Busey was genuinely a fierce acting talent. Before he became a punchline, he was both an Oscar hopeful and a Hollywood hellraiser. In truth, his erratic behavior may have been at least partly caused by a traumatic head injury. As his son Jake put it to The Hollywood Reporter magazine in 2019, “The post-accident version of him turned his personality up to 11.”
Busey's heaven
Indeed, this accident also provided the backdrop to the alleged on-set Heaven disagreement. In Quigley, he played a man who died and came back to life in another form. But Busey believed wholeheartedly that, following his accident, he had been to the afterlife and remembered how it looked. When someone else claimed they had also been there and disagreed with Busey’s vision of it, there was Hell to pay.
His football dreams were dashed
To go back to where it all began, though, Busey’s life and career could have been vastly different if he had never injured his knee while on a football scholarship at Kansas’ Pittsburg State University. It meant the future he’d imagined as a professional footballer wasn’t in the cards anymore. He turned to theater studies but still didn’t pursue acting immediately. Instead, he initially focused on being a musician.
