Gary Busey: Misunderstood?

What's all this bad press Gary Busey recieves these days? People talk about him like he's over the hill, that he's lost it, and some even have the nerve to insinuate that he never actually had it.

This could not be further from the truth...in fact, I believe that right now, he is at the peak of his rather tepid career. After early 'action roles' such as those in Lethal Weapon and Point Break would suggest potential lead actor material, Busey regularly played an intense, unconventional supporting role. Aided by his rather ceramic looking teeth which appear, hauntingly, to be too big for his mouth, Busey commands the screen, glaring and staring his way through his films.

Career highlights include; his performance as the Nevada State trooper in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, in which he played the character as being disturbed, perhaps mentally unstable, and powerfully makes it seem as though his character has lost the ability to string together a coherent sentence. In his role as a hitman in the indescribable On the Edge (also starring Ice-T), his character is shown as being ruthless, without compassion and again, shades of mental instability and poor dialect really gives the character pitiful depth. Most importantly though, in this film, Frost:Portrait of a Vampire, Busey plays a blind prophet, a role, you can sense, especially close to his heart. This character, having had the vital sense of sight removed from him, obtains a spooky balance with nature and the arcane arts. His portrayal of this Prophet is a breakthrough for the actor, as it shows a man who has gone through the dark phase of mental irritation, and speech difficulties, and he's just fallen out the other side. He can barely speak, move, understand, and occasionally, it's very hard to make out whether or not he is in fact in a waking coma. Unfourtunately, due to the vampire nature of the film and the small budget, it is unlikely the academy will consider this performance for the oscar I feel he deserves.

Anyone who says he's bad seriously needs to re-evalute what their definition of good and bad actually is.