Actor Sam Bottoms, dead at 53

[HWBL]

Source: LA Times

Sam Bottoms dies at 53;
actor appeared in 'Apocalypse Now,'
'Last Picture Show'


Sam Bottoms and his brothers Timothy, Joseph and Ben were actors. Sam made his
screen debut at 15 in “The Last Picture Show” and went on to appear in 30 films, including
“The Outlaw Josey Wales.”

By Dennis McLellan
December 18, 2008



Sam Bottoms, a film and television actor who played the role of California
surfer-turned-GI Lance Johnson in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam
War epic "Apocalypse Now," has died. He was 53.

Bottoms died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles of glioblastoma multiforme,
a virulent brain cancer, said his wife, Laura Bickford.

The brother of actors Timothy, Joseph and Ben Bottoms, Sam made his
screen debut as a teenager in Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 film "The Last
Picture Show," in which Timothy played one of the leads. Sam played
Billy, the mute, mentally handicapped boy.

Then 15, he hadn't expected to be cast in the movie.


In 1976, Francis Ford Coppola cast Bottoms in the role of
California surfer turned GI Lance Johnson in the Vietnam War epic
“Apocalypse Now.”

Bottoms had traveled from his home in Santa Barbara to Archer City, Tex.,
to observe the filming, he recalled in a 1993 interview with the Houston
Chronicle.

He was sitting on a street corner drinking a Dr. Pepper with his brother
when a station wagon rolled by and stopped.

"Peter Bogdanovich gets out," Bottoms recalled, "and says, 'What's your
name?' "

When he said he had come to visit his brother, Bogdanovich surprised him
by asking, "Do you want to be in the movie?"

Since then, Bottoms appeared in some 30 films, including Clint Eastwood's
"The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Bronco Billy." More recently, he appeared
in "SherryBaby," "Shopgirl" and "Seabiscuit."

He also made guest appearances on TV series such as "NYPD Blue," "The
X Files," "Murder, She Wrote" and "21 Jump Street." And he played Cal
Trask in the 1981 TV mini-series "East of Eden."

Bottoms was 20 in 1976 when he was cast to play surfer Lance Johnson
in "Apocalypse Now," in which he was one of the young sailors who
accompany Capt. Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) up river in a gunboat
for his rendezvous with Marlon Brando's renegade Col. Walter Kurtz.

That comes after Bottoms' scenes with Robert Duvall's surf-obsessed Lt.
Col. Bill Kilgore, who memorably calls in a napalm strike on the tree line
behind a coastal village with a primo surf spot.

Bottoms spent a year and a half filming the movie in the Philippines.

"Francis is a great general, he's a Gen. Patton, a Gen. Sherman, a great
leader," Bottoms said in a 2001 interview with The Times. "I was his loyal
soldier. I would have done anything he asked. I did, and I'm surprised that
I came out of it alive."

Coppola told The Times on Wednesday that in casting young actors to
play soldiers in the movie, he had been impressed with Bottoms during
improvisational sessions.

"He was a handsome, tall young man and very sweet-natured and seemed
to be right for that part," Coppola said. "He, Larry Fishburne and Fred
Forrest were like a young family almost to me [during filming], and they
went through thick and thin uncomplainingly. We all admired them.

"Sam was an especially likable, beautiful young man. He was quiet and
undemanding and always anxious to help and had a nice smile."

Bottoms later played a lieutenant in Coppola's "Gardens of Stone," a 1987
military film set during the Vietnam era.

"Sam was a good actor. Of course, he comes from a family that had a lot
of theatrical activity," Coppola said.

Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara on Oct. 17, 1955, and began acting
in the Santa Barbara Youth Theatre at age 10.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his two daughters from his first
marriage to Susan Arnold, Io and Clara Bottoms; his three brothers; his
father, James "Bud" Bottoms; and his mother, Betty Bottoms.

A private funeral will be held today, and a memorial service will be held
sometime early next year.

Instead of flowers, donations may be made to Angels Among Us at the
Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, DUMC
Box 3624, Durham, N.C., 27710.

[candy27]

Sorry to hear such sad news. My sympathy and prayers to his family. Such a shame.

[AliceInWonderland]

oh.

[McJag]

Bad way to go,poor guy. Sad.

[qwerty]

F*cking brain tumors. Poor guy.