BANG
Updated Wednesday, February 28, 2024-08:34
Actor
Buddy Duress
- known for his co-starring role with Robert Pattinson in the film '
Good Time
' - died last November at the age of 38 due to
"cardiac arrest caused by a cocktail of drugs."
.
His brother Christopher Stathis has now confirmed the tragic news to People magazine.
Duress
spent a life continually in and out of prison for various crimes.
Duress's first acting role came in the film '
Heaven Known What
' (2014) after having met one of the film's directors the previous year after being released from the New York prison of Rikers Island after
serving time on charges of drugs
.
Once he finished filming the film, he was captured by police and returned to Rikers Island.
When he was released from prison, the Safdie brothers asked him to write a diary about his time behind bars, and they adapted his stories into '
Good Times'
, in which
he starred alongside Robert Pattinson
.
He subsequently continued to appear in more films - including '
The Mountain
' and '
The Great Dark Days
' - before being arrested again in 2019 and charged with third-degree grand larceny, for which he returned to prison.
That same year, while filming Cameron Van Hoy's film '
Flinch
' - he was arrested for threatening to burn down his mother Jo-Anne's house.
His mother and Van Hoy posted bail, but he was arrested shortly after and taken back to Rivers
on charges of threats and criminal possession of brass knuckles
and a controlled substance.
"A charismatic and unique actor"
Van Hoy has admitted that he was heartbroken when he heard about Duress' death.
The director told
People
: "Buddy was pure electricity on screen.
Working with him was one of the great adventures of my life
."
"He was a kind person who loved making movies.
Despite the problems he had in life, he managed to put them aside when it was time to work
. We became close friends after the production of our film Flinch "It breaks my heart that his life ended like this," he added.
The performer is scheduled to appear in the upcoming feature film "
Mass State Lottery
", which will be released in late 2024.
The film's director,
Jay Karales
, has praised him as
"a once-in-a-lifetime charismatic actor and a genuinely humble man."
Adding: "
What has happened is a tragic and frustrating waste of visceral talent
. He lived as a cowboy and the weight of that kind of life influenced his abilities and performances in a way that made him
irreplaceable as an actor.
Unfortunately, he has become in the John Cazale of our generation".