Great Balls of Fire

2022 - 10 - 29

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Image courtesy of "MovieWeb"

Great Balls of Fire! Star Dennis Quaid Pays Tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis (MovieWeb)

Dennis Quaid, who played Lewis in the biopic Great Balls of Fire!, addressed the music legend's passing.

"He was groundbreaking and exciting, and he pulverized the piano. Fellow pianist and singer Elton John, who was also the subject of a biopic about his life called Rocketman, posted an image to Twitter of the two together. "Lewis suffered through the last years of his life from various illnesses and injuries that, his physicians have often said, should have taken him decades ago," the obituary read. "Dennis Quaid said, 'You would think he would be afraid to at least not p*ss ME off.' But that was him: the anti-Elvis." On Wednesday, it was falsely reported that Lewis had died, but his passing would come on Friday. Given the influence he's had, Lewis had many mourning his death with tributes, and actor [Dennis Quaid](https://movieweb.com/person/dennis-quaid) released a statement expressing his sorrow over the news.

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Image courtesy of "Decider"

A Sitdown With The Killer: Jerry Lee Lewis and the Chilly 'Great ... (Decider)

Son, in this life I don't believe you ever really get anything off your chest. Do you?”

Also in 1976, Lewis drove up to the gates of Elvis Presley’s estate Graceland and waved a gun around, and soon insisted to intervening police that he “needed to see” The King. Lewis furrowed his brow and fixed the guy with the blankest of blank stares. [Hellfire](https://www.amazon.com/Hellfire-Jerry-Lee-Lewis-Story/dp/0141041854?tag=decider08-20&asc_refurl=https://decider.com/2022/10/29/jerry-lee-lewis-great-balls-of-fire/&asc_source=web), had, after that book’s publication, discovered some information about Lewis so heinous that it inspired Tosches to torch his entire collection of Lewis vinyl and memorabilia. [Some Came Running](http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/) and tweets, mostly in jest, at [@glenn__kenny](https://twitter.com/Glenn__Kenny). He held a pipe in his hand and he sometimes tamped some tobacco into it, lit it, took a puff, and then held it near his knee. In any event, it stood to reason that McBride would jump at the chance to bring one of the wildest times in Lewis’ life to the screen. Jerry Lee Lewis was long nicknamed “The Killer.” He was a monumental talent, an indefatigable entertainer, and an unpleasant person much of the time. [an audacious remake](https://decider.com/movie/breathless-1983/) of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, starring Richard Gere and Valerie Kaprisky, and in his revision, the lunkhead criminal of Godard’s picture is besotted with the Silver Surfer and Jerry Lee Lewis, singing Lewis’ 1958 song “Breathless” at times both opportune and inapt. It is an undisputed fact that in 1976 he shot his bass player at the time, Norman “Butch” Owens, in the chest. The source material for the movie was [Myra’s own memoir](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Balls-Fire-Uncensored-Story/dp/0312916418?tag=decider08-20&asc_refurl=https://decider.com/2022/10/29/jerry-lee-lewis-great-balls-of-fire/&asc_source=web) (the first of two; in the second she paints a much less congenial picture of her alcoholic, abusive former husband). A couple of my favorite colleagues were along for the ride — film historian Ed Hulse, then the editor of a Video Review offshoot called Previews, which was a giveaway at video chains like Blockbuster, and Ira Robbins, the founding editor of the great rock and roll zine Trouser Press, whose day job was at Video Magazine, which was Video Review’s direct competitor. In addition, more than any other studio at the time, Orion treated the “home video” press as well as they treated “legit” movie journalists.

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