Rockets Redglare

Infobox actor


caption =
birthdate = May 8, 1949
birthplace = New York City, New York
deathdate = May 28, 2001 (aged 52)
deathplace = New York City, New York

Rockets Redglare (born Michael Morra on May 8, 1949 - May 28, 2001) was an American character actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared in over 30 films in the 1980s and 1990s, including a number of independent films, and mainstream films such as "After Hours" (1984) and "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985).

Biography

Early life

Morra was born in New York City to a heroin-addicted 15-year-old mother named Agnes Tarrulli Morra. While still in utero, Morra became addicted to heroin, so doctors added an opiate derivative into his baby formula so that he could withdraw from the drug. Morra's father and uncle were career criminals in the Italian-American criminal underworld in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. After his father was deported to his native Italy, Agnes began a relationship with a drug-addicted former boxer who assaulted both young Morra and the mother. After his mother was killed by her boyfriend, Morra took up the stage name Rockets Redglare, from the fifth line of the US national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner".

1970s and 1980s

In the late 1970s, Morra spent most of his time in the East Village, where he "became a permanent fixture in the punk and porno film scenes". [allmovieguide article on Rockets Reglare. Available at http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:59201] Morra worked as bouncer at the East Village "Red Bar", as a roadie for a band called the Hassles (with a young Billy Joel), and acted as a bodyguard and drug supplier to punk rock bassist Sid Vicious and artist-musician Jean Michel Basquiat. The night Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, Morra had delivered 40 capsules of Dilaudid to the couple's room at the Chelsea Hotel. In his book, "Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk", the author, Phil Strongman, states that he believes Redglare was Nancy Spungen's killer. Redglare denies the claim.

Morra began doing stand up comedy routines at East Village bars such as Pyramid and Club 57 in his own show called "Taxi Cabaret", and he also did performance art. He made his acting debut in the 1984 Eric Mitchell film "The Way It Is", also known as "Euridice on the Avenues", a film whose cast also included Steve Buscemi and Vincent Gallo (who also composed the soundtrack). Later that year, he appeared in the Jim Jarmusch film "Stranger Than Paradise". [ [http://www.nyhangover.com/issues/0601/rockets.htm Drinking With...Rockets Redglare ] ] He was often cast as a rough or seedy character, which echoed his real-life upbringing and drug addiction problems.

1990s and 2000s

Morra died in 2001 from a combination of kidney failure, liver failure, cirrhosis and hepatitis C. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010616/ai_n14392692 Obituary: Rockets Redglare | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ] Morra's death was hastened by his multiple addictions: he admitted that "Anything I ever liked...I always did to excess", including heroin, cocaine, and alcohol. [ [http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0435,morales,56346,20.html village voice > film > Rockets Redglare! by Jorge Morales ] ] At the time of his death, Morra was morbidly obese and hospitalized. In 2003, Luis Fernandez de la Reguera released a documentary about Morra entitled "Rockets Redglare!", a "portrait of the New York personality from his early days around '50s hustlers to the East Village crowd of the '80s to his tragic death in 2001". [Small planet synopsis. Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10004453-rockets_redglare/about.php]

After Morra's death, obituary-writers tried to sum up Morra's varied, colorful, and unusual life in the New York art and music scenes as a bodyguard/roadie turned-actor/comedian. The "Chicago Reader" called Morra a "...compulsive hustler who became obese once he decided to substitute beer for drugs", and acknowledges that "... he was also a gifted raconteur" and storyteller, especially in informal, relaxed settings. [Jonathan Rosenbaum. In http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/24282_ROCKETS_REDGLARE.html] Seattle newspaper "The Stranger" argued that Morra became a New York City "alternative celebrity" [ [http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=7655 Obits - Obits - The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper ] ] in the city's East Village bars and clubs where he would drink and tell stories.

Filmography

* "Rockets Redglare!" (2003)
* "Animal Factory" (2000)
* "Basquiat" (1996)
* "Trees Lounge" (1996)
* "In the Soup" (1992)
* "Mystery Train" (1989)
* "Big" (1988)
* "Talk Radio" (1988)
* "Down by Law" (1986)
* "After Hours" (1985)
* "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985)
* "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984)

***Also appeared as 'The Barber' in season 3 of the HBO show Oz.

References

External links

*Imdb name|0714871
* [http://www.rocketsredglare.tv "Rockets Redglare film website"]
* [http://www.nyhangover.com/issues/0601/rockets.htm "Drinking With...Rockets Redglare"] , "New York Hangover", July, 1999, retrieved November 26, 2006.
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010616/ai_n14392692 "London Independent" obituary of Rockets Redglare (Michael Morra), June 2001]