‘Imaginary’ Star Betty Buckley on Embracing Playing Another ‘White-Haired Weirdo’ and Why She’s Unsure About a Return to Broadway
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Talk about loyalty. Betty Buckley has been staying at the Chateau Marmont for about 50 years.
She first checked in when she landed the role of Abby Bradford, Dick Van Patten’s new wife and stepmother to his kids in ABC’s 1970s family comedy-drama “Eight Is Enough,” shortly after her big screen debut as gym teacher Miss Collins in “Carrie.” After half a century calling the Chateau her Los Angeles home — she lives full-time at a ranch outside of Fort Worth, Texas — Buckley has a lot of stories. “Oh, there are some wild ones,” the 76-year-old actor and singer says while nibbling on a fruit and cheese plate in the hotel’s lobby restaurant on a recent weekday afternoon.
She’s in town promoting her new horror movie, “Imaginary.” She quickly recalls becoming friends with John Belushi, first in New York City and then when he was one of the hotel’s most famous residents (sadly, the “Saturday Night Live” star died in bungalow 3 of a heroin overdose in 1982.) “He would call me ‘Buckley’ and I would call him ‘Belushi,’” she remembers. “One night, he called me and said, ‘Hey, Buckley, you want to go meet the Rolling Stones?’” “We drive up Laurel Canyon to this big house,” she continues. “We went in and smoked a little pot and we were going from room to room.
In one room was this Rolling Stone with his entourage, then the next room there was a pool table with another Rolling Stone and his entourage, then the next was in the kitchen with his entourage.
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