(The actual playing of Dueling Banjos was done by its composer, Eric Weissberg, who was the number one selling … Unlike Ronny Cox with his guitar, actor Billy Redden did not know how to play banjo for the famous "Duelling Banjos" scene. He’d say it was the best damned play ever produced on or off Broadway. “But the actor who portrayed the hillbilly boy, Billy Redden, couldn’t play – and, in fact, in the movie, his arms are someone else’s. The young man actually didn’t know the banjo — a local musician played with his arms through the young boy’s sleeves while crouched behind him (Redden would, however, later play … He could not play at all. The special shirt he wore concealed the real banjo player behind him who actually played the banjo. Deliverance is to wilderness survival movies as Goodfellas is to mob movies - a prime example of a film that gets every last detail exactly right. The music was composed in 1955 by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith. Redden could not actually play the banjo. There seems to be a debate over whether Billy Redden or Hoyt Pollard played the banjo playing inbreed in Deliverance.Does anybody know who this Hoyt Pollard guy is and what his claim to fame is? https://www.tmz.com/2008/12/09/creepy-banjo-kid-in-delivrance-memba-him PLAYING ALONG - - Actor Billy Redden was just 16-years-old when he starred opposite actors Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight and Ned Beatty in the 1972 film "Deliverance." A body double actually played the banjo. Redden plays "Lonnie" — a mentally challenged inbred, but extremely gifted, banjo player. Close. Photograph by Jason Maris. [quote] The Banjo Kid Couldn't Really Play The Banjo. Are actually stealing from the government while the homeless in the real world, if you must, suffer with no hope. https://gunaxin.com/tribute-banjo-player-deliverance-dueling-banjos To solve the problem, they got Beatty to step towards Billy at the close of the shot. “Banjo Boy” Billy Redden. It just so happened that Smith was a good friend of actor Andy Griffith and when the studio offered him … Trivia: He did not know how to play the banjo in the film. But there’d be this difference. Billy was hand-picked from his local elementary school largely due to his “look” ( Billy’s large head,skinny body, odd-shaped eyes and moronic grin had sadly branded […] You are a musician — did you actually play the guitar in the ... although I’m not nearly a good enough guitarist. “The boy (Billy Redden) actually is quite bright, but because of the way he looked, he was treated as retarded by the community.” Redden couldn’t play banjo, so they found another kid who could. He actually didn't and still does not know how to play the banjo. Billy Redden's appearance in Tim Burton's "Big Fish" will best be appreciated when the film lands on home video. Eric Weissberg, who arranged, played banjo on and won a Grammy for “Dueling Banjos,” from the 1972 movie Deliverance, died Sunday of Alzheimer’s disease complications. REMEMBER THE CREEPY BANJO KID FROM DELIVERANCE? His name is Billy Redden. He lives in Rabun County, Georgia which is where most of the movie was filmed. IMDB trivia: "Billy Redden, the boy with the banjo, liked Ronny Cox and hated Ned Beatty. He had mixed feelings about the movie. Billy Redden was the young "inbred" actor that played Lonnie, the banjo in the film Deliverance. At the end of the dueling banjos scene, the script called for Billy to harden his expression towards Cox's character, but Billy couldn't pretend to hate Cox. … “We used his left hand and made extra sleeve on Redden’s shirt. Redden’s lone scene is one of two for which “Deliverance” is most famous (squeal if you know the other). In the summer of 1971, Hollywood came to North Georgia to bring James Dickey’s Deliverance to the silver screen. Leah from Brooklyn, Ny Ronnie Cox, who mimed the Guitar (and feigned a double-jointed death in the river) in DELIVERANCE is now playing the character of the recurring slimy villain Senator Kinsey on TV series STARGATE SG-1. Lobstarock from Boston, Ma Billy Redden, also showed up in a cameo role in Tim Burton's "Big Fish", playing what else... the banjo. But that’s not him playing on the soundtrack: “When it came to actually record the song, John Boorman wanted me to play it,” Cox says. He’d stand in the lines outside the theater and ask people what they thought of it and then say, “That’s my play!” That’s what he did when the film of Deliverance came out. [2] Redden next appeared in Tim Burton's 2003 film Big Fish. The hand you see is not Redden’s, it’s the other kid crouched behind him. Viewers can freeze-frame on his big scene, which lasts a matter of seconds. TIL: in the iconic banjo scene in Deliverance the young boy, Billy Redden, couldn't actually play the banjo, so he wore a special shirt which allowed a real banjo player to hide behind him for the scene, whose arms were slipped around Redden's waist to play the tune. He was 80. Billy Redden played 'Lonnie'. Another boy who could play reached around him. "I hope you're not disillusioned." You know the one: "Squeal like a pig." The part of the banjo-playing boy in “Deliverance” was played by Billy Redden. Billy Redden (born 1956 in Rabun County, Georgia) is an American actor best known for his role as Lonnie—the "creepy banjo kid"—in the 1972 movie Deliverance. Glen Campbell and Much Much More via YouTubeThe movie Deliverance is unforgettable for an especially evil scene. The 16 year old young man Billy Redden who played the ”local” banjo player part in the movie ”Deliverance” did not actually play the banjo. This 16-year-old boy from Rabun County, Georgia was the only “authentic” local to play the role of The Banjo Boy in John Boorman’s disturbing hit movie of 1972 Deliverance. Use in Deliverance In Deliverance, a scene depicts Billy Redden playing it opposite Ronny Cox, who joins him on guitar. But Deliverance also brought to life & Like Billy Redden, he couldn’t play a banjo either. Well, to expose the reality behind the movie magic, he was a regular kid named To simulate the realistic chord playing on the banjo, another boy, who was a skilled banjo-player, played the chords with his arm reaching around at Redden's side while Redden picked. Redden, then sixteen, earned his role in Deliverance during a casting call at Clayton Elementary School in Clayton, Georgia. Billy Redden wasn't an actor. His left arm in the scene actually belongs to a second boy who's crouched behind him. 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