10 Things to Know About 'The Bear' (1984)

10 Things to Know About The Bear

Yes, Gary Busey wrestled a bear in The Bear, but that's a well known piece of trivia. Here are 10 things you might not know.

10 Gary Busey Received Death Threats

Days before he was due in Tuscaloosa to film scenes on the Alabama campus, without permission of the school, Gary Busey received a pair of threatening phone calls to his hotel in Decatur, Georgia. Whoever made the calls had to have been well informed and dedicated to their cause as they managed to get all the way to Busey himself to make the threats. Busey refused to go to Alabama and the production team agreed.

9 Some Footage Was Shot on Campus

Though the production of The Bear had been denied the chance to film on campus, the filmmakers managed to get some Tuscaloosa and University campus B-Roll. Former Alabama player and Bear Bryant loyalist, Tommy Brooker, a Technical Advisor on The Bear, managed to sneak some crew onto the campus to film exteriors including the famed Denny Chimes.

8 Bear Bryant’s family Objected to Busey’s casting

Legend has it that the family of Bear Bryant opposed Gary Busey being cast as the legendary Football Coach. The reality is slightly different. In their contract for the movie rights, the Bryant Family was given final approval on the casting of Bear Bryant.

Then, producer Larry G. Spangler ignored that contract entirely and announced Gary Busey as the star of The Bear. This led to the family disowning the film and the University of Alabama denying access to the campus.

7 President Reagan Addressed Fans at the Alabama Premiere of The Bear

A crowd of more than 1,000 Alabama fans turned out for the September 1984 premiere of The Bear. They were joined by star Gary Busey, producer Larry G. Spangler, and a special guest on the phone. President Ronald Reagan arranged to call the theater and address the crowd and his admiration for Bear Bryant.

6 VIP Tickets for the Premiere Sold for $323.00

VIP Tickets to the Alabama premiere of The Bear sold for $323.00 dollars each. 323 is the number of wins that Bear Bryant accumulated during his college football coaching career. What came with the VIP package is not clear though it may have included a meet and greet with Gary Busey. The price likely wouldn’t change over time, as it was intended to link to Bryant’s career but since we did the math anyway, $323 dollars in 1984 is worth more than $1000 dollars today.

5 The Bryant Family did not attend the Premiere

The famous story is that the Bryant’s refused an invitation to the premiere of The Bear. The reality is, as always, far more complicated. Just before the release of The Bear, the matriarch of the Bryant Family, Bear’s wife, Mary Harmon Bryant, passed away. It’s unknown if the family would have attended the premiere or not, though it seems likely they would have skipped it regardless of their personal tragedy.

Producers of The Bear made sure that the Bryant family had the chance to see the movie before it premiered. The Bryant family received a VHS copy of the movie to watch at home. The family did not speak about how they felt about the movie.

4 Real Life Tragedy

Just after The Bear opened on September 28th, and before it had reached its widest release, co-star Jon-Erik Hexum, who portrayed famed Crimson Tide football star Pat Trammell, was killed in an on-set accident. Hexum was playing around with a prop gun on the set of his TV series Cover Up, that he believed was empty, but actually held blanks.

Blanks are generally harmless unless you are at close range. Hexum held the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger causing fragments of the fake bullet to lodge in his brain. Hexum passed away 5 days later.

3 “This is going to be Bigger than Star Wars”

Producer Larry Spangler could teach a masters level course in how to screw up a film and its publicity. Not only did Spangler alienate the Bryant family and the University of Alabama, he also tried selling some serious snake oil nonsense while promoting The Bear in Alabama. One of his most infamous and apparently real quotes is:

“This is going to be bigger than Star Wars.”

2 Three Different Endings Were Filmed

Producer Larry Spangler admitted during the film’s Alabama press tour that three endings were filmed for The Bear. The one we get, the victory over Illinois in the 1982 Liberty Bowl. The other ending that was filmed featured Bryant’s funeral. Spangler said at the time the funeral ending was nixed because he wanted to end things with Bear Bryant ‘Up’

“I wanted to end ‘Up.’ Always remember him ‘Up,’ That is why we rolled the ball over and put his great accomplishments down, so you can feel proud. Who needs a funeral.

It’s unknown what the third ending may have been.

1 Gary Busey Was Always Weird

Gary Busey suffered for his art following The Bear. Speaking to reporters at the premiere of The Bear in 1984, Busey said that he’d lost track of where Bear Bryant ends and Gay Busey begins.

“Is all of this making me schizophrenic? Is that what you’re asking me? Are you kidding? Of course it is. I’ve had a lot of trouble finding Gary Busey lately. I think he’s on a plane back to California.”

Busey claimed that the same affliction hit him after his Oscar nominated role in The Buddy Holly Story. And he followed up The Bear by co-starring in Insignificance for director Nicolas Roeg where he portrayed a fictional version of Joe DiMaggio who follows his wife Marilyn Monroe to the hotel room of Albert Einstein whom she intended to sleep with. And this was before his near fatal motorcycle accident that left him with some minor brain damage.