"Great Balls of Fire! (film) Great Balls of Fire! is a 1989 American biographical film directed by Jim McBride and starring Dennis Quaid as rockabilly pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis. Based on a biography by Myra Lewis and Murray M. Silver Jr., the screenplay is written by McBride and Jack Baran. The film is produced by Adam Fields, with executive producers credited as Michael Grais, Mark Victor, and Art Levinson. The early career of Jerry Lee Lewis, from his rise to rock and roll stardom to his controversial marriage to his 13-year-old cousin that led to his downfall, is depicted in"
"the film. Until the scandal of the marriage depreciated his image, many had thought Lewis would supplant Elvis Presley as the ""King of Rock and Roll"" in the 1950s. Jerry Lee Lewis (Quaid) plays piano (as opposed to a guitar like most other rock artists) during rock and roll's early years from 1956 to 1958. Jerry Lee is a man with many different sides: a skilled performer with little discipline, and an alcoholic. As Jerry Lee rises to the top of the charts with such hits as ""Crazy Arms"", ""Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On"", and ""Great Balls of Fire"", he"
"Great Balls of Fire ""Great Balls of Fire"" is a 1957 popular song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie ""Jamboree"". It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by ""Rolling Stone"". The song is in AABA form. The song sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States and sold over five million copies, making it both one of the best-selling singles in the United States, as well as one of"
"the most successful recordings by Jerry Lee Lewis on the Sun label. The song appeared in a new recording by Jerry Lee Lewis in the 1989 Orion Pictures biopic ""Great Balls of Fire!"" during the closing credits. ""Lewis Boogie"" is featured in the 2005 Johnny Cash biopic ""Walk the Line"". It was performed by Waylon Payne in the film and its soundtrack. In 2007, the song was featured on the live album ""Last Man Standing Live"", recorded in 2006 in collaboration with other musicians. Robert Palmer writes that the song ""was a mixture of local black influences, the hillbilly boogie"
"and they were married on August 25, 1975. He was a cousin of former Texas Republican State Senator Kim Brimer. Wilson died at age forty from a cerebral hemorrhage in New York City on January 16, 1989, and was buried at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston five days later, on what would have been his 41st birthday. Released after his death, Wilson's final film was ""Great Balls of Fire!"", the biopic of Jerry Lee Lewis, where he played American record producer Sam Phillips. He had been cast in the Coen brothers' film ""Miller's Crossing"" at the time of his death,"
"Jerry Lewis Joseph Levitch (March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017), known worldwide as Jerry Lewis, was an American comedian, director, actor, producer, singer, screenwriter and humanitarian, whose career spanned eight decades and was nicknamed ""The King of Comedy"". He was known for his partnership with Dean Martin as the groundbreaking act of Martin and Lewis. Lewis went on to star in, write, produce and direct many motion pictures, such as ""The Delicate Delinquent"", ""The Sad Sack"", ""Rock-A-Bye Baby"", ""The Geisha Boy"", ""Don't Give Up The Ship"", ""Visit to a Small Planet"", ""Cinderfella"", ""The Bellboy"", ""The Ladies' Man"", ""The Errand"
"the 1989 Jerry Lee Lewis bio-pic, ""Great Balls of Fire!"" The film starred Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder, the latter of whom appeared in Nixon's video for ""Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child."" Throughout the late '80s, Nixon and Roper produced several satirical pieces lampooning contemporary celebrities, such as MTV VJ Martha Quinn, in ""Stuffin' Martha's Muffin,"" and Rick Astley and Deborah Gibson, in the aforementioned ""Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant ..."" Nixon appeared in several promotional spots for MTV during this period, but the network's decision not to air the video for ""Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant ..."""
"part of the scene, people like Exene Cervenka, Jack Grisham, Henry Rollins, Mike Watt, Jane Wiedlin and others who wrote chapters. Doe wanted it to be a collective recollection, not just one person's perspective of the time. In the 1989 biographical film ""Great Balls of Fire!"", Doe played Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin-turned-father-in-law J. W. Brown. He starred in the 1992 film ""Roadside Prophets"" and in the 1998 short ""Lone Greasers"". Other movie acting credits include ""Road House"", ""Vanishing Point"", ""Salvador"", ""Boogie Nights"", ""The Specials"", ""The Good Girl"", ""Gypsy 83"", ""Wyatt Earp"", ""Border Radio"", ""Pure Country"", ""The Outsiders"", and ""Brokedown Palace""."
"Knox, and Dick Clark. The recording was also released in the UK on London Records. Great Balls of Fire ""Great Balls of Fire"" is a 1957 popular song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie ""Jamboree"". It was written by Otis Blackwell and Jack Hammer. The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by ""Rolling Stone"". The song is in AABA form. The song sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States and sold over five million copies, making it"
"the recording session for ""Great Balls of Fire,"" a song he initially refused to record because he considered it blasphemous (""How can...How can the devil save souls? What are you ""talkin' about""?"" he asks Phillips during one heated exchange). Lewis also endured years of condemnation from his cousin, evangelist Jimmy Lee Swaggart, who never passed up an opportunity to criticize Lewis's lifestyle. In the 1990 documentary ""The Jerry Lee Lewis Story"", an intense Lewis, who could quote the Bible backwards and forwards, explains to the interviewer, ""The Bible don't even speak of religion. No word of religion is even in"
"Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and pianist, often known by his nickname, The Killer. He has been described as ""rock & roll's first great wild man."" A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis. ""Crazy Arms"" sold 300,000 copies in the South, but it was his 1957 hit ""Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"" that shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with ""Great Balls of Fire"", ""Breathless"" and ""High School Confidential"". However, Lewis's rock and roll"
"playing himself escorted by a large entourage. Milton Berle was in town performing at another hotel while Lewis was shooting the picture and agreed to make an appearance as himself and in a dual role as another bellboy. Comedian (and future co-writer with Lewis on many of Jerry's subsequent films) Bill Richmond does several cameos as Stan Laurel. Professional golfer Cary Middlecoff, the ""Golf Doctor,"" appeared as himself. Lewis also appears as a fictional version of himself (credited in the opening credits as ""Joe Levitch"", which is his birth name). Principal photography took place from February 8 to March 5,"
"Lewis on piano and vocals, Keith Richards on guitar, Mick Fleetwood on drums, and Gary Busey on vocals. The song appeared in the 1989 Orion Pictures biopic ""Great Balls of Fire!"" in a new recording by Lewis. The song also appeared on the motion picture soundtrack album on Polydor Records. The song was released on May 20, 1958 as a Sun single, Sun 296, backed with ""Fools Like Me"" in 1958 and reached No. 21 on the ""Billboard"" Hot 100, No. 9 on the country chart, No. 5 on the R & B chart, and No. 12 on the British"
"in the Garden of Good and Evil"", ""Pink Cadillac"", ""Any Which Way You Can"", ""Bronco Billy"", ""Every Which Way But Loose"", ""Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"", and ""High Plains Drifter"". In the 1980s, Lewis was also a member of musical storytelling group Celestial Navigations with musician and songwriter Geoff Levin. Lewis was married four times and had 10 children, including Oscar-nominated actress Juliette Lewis. On April 7, 2015, Lewis died of a heart attack at age 79 in his Woodland Hills residence. Geoffrey Lewis (actor) Geoffrey Bond Lewis (July 31, 1935 – April 7, 2015) was an American character actor. Lewis was"
"of Jerry Lee Lewis in ""Great Balls of Fire!"" (1989). In 1989, he also appeared throughout the Bonnie Raitt music video for the song ""Thing Called Love."" Quaid's career lost steam in the early 1990s, after he fought anorexia nervosa brought on when he lost 40 pounds to play the tuberculosis-afflicted Doc Holliday in ""Wyatt Earp"" and recovered from a cocaine addiction. He continued to garner positive reviews in a variety of films, however. Quaid was also the guest star of a season 2 episode of ""Muppets Tonight"" (1997). He starred in the lead role in the 1996 adventure film"
"a scene in which Goose and Maverick (played by Anthony Edwards and Tom Cruise, respectively) belt out ""Great Balls of Fire"" while seated at the piano. The now famous line by Meg Ryan, ""Goose, you big stuuuuuud! Take me to bed or lose me forever!"" was uttered in the dining area of Kansas City Barbeque. The bar was also used in the final scene, where the song ""You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"" is heard playing on the jukebox. On June 26, 2008, a fire destroyed the entire building. San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman, Maurice Luque, described the building as ""gutted""."
"by knockout. Though he had always abstained from alcohol, Lewis worked as a liquor salesman for a Baltimore company near the end of his career. He had two brothers who boxed professionally; Christy and Paul. Christy was a club fighter, who often appeared in preliminary bouts before him. Paul was a Middleweight who fought feature bouts during the mid-1940s, primarily in Oakland. Lewis died in Berkeley, California, in 1974 at the age of 59. He had suffered from emphysema and Parkinson's. Lewis was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1994. Lewis is portrayed by Troy Amos-Ross in"
"Jerry Lee Lewis (album) Jerry Lee Lewis is the debut album by American musician and rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, released in 1958 on Sun Records. The album featured Lewis's hit ""High School Confidential"", but producer Sam Phillips did not include Lewis's bigger hits such as ""Great Balls of Fire"" and ""Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On."" The album is sometimes referred to as ""High School Confidential"". The back cover of the LP feature a large picture of Sun Records President Sam Phillips admiring Lewis at the piano in the famous studio at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee."
"legends Charley Pride, Eddy Arnold, rock-n-roll band U2, and many others. Ferguson appeared as himself in the U2 film, ""Rattle and Hum"", and portrayed his mentor and once real-life boss, Jack Clement in the Jerry Lee Lewis film, Great Balls of Fire!. Ferguson maintains a recording studio in Nashville, and resides in nearby Goodlettsville, Tennessee, near his boyhood home. Now, he is on tour with Swedish singer-songwriter Anna Ternheim for whom he produced her album The Night Visitor (album). David R. Ferguson David R. ""Fergie"" Ferguson (born July 2, 1962 in Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee) began in the mid-1980s engineering"
"CBS and executive-produced the film ""Great Balls of Fire!"", starring Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis. In 1990, he co-wrote and produced ""Marked for Death"", with Steven Seagal. In 1992, he produced Steven King’s ""Sleepwalkers"", and co-wrote ""Cool World"" for director Ralph Bakshi. In 2000, he executive-produced ""Who Killed Atlanta's Children?"" for Showtime. Grais also oversaw production on the syndicated series, ""The Immortal"". Michael Grais Michael Grais is an American screenwriter, best known as the co-writer of ""Poltergeist"" (1982). He has also produced such movies as ""Great Balls of Fire!"" (1989, executive producer), ""Marked for Death"" (1990) and ""Sleepwalkers"" (1992)."
"Fight for Life (film) Fight For Life is a 1987 American made-for-television drama film starring Jerry Lewis (in his television film debut), Patty Duke and Morgan Freeman. It was originally broadcast on March 23, 1987 on the ABC. Dr. Bernard Abrams (Jerry Lewis), an Ohio optometrist, and his wife Shirley Abrams (Patty Duke) have a six-year-old daughter that suffers from a rare form of epilepsy. The child's paraplegic doctor (Morgan Freeman) cares for her. As for the little girl's parents, they need to have a drug approved from the Food and Drug Administration. However, the process is slow and they"
"try and cram product down people's throats. Believe me, just before that happened, Jerry was the hottest thing in America."" ""Jerry Lee's Greatest"" includes mostly later cuts from Lewis's run at Sun, with AllMusic's Cub Koda suggesting that, ""While tracks like ""Let's Talk About Us,"" ""What'd I Say,"" and ""As Long as I Live"" have their own charm, this set simply isn't the place to start a Jerry Lee collection..."" The album includes Lewis's biggest hit, ""Great Balls of Fire,"" which had been left off of his debut LP. Side A Side B Jerry Lee's Greatest Jerry Lee's Greatest is"
"Allison Anders' ""Border Radio"" (1987) and ""Sugar Town"" (1999); Patrick Swayze vehicle ""Road House"" (1989); the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic ""Great Balls of Fire!"" (1989); the independent feature ""Roadside Prophets"" (1992), in which he starred with Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys; the Lawrence Kasdan Western ""Wyatt Earp"" (1994); Paul Thomas Anderson's ""Boogie Nights"" (1997); Miguel Arteta's ""The Good Girl"" (2002); Craig Mazin's ""The Specials"" (2002); and Todd Haynes's ""I'm Not There"" about Bob Dylan (2007). He was a regular cast member of the television series ""Roswell"" on The WB and UPN, and made a memorable appearance as an aging"
"in the getaway car following a bank robbery committed by the young leads. His work includes the 1944 musical ""Minstrel Man"", and the musical sequences for ""The Jolson Story"". Toward the end of Lewis's career, he worked in television, directing mostly westerns: ""The Rifleman"", ""Bonanza"", ""The Big Valley"", ""Gunsmoke"", and the pilot for ""Branded"". Lewis suffered a major heart attack at the age of 46, but continued working until his 59th birthday in April 1966, at the end of the 1965–66 TV season. He later lectured at film schools and fan gatherings as well as at retrospectives such as the"
"incompetent detective in ""Eat and Run"" (1986), the pistol-wielding psychopath stalking Jamie Lee Curtis in 1989's ""Blue Steel"", and the lead in Paul Mazursky's Oscar-nominated ""Enemies: A Love Story"" (1989). He starred as Jerry Lewis's character's son in the multi-episode ""Garment District Arc"" of the television crime series ""Wiseguy"" (1988). He portrayed two well-known attorneys in films based on actual events, playing defense attorney Alan Dershowitz in the drama ""Reversal of Fortune"" (1990), based on the trial of Claus von Bülow. and defense attorney Robert Shapiro in the television film ""American Tragedy"" (2000), the story of the O. J. Simpson"
"of the ""Flowers in the Attic"" TV film series based on the Dollanganger novel series by V.C. Andrews. Jason Lewis (actor) Jason Lewis (born June 25, 1971) is an American actor and former fashion model. He is known for his role as Jerry ""Smith"" Jerrod on the HBO series ""Sex and the City"". Lewis was born in Newport Beach, California, to Nancy, a nurse, and Gregory Lewis, a judge; his parents are divorced. He has three siblings, Sean, Katie and Nicole. He grew up in Los Alamitos, California, and graduated from Los Alamitos High School. He attended college at San"
"pop charts. The single reached No. 13 on the Canadian charts. The single was also certified Gold by the RIAA. The Beatles performed and recorded the song live with Paul McCartney on vocals at the ""Get Back""/""Let It Be"" sessions in Twickenham Film studios on January 6 and 26, 1969. The song was also featured in the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic ""Great Balls of Fire!"" (1989). Both Adam Faith and Cliff Richard recorded the song in 1958. The Refreshments recorded the song in 2008. The song was also recorded by Johnny Worth, Mike Berry, Marty Wilde, Ol' 55, The Blasters,"
"his left hand following an accident with a circular saw in the 1950s, he was still able to play well. Based around Beale Street, in Memphis, as that area started to degenerate, Laury traveled around Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Despite differing fortunes, his friendship with Slim did not diminish over the years, up to Slim's death in 1988. Laury recorded his debut album in his late seventies. A concert with a full band was recorded in 1980. A 1980 Paris concert was released by Indigo Records in France. The 1989 Dennis Quaid film ""Great Balls of Fire!"" portrayed the young"
"Geoffrey Lewis (actor) Geoffrey Bond Lewis (July 31, 1935 – April 7, 2015) was an American character actor. Lewis was known for his film roles alongside Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood. He typically played villains. He also played a bodyguard in ""Double Impact"". Lewis was born July 31, 1935, in Plainfield, New Jersey, but spent much of his youth in Wrightwood, California. He took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City and performed off-Broadway and at regional theaters in Massachusetts. He tried breaking into Hollywood in the 1960s. Lewis appeared in TV series such as ""Bonanza"", ""Gunsmoke"","
"Elvis Presley's ""Don't Be Cruel"" and ""Paralyzed"", Chuck Berry's ""Brown Eyed Handsome Man"", Pat Boone's ""Don't Forbid Me"" and Presley doing an impersonation of Jackie Wilson (who was then with Billy Ward and the Dominoes) on ""Don't Be Cruel"". Lewis's own singles (on which he was billed as ""Jerry Lee Lewis and his Pumping Piano"") advanced his career as a soloist during 1957, with hits such as ""Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"", a Big Maybelle cover, and ""Great Balls of Fire"", his biggest hit, bringing him international fame, despite criticism for the songs, which prompted some radio stations to boycott"
"in Memphis. As of summer 2018, Lewis is still actively performing in concert. Along with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison, Lewis received a Grammy in the spoken-word category for the very rare album of interviews released with some early copies of the ""Class of '55"" album in 1986. The original Sun cut of ""Great Balls of Fire"" was elected to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and Lewis's Sun recording of ""Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On"" received this honor in 1999. Only recordings which are at least 25 years old and have left a lasting impression can"
"Adam Williams (actor) Adam Williams (born Adam Berg; November 26, 1922 – December 4, 2006) was an American film and television actor. Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa. A veteran ""bad guy"" actor of 1950s film and TV, he began his career after distinguished World War II military service as a United States Navy pilot, for which he received the Navy Cross. In 1952, Williams played the lead, a Los Angeles woman killer, in the film ""Without Warning!"" In 1953, he was cast as Larry, a car bomber, in ""The Big Heat"". He had a leading role in the"
"Bright Lights, Big City (film) Bright Lights, Big City is a 1988 American drama film directed by James Bridges, starring Michael J. Fox, Kiefer Sutherland, Phoebe Cates, Dianne Wiest and Jason Robards, and based on the novel by Jay McInerney, who also wrote the screenplay. It was the last film directed by Bridges, who died in 1993. The film follows one week in the life of 24-year-old Jamie Conway. Originally from Pennsylvania, Jamie works as a fact-checker for a major New York magazine, but because he spends his nights partying with his glib best friend Tad and his abuse of"