Buddy Duress (né Michael C. Stathis), who starred alongside Robert Pattinson in the Safdie brothers’ 2017 crime thriller “Good Time,” has died. He was 38.
Duress’ brother Christopher Stathis revealed to People on Tuesday that the actor died in November 2023 of “cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail.”
Duress was born in Queens, New York, in May 1985. He made his acting debut in Josh and Benny Safdie’s 2014 film “Heaven Knows What,” which also stars Caleb Landry Jones and Arielle Holmes. In “Good Time,” Duress portrayed Ray, a drug dealer who becomes Connie Nikas’ (Pattinson) partner in crime as the two attempt to retrieve a Sprite bottle containing acid.
Along with “Heaven Knows What” and “Good Time,” Duress worked on such films as “Person to Person” (2017), “The Great Darkened Days” (2018), “Beware of Dog” (2020), “PVT Chat” (2020), “Flinch” (2021) and “Funny Pages” (2022). Duress has two more unreleased projects: a short film titled “Skull” and Jay Karales’ debut feature “Mass State Lottery,” set to release this year.
Director-writer Karales, known professionally as LowRes Wünderbred, paid tribute to Duress on X/Twitter: “This man was an absolute treasure. Without a doubt, Buddy Duress was one of the most entertaining people I’ve ever met and his stories were unrivaled. I remember seeing him in Good Time in 2017 and saying, ‘That is what the future of acting needs to be. That guy.’”
“He brought a certain authenticity and charisma to the screen that you just don’t see anymore,” Karales continued. “It was a dream to get him in Mass State Lottery, and I feel privileged to have been his director and his friend.”
Duress is survived by his mother, Jo-Anne, and younger brother, Christopher.