Michael O’Keefe says cocaine was so common on the “Caddyshack” set that it was treated like a line item, and he admits he filmed scenes while high before quitting for good.
Page Six reports that the actor who played Danny Noonan described drug use on the 1980 comedy as casual, widespread, and even built into the production’s costs.
O’Keefe, now 71, said the film was shot over 11 weeks in the fall of 1979 alongside Ted Knight, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Rodney Dangerfield. In a recent interview, he did not soft-pedal what went on behind the camera.
“There was some miscellaneous item,” he said of the budget. “It was the 70s. That’s what was happening back then. People were just treating it like it was toothpaste, and you had to do it twice a day to stay healthy.”
O’Keefe said he took part before shooting scenes. He is not proud of the results.
“It was not my favorite memory because in retrospect I can see those moments on camera and I’m not too happy about them,” he said.
But he drew a hard line after that production. “But I can report to you that right after that movie, during that movie, was the last time I ever did anything like cocaine. I realized that it was a terrible thing to get involved [with], and like so many things in the drug world, it looked like fun, but in reality, it wasn’t.”
The wake-up call, he said, was the death of Doug Kenney, the co-writer and producer of “Caddyshack.” Kenney died in 1980 at 33 after walking off a cliff in Hawaii. The death was ruled a suicide.
O’Keefe remembered Kenney as “one of the most affable, intelligent, funny people in the world” who “was strung out on cocaine, got depressed, and committed suicide. It was truly a result of drug addiction, and that was a huge wake-up call.”
O’Keefe’s résumé runs far beyond the golf-course classic. He starred in “The Great Santini,” earned an Oscar nomination, and later worked on “Roseanne,” “Your Friends and Neighbors,” and “Michael Clayton.” He started working as a teen and has described a 50-year journey in the business. He became a father at 57.
He can now be seen in “A Break in the Rain,” directed by his old friend Don Scardino. In the film, his character has been on the road for ten years after his wife died of cancer and connects with a Nashville singer. O’Keefe said he was drawn to the story’s focus on family and reconnection.
“There’s a kind of emotional journey in the film and rediscovering how you reconnect to a family, and I think that’s one of the major themes,” he said.
He was plain about the gap between the screen and the grind. “It all looks like a lot of fun and exciting, and sometimes even glamorous, and all of that’s true, but the behind-the-scenes is so much different, and I’ve had a 50-year journey.”
“And I’ve really, really had some great experiences over the years and worked with some amazing people. So the fact that I’m still standing is kind of the happiest thing that I have to report.”
Hollywood spent decades selling rebellion as style. O’Keefe’s account is a reminder that the bill often came due off camera, and that some of the people who lived it finally told the truth about the cost.
