NEWS
Betty Buckley’s scary horse fall
By Richard Johnson
July 1, 2015
Betty Buckley won’t have to act much to play bedridden Big Edie Beale in the Hamptons’ first production of “Grey Gardens: The Musical.”
The actress, who turns 68 on Friday, broke five vertebrae in a horse-riding accident in May.
“Fortunately, Big Edie spends most of the play on her back in bed,” Buckley told WBAZ’s Walker Vreeland of the production at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.
“I can’t believe the universe goes to such detail to prepare me for a part.”
Buckley was on her ranch in Texas riding horse Wild Man Bill, “the gentlest, sweetest guy,” when he lost his footing. “I thought he was going to fall on me, so I bailed.”
Dr. Daniel Cooper, who treats the Dallas Cowboys, overruled surgery, telling Buckley that Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had the same injury and kept playing football.
Buckley said, “If Tony Romo can do it, I can.”
