JULY 13 • 2023 | 67

Business launch the 
careers of Armstrong, 
Bronson Pinchot, Rebecca 
DeMornay and Joe 
Pantoliano, it made its 
largely unknown 19-year-
old leading man Tom 
Cruise a star.
The 40th anniversary of 
the movie’s release is on 
Aug. 5.

 “I never thought I’d have 
a movie career,” Armstrong 
recalls. “I was a New York 
stage actor. I thought the 
movie would just be a fluke.”
Armstrong was so sure 
that he would never make 
another movie that he 
kept a journal during the 
filming of Risky Business, 
and excerpts from that 
diary were published in his 
2017 book, Revenge of the 
Nerd. For example, here is 
Armstrong relating his first 
impressions of Cruise: 
“The first time I met him 
was at the production office 
the day I arrived in Chicago. 
He smiled on seeing me, 
giving me my first glimpse of 
those extraordinary chops, 
all white and straight and 
sharp and in perfect align-
ment, which instantly made 
me feel self-conscious about 
my own teeth. He appeared 
so … clean. Then he called 
me ‘Miles.’ He always called 
me by my character’s name. 
At the time, I thought it was 
part of his process. It could 
be he just didn’t know my 
name.” 
 And here is his 
description about what 
filming the opening poker 
scene was like:
“Finally, on July 7, the five 
of us sat around the poker 
table as the cameras rolled 
on Risky Business for the first 
time It was rugged going at 

first… but then everything 
came together, and it stayed 
cooking. All told, each of 
us smoked 10 cheap cigars 
apiece — before lunch, mind 
you. We were nauseous 
through a good portion of 
the day.”
Thanks to Risky Business, 
roles became easier to 
come by for Armstrong, 
who made his first appear-
ance in the Revenge of the 
Nerds franchise the very next 
year, in 1984. Playing the 
nose-picking, belching slob 
Dudley “Booger” Dawson, 
one would be hard pressed 
to think that Armstrong 
would years later be able to 
do a 180-degree turn and 
play the real life Turkish-
American philanthropist 
and record producer Ahmet 
Ertegun in the 2004 biop-
ic Ray.
So ingrained in pop cul-
ture consciousness is Dudley 
Dawson that, when Seth 
MacFarlane co-created the 
animated series American 
Dad!, it was widely assumed 
that he modeled the char-
acter of Schmuely “Snot” 
Lonstein after Booger. And 
with Armstrong voicing the 
part — he says the series 
has just been picked up for 
another two years — that 
only helped lend more cre-

dence to the speculation.
“Seth had been a big fan 
of the Nerd movies, and he 
definitely wanted me in the 
show as sort of a tip of the 
cap to the films,” Armstrong 
admits. “Did I expect a ver-
sion of Booger? I guess I did, 
but the part has nothing to 
do with Booger.

 “Booger was disgusting,” 
adds Armstrong. “Snot is 
just a nice supportive friend; 
he’s just a nice Jewish boy.”

 

JOINING THE TRIBE
Armstrong became a nice 
Jewish boy himself in 2009. 
Divorced from the singer 

Cynthia Carle, Armstrong 
found his beshert in 1994 
when he tied the knot with 
television writer and produc-
er Elaine Aronson. But the 
couple’s interfaith marriage 
changed when their daugh-
ter, Lily, who had been born 
in 1996, celebrated her bat 
mitzvah in 2009.
Lily’s bat mitzvah was the 
reason Armstrong says he 
converted. “During the High 
Holy Days, it just hit me. I 
remember turning to Elaine 
at synagogue and saying, ‘I’m 
gonna do it; I’m going to 
convert.’

 “I wanted to be part of 

continued on page 68

LEFT: A then 28-year-old Curtis 
Armstrong in a scene from Risky 
Business, which celebrates the 
40th anniversary of its release on 
Aug. 5, 2023.

COURTESY OF OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

COURTESY OF CURTIS ARMSTRONG

BELOW: Curtis Armstrong (center) in 
a production of William Shakespeare’s 
The Tempest at Oakland University’s 
Meadow Brook Theater.

