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.