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It most certainly does benefit somebody. I happen to have wondered those same things myself. Now that I know, Faith and I will definitely be paying Mr. Redden's coffee shop a visit. This is wonderful news.

holy crap. thanks tommy. at least somebody still has their priorities straight.
i always thought he was retarded too. but there is one more thing i have wondered about him-- how does he feel about being picked for that part b/c he looks like an Appalachian in-bred freak? i can't wait to visit his coffee shop, but i am a little nervous to finally see him in person--afraid that i'll say something really stupid like, "wow you really look as freakish as you did the movie".

I could have sworn he was retarded. Who but a 'tard could have pulled off that sideward glance when Burt Reynolds said, "you play a mean banjo, kid"? Exquisite.
I can get away with using words like "'tard", by the way, since I worked with a Down Syndrome fellow for the course of two years while in the U.S. Sort of like a Jewish person telling Jew-jokes.

actually he wasn't playing the banjo in the movie
there was a kid sitting behind him who put his hand through his shirt sleeve to fake playing it

Redden was not playing the guitar in the movie, he doesn't play and he couldn't manage to fake it, either, so another boy was hidden behind him with his arms stuck out, holding the banjo and going through the movements.

Not sure how I found this forum....On the same topic of Deliverence....years after that movie came out a coworker of mine told me a story of how he recognized Ned Beatty in a Deli in Millbrook N.Y. and proceeded to hide behind a shelf and squeel like a stuck pig. Ned gets major props for putting his acting career on the line with such a role....WEEEEEEEEEEE WEEEEEEEE, go Ned

http://www.theclaytontribune.com/articles/2004/01/05/news/news01.txt

Where are folks getting the idea he's not playing the banjo? Did they chop off his arms and break the other kid's shoulders so they could connect the second to the first on a second swing? Because, as I watch that scene, the Redden's arms connect to his shoulders, with no visible gap where anybody's arms could slip through, and he's swinging back and forth throughout. Or is it that he couldn't possibly play the banjo because he looks so strange?

He is playing the banjo, he also played it in Big Fish..by the entrance to utopia and did a spot on bulecollar tv ..he played a banjo playing redneck named ray in the skit "redneck dictionary. He isn't "retarded" although I would use that word myself but he isn't retarded...he has as jon voight claimed "a genetic imbalance - a product of his mother and brother"...so yes that makes him his own uncle. He was apparently a reasonable intelligent, likable talkative fellow..he now works as a cook/dishwasher and partial owner of a cafe' in Clayton Georgia named the "Cookie Jar Cafe'"

Redden was not playing, there was another boy's lower hand faking the string movements through his sleeves.

Redden is inbred but not retarded or albino.

He is in Big Fish as a cameo, he cant play banjo well.

The behind the scenes footage for the making of this movie states that they discovered Billy Redden for the part. However, he did not know how to play the banjo. So they had another boy crouch down behind him and he is doing the fretting of the banjo. That boy never got credit. Billy Redden was 15 years old at the time but in the second grade. People in the town of Clayton, GA did make fun of him. There is alot of behind the scenes footage and how they made the movie on the DVD for Deliverance.