Speak about loyalty.

Betty Buckley has been staying on the Chateau Marmont for about 50 years. She first checked in when she landed the function of Abby Bradford, Dick Van Patten’s new spouse and stepmother to his youngsters in ABC’s Nineteen Seventies household comedy-drama “Eight Is Sufficient,” shortly after her massive display debut as gymnasium trainer Miss Collins in “Carrie.”

After half a century calling the Chateau her Los Angeles residence — she lives full-time at a ranch exterior of Fort Price, Texas — Buckley has plenty of tales.

“Oh, there are some wild ones,” the 76-year-old actor and singer says whereas nibbling on a fruit and cheese plate within the lodge’s foyer restaurant on a current weekday afternoon. She’s on the town selling her new horror film, “Imaginary.”

She shortly remembers changing into associates with John Belushi, first in New York Metropolis after which when he was one of many lodge’s most well-known residents (sadly, the “Saturday Night time Stay” star died in bungalow 3 of a heroin overdose in 1982.) “He would name me ‘Buckley’ and I might name him ‘Belushi,’” she remembers. “One evening, he referred to as me and mentioned, ‘Hey, Buckley, you need to go meet the Rolling Stones?’”

“We drive up Laurel Canyon to this massive home,” she continues. “We went in and smoked just a little pot and we had been going from room to room. In a single room was this Rolling Stone together with his entourage, then the following room there was a pool desk with one other Rolling Stone and his entourage, then the following was within the kitchen together with his entourage. It was a tremendous surrealistic night.”

The lodge means a lot to Buckley that she insisted on burying her late Yorkshire terrier named Rags in a Chateau backyard about 30 years in the past.

“My brother [television director Norman Buckley] mentioned, ‘You may’t bury her there,’” Buckley says. “I mentioned, ‘I’m going to. We lived there collectively for years.’”

She and a good friend discovered a distant spot however after unsuccessfully attempting to dig the grave with some rocks, Buckley requested a entrance desk clerk if that they had a shovel. “They advised me there was one within the basement,” Buckley says. “That’s how funky this place was — they didn’t ask me what it was for.”

Rags was laid to relaxation they usually coated the small plot with rocks and flowers: “We advised Rags tales and sang a few Methodist hymns. Isn’t that nice?”

Even with the success of “Eight Is Sufficient,” Buckley had Broadway on her thoughts ever since making her Broadway debut in 1969 as Martha Jefferson within the musical “1776.” Whereas filming the TV present, she flew again to New York each six weeks for voice classes. One of many collection’ producers was not impressed. “He mentioned, ‘You could have such delusions of grandeur. You’ll by no means sing on Broadway once more,’” Buckley remembers. “He mentioned, ‘You’d be fortunate should you performed American moms for the remainder of your life.’ I mentioned, ‘We’ll see.’ Once I left the ‘Eight Is Sufficient,’ I used to be so delighted to play a cat.’”

And never simply any cat. Buckley’s originated the function of Grizabella in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Cats” in 1982. The work, which included her iconic efficiency of “Reminiscence,” gained her a Tony.

Buckley nonetheless performs concert events (she has launched 18 albums), however one other Broadway present might not come so simply.

“That may be very exhausting,” Buckley says. “It could depend upon the half and the group, however the stage of stamina this previous yr has been actually difficult.” The bodily tole of enjoying Norma Desmond in “Sundown Boulevard” in excessive heels led to a knee substitute following shoulder surgical procedure. “There’s a worth to be paid for doing lengthy runs,” Buckley says.

Her life on tv has included jail drama “Oz,” “Regulation & Order: Particular Victims Unit” and “Supergirl.” Her work in “Carrie” resulted in a number of extra horror motion pictures, together with “Break up,” and now director Jeff Wadlow’s “Imaginary,” during which she performs a cooky subsequent door neighbor of a household (DeWanda Sensible, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns and Pyper Braun) that’s being haunted by a teddy bear. “It’s proper up my alley when it comes to white-haired weirdos,” Buckley says, laughing.

She was amazed by manufacturing designer Meghan C. Rogers’ set for the scenes that happen in one other dimension as a result of they had been actual and never CGI. “It might be a freakin’ theme park,” Buckley says. “Bizarre, wild and fantastic.”

In an surprising profession transfer, Buckley is now a filmmaker in her personal proper with “The Mayfly,” an animated quick that she created, wrote and narrates. Directed by four-time Emmy-nominee Sue Perrotto with music by Grammy nominee Christian Jacob, the movie was impressed by a mayfly Buckley noticed flying inside New York’s Café Carlyle throughout a Judy Collins live performance. “The Mayfly” may have its world premiere on the American Documentary and Animation Movie Pageant in Palm Springs on March 24.

Discovering backers wasn’t simple. She first hit up 13 of a few of her wealthiest associates. “I solely heard again from three they usually all turned it down,” Buckley says. However then she discovered a pair who finance indie initiatives. “They referred to as me in tears saying they needed to do it,” Buckley says. “We’ve been engaged on it for 2 years and eight months. Animation takes a very long time, but it surely was value it. I’m so pleased with the movie.”