Quote Originally Posted by rock_nog View Post
...without the extras, there would be no Swan, and the movie wouldn't be half as entertaining without Swan - just such a great villain).
Agreed. The character as villain is just as apropos today as he was then. It helped that Williams was both the embodiment and antithesis of Swan at that point in those days. Supposedly De Palma gave Williams' a lot of leeway as no one knew that story, at that time in the '70's music scene, as well as Williams. Extremely talented, he wrote many of the popular songs of the day both for himself and for other performers (he made The Carpenters... too bad he did not feed them as well) and was briefly considered a sex symbol in spite of his less than tall stature. Unfortunately, his similarity to Swan included an appreciation for intoxicants and between troubles with the music industry sharks and his own addictions, his career suffered until he finally got clean. I believe it was the cult popularity of Phantom', and himself by extension, that helped bring him back.