R.I.P. Buddy Duress: ‘Heaven Knows What’ And ‘Good Time’ Star Dead At 38

38-year-old Buddy Duress, known for his roles in the Safdie Brothers’ Heaven Knows What and Good Time, has died. His younger brother, Christopher Stathis, confirmed to People that Duress passed last November from “cardiac arrest from a drug cocktail.”

According to the outlet, he garnered his first acting credit in 2014’s Heaven Knows What, helmed by former directorial duo Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie. He went on to collaborate with them on Good Time, which debuted three years later, starring as Ray alongside Robert Pattinson‘s Connie Nikas, per Variety.

Other credits of his include an episode of Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack (2016), Person to Person (2017), Flinch (2021) and Funny Pages (2022).

Some online may have learned the tragic news from director Jay Karales, whose professional name is LowRes Wünderbred. He honored the actor on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) last Friday (Feb. 23), calling Duress “an absolute treasure.” Karales directed Duress in Mass State Lottery, which is slated to debut later this year.

He also appeared in a forthcoming completed short titled Skull, directed by Isaac Gabaeff, per IMDb.

Duress was born Michael Stathis in May 1985 in Queens, New York. The actor, who left an in-patient program after being released from Rikers Island, was “on the run” when he met Josh Safdie in 2013; he recalled that he spent “364 days” fleeing before being caught in 2014, per a 2017 interview with SSense. He was doing jail time during the premiere of Heaven Knows What at the New York Film Festival, per the New York Post.

The Post reported in 2019 that Duress had “been sent [to Rikers] some 10 times on charges ranging from heroin possession to identity theft.” The outlet also revealed that he had “threatened to burn his mom’s house down,” and was arrested while shooting Flinch.

Director Cameron Van Hoy and Duress’ mother, Jo-Anne, split his bail payment so that he could complete his work, but he ended up at Rikers again “on charges of menacing and criminal possession of brass knuckles as well as of a controlled substance,” per the Post.

Van Hoy mourned the loss of Duress to People, deeming the late actor “pure electricity on screen,” and “a kind person who loved making films.”