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Biographical Information
Portrayer(s) Dick Callinan (The Exorcist)
Scott Wilson (The Ninth Configuration)
You're gonna die up there.

–Regan to Capt. Cutshaw

Captain Billy Cutshaw is a character appearing in The Exorcist and The Ninth Configuration. He is portrayed by Dick Callinan in The Exorcist and by Scott Wilson in The Ninth Configuration.

History[]

Captain Billy Cutshaw was an astronaut and among the prominent guests during Chris MacNeil's party at the MacNeil Residence. Later on, a possessed Regan MacNeil, blurts out to him that he's going to die in space, urinating in front of him and other party goers. When Cutshaw was going to go into space, he aborted the mission because he had an extreme nervous breakdown. He committed himself to an institution.[1]

See the stars? So cold, so far, and so very lonely. Oh, so lonely. All that space… just… empty space. And so far from home. I’ve circled round and round this house, orbit after orbit. Sometimes I wonder what it’d be like never to stop, and circle alone up there forever. And what if I got there – got to the moon – and couldn’t get back? Sure, everyone dies, but I’m afraid to die alone, so far from home.

–Capt. Billy Cutshaw, The Ninth Configuration

Notes and trivia[]

  • Blatty on rewriting Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane as The Ninth Configuration: "After The Exorcist, I decided that I could develop the story a great deal. So I rewrote it and fleshed it out, Cutshaw became the astronaut in the Exorcist that Regan warns about going into outer space and fully developed the deeper implications and theological themes."[2] [3]

References[]

  1. Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra. "The Other Exorcist: William Peter Blatty's The Ninth Configuration". 4:3. 4:3, 8 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2017.
  2. McCabe, Bob. The Exorcist: Out of the Shadows. Omnibus Press. 1999. Print.
  3. "The Ninth Configuration (1980) - Trivia", IMDb, 1990-2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016. Web.
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