Rockets Redglare

Rockets Redglare, born Michael Morra on May 8, 1949, was a quintessential New York underground figure whose life intertwined crime, addiction, and artistic expression. His early years were marked by turbulence: a teenage mother addicted to heroin, a father who vanished through deportation, and an aunt who briefly cared for him in Lindenhurst. By the time he was born he was already exposed to opioids, as doctors added an opiate derivative to his formula to ease withdrawal, setting a tragic precedent for his later battles with substance abuse. In the 1970s he entered the Kinsman Hall rehabilitation program, eventually rising to assistant residential director before returning to the chaotic streets of Manhattan where he adopted the moniker "Rockets Redglare" inspired by the fifth line of "The Star‑Spangled Banner." The East Village of the late 1970s and early 1980s became his stage, where he worked as a bouncer at the Red Bar, a roadie for the Hassles (featuring a young Billy Joel), and a bodyguard and drug supplier to punk icons Sid Vicious and Jean‑Michel Basquiat, even allegedly delivering the fatal dose of Dilaudid to Vicious and Spungen. Amid this darkness he cultivated a razor‑sharp wit, launching the Taxi Cabaret stand‑up nights at clubs like Pyramid and Club 57, where his storytelling earned him a reputation as a gifted raconteur. His film career began in 1985 with Eric Mitchell’s The Way It Is, followed by roles in Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law and mainstream titles such as After Hours and Desperately Seeking Susan, often cast as a hardened, seedy character that mirrored his lived experience. Despite appearing in over thirty films, his personal health deteriorated; by 2001 he succumbed to kidney and liver failure, cirrhosis, and hepatitis C, his body swollen from years of excess. Posthumously, documentaries like Rockets Redglare! and tributes in publications such as the Chicago Reader and The Stranger have cemented his legacy as a complex, compulsive hustler and a beloved fixture of New York’s avant‑garde scene.