Gerrit Graham, Beef in Phantom of the Paradise, dies at 77

Gerrit Graham, the performer remembered as Beef, the electrocuted glam rock star in Phantom of the Paradise (1974), has died at 77. His family announced the death, which occurred on a Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter reported on 18 September 2026. He died in Rhinebeck, New York, according to Variety.

Graham was born in New York on Nov. 27, 1949. That starting point led to a working life across film, television and music, described by Variety as that of an actor, screenwriter and songwriter. Acting put him in front of the camera, screenwriting put him behind the story, and songwriting put him beside musicians in the studio.

In Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Graham played Beef. The character is a flamboyant glam rock singer, a performer in glitter and loud guitars, who is hired to front a stage show and dies by electrocution. The part called for comedy and menace in the same performance. It became the role with which many viewers first identified him, and it remained attached to his name through later decades.

In Pretty Baby (1978), he played the abusive boyfriend of Susan Sarandon's character. The role was a sharp turn from flamboyant stage performance to domestic menace. In Used Cars (1980), he appeared as one of the scheming salesmen. The part placed him inside an ensemble characterised by fast talk and double dealing.

Alongside screen work, Graham wrote music. He co-wrote “Victim or the Crime” with Bob Weir. That credit links him directly to the Grateful Dead, the long-running American rock band built around touring and live improvisation. It is a different kind of writing from screenwriting, where one serves actors on a set and the other serves musicians on a stage.

He was also known for his role in The Critic, as noted by The A.V. Club. The credit underlines how widely he moved between film roles, television work and music. For fans, this means a career that does not sit in one box. The same name appears alongside glam-rock stage roles, late-1970s drama credits, early-1980s comedy ensembles and in a Grateful Dead songbook.