Who was really playing the banjo in ‘Deliverance’?

The banjo player in the memorable “Dueling Banjos” scene in *Deliverance* was not played by actor Billy Redden, who portrayed Lonnie. The scene helped establish the film’s uneasy portrait of rural isolation, while the tune later became inseparable from its atmosphere of menace.

During filming, local teenager Mike Addis sat behind Redden and supplied the banjo-playing hands, while Redden mimed the strumming. Steve Mandel and Eric Weissberg recorded the music, with session musician Weissberg playing banjo; the single reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Composer Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith later won a songwriting credit and royalties, but chose to leave his name off the film’s end credits because he disliked the tune’s use in a violent film.