Beat

Beat

Joan Vollmer Burroughs

William S. Burroughs

Sadie

Mary (as Patricia De Llaca)

Pharmacist

Allen Ginsberg

Lucien Carr

Jack Kerouac

Knife Sharpener

Julie

Bill Jr.

Lee

Heard

Dwight

Federale Sergeant

Federale Officer (as Kothan)

Woman at Angahuan

Man at Bar

UPI colleague

Maria (uncredited)

The trailer shows scenes not in the final version of the film. These seem to include scenes with Jack Kerouac and others from New York appearing only in brief flashback in the film. As well, a scene of William Burroughs reading a newspaper story to Joan about a fire at a zoo. The phrase "and the hippos were boiled in their tanks" which comes from this story was the title of the unpublished novel by Kerouac and Burroughs about the David Kammerer murder.

Lucien Carr: They'll probably give me the chair for this, huh?

Allen Ginsberg: I left Bill. Bill was sucking me dry. Bill is a psychic vampire. That's his phrase.

Lee: If you love your wife so much, why are you here with me?