Kevin DiCicco, Owner of Buddy, the Canine Star of ‘Air Bud,’ Dies at 63
He found the dog near his Sierra Nevada cabin in 1989, and the pooch went on to star in the 1997 film.
He was not on the list.
Kevin DiCicco, who as the owner of the basketball-playing golden retriever named Buddy helped tip off the lucrative, long-running Air Bud franchise, has died. He was 63.
DiCicco, who suffered from respiratory issues and had a recent bout with homelessness, died Saturday in hospice care in San Diego, his brother Mark told TMZ.
DiCicco adopted Buddy after finding him near his Sierra
Nevada cabin in 1989. He trained the dog to play basketball, baseball,
football, soccer, etc., and they appeared on America’s Funniest Home Videos and
on installments of David Letterman’s “Stupid Pet Tricks.”
“My obsession with sport, and his obsession with ball playing, the combination of the two, created this tremendous canine athlete,” DiCicco said of Buddy in a 2024 interview.
He launched Air Bud Productions, and the first film, 1997’s Air Bud, directed by Charles Martin Smith, features Buddy as a circus dog who escapes his cruel clown master (Michael Jeter) and leads Josh Framm’s (Kevin Zegers) school basketball team to a championship.
The family-friendly movie, from Keystone Entertainment and Disney’s Miramax label, grossed $23 million on a $3 million budget and was followed by a big-screen sequel, Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1988), and direct-to-video releases in 2000, ’02, ’03, ’06, ’08, ’09, ’11 and ’12 (featuring such titles as Air Buddies, Snow Buddies and Santa Buddies). And another Air Bud film is on the way.
Buddy died in February 1998 at age 9 — he only appeared in
the first film — but DiCicco bred and trained three of his offspring to keep
things going.
Even though the films by some estimates have raked in more than $200 million, DiCicco said he didn’t receive much of the profits.
“They are so cleverly crafted to make sure that these films don’t really ever receive the big money,” he said. “That’s why we now find ourselves in a position of instead of enjoying those twilight years and sliding into retirement, we’re almost having to start over.”
DiCicco said he lost his job as a property manager during
the pandemic, became homeless and clinically depressed and developed COPD from
using medical marijuana, forcing him to use an oxygen tank to help him breathe.
Money from a GoFundMe page helped him keep going.
Writer
Treasure Buddies (2012)
Treasure Buddies
4.4
Video
character created by: "Air Bud"
2012
Spooky Buddies (2011)
Spooky Buddies
4.6
Video
character "Air Bud" created by
2011
Santa Buddies (2009)
Santa Buddies
4.6
Video
character "Air Bud"
2009
Space Buddies (2009)
Space Buddies
4.3
Video
character "Air Bud"
2009
Snow Buddies (2008)
Snow Buddies
5.1
Video
character "Air Bud"
2008
Abigail Breslin, Dominic Scott Kay, Josh Flitter, Skyler
Gisondo, and Spencer Fox in Air Buddies (2006)
Air Buddies
4.7
Video
character "Air Bud" (as Kevin Dicicco)
2006
Air Bud: Spikes Back (2003)
Air Bud: Spikes Back
4.1
Video
based on the character "Air Bud" created by
2003
Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch (2002)
Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch
4.4
Video
character "Air Bud"
2002
Air Bud: World Pup (2000)
Air Bud: World Pup
4.5
Video
character "Air Bud"
2000
Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998)
Air Bud: Golden Receiver
4.6
character "Air Bud"
1998
Air Bud (1997)
Air Bud
5.4
character "Air Bud"
1997
Actor
Air Bud (1997)
Air Bud
5.4
Referee 2
1997
Additional Crew
Air Bud (1997)
Air Bud
5.4
trainer: Buddy
1997
Thanks
LeVar Burton in Reading Rainbow (1983)
Reading Rainbow
8.4
TV Series
special thanks
1995
1 episode
Self
Woof! It's a Dog's Life with Matthew Margolis
TV Series
Self
1998
1 episode
David Letterman in Late Night with David Letterman (1982)
Late Night with David Letterman
7.5
TV Series
Self
1992
1 episode
America's Funniest Home Videos (1989)
America's Funniest Home Videos
6.2
TV Series
Self
1990
1 episode
Archive Footage
Damien Duvot in Les Chroniques du Mea (2012)
Les Chroniques du Mea
6.7
TV Series
Self (archive footage)
2015
1 episod

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