Jack Frye as an assistant. However, the project was cancelled. Frye died February 3, 1959 in a car accident in Tucson, Arizona, exactly 33 years to the day after his founding of Standard Air Lines. The death received limited coverage, due to the deaths of famous musicians Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper in a plane crash on the same day. He was originally buried in Tucson, but now is at rest in Wheeler, Texas. In Martin Scorsese's 2004 biopic of Howard Hughes, "The Aviator", Frye was portrayed by actor Danny Huston. Jack Frye William John "Jack" Frye (March 18,
American Pie (song) of the crash that killed Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, that writing the first verse of the song exorcised his long-running grief over Holly's death and that he considers the song to be "a big song ... that summed up the world known as America". McLean dedicated the "American Pie" album to Holly. It was also speculated that the song contains numerous references to post-World War II American events (such as the murders of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner), and elements of culture, including 1960s culture (e.g. sock hops, cruising, Bob Dylan, The