[1][2] When Bottoms was 16 years old, he was on the set of The Last Picture Show, in which his older brother Timothy starred, when the director Peter Bogdanovich decided to give him a screen test.

He ended up in the movie as the character of Billy, who has no spoken lines but plays a pivotal role in the drama.

Bottoms may be best remembered for his role as surfer Lance B. Johnson, a Navy Gunner's Mate stationed on a river boat in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

Bottoms acquired hookworm during the chaotic production in the Philippines, and the parasite "wrecked his liver".

[3] At age 53, Bottoms died of glioblastoma multiforme, a type of brain tumor, on December 16, 2008.