Oscar Star 'Gary From Chicago' Just Freed From Life Sentence For Petty Theft

LOS ANGELES, CA — Gary Alan Coe, the man made famous overnight as "Gary from Chicago," the tour bus passenger dropped into the middle of the Oscars only to upstage the show, was a third-striker out of prison just three days when he hit the world stage.

After a whirlwind 24 hours that took him and his fiancée Vicki Vines from a Hollywood tour bus through the Oscars and on countless interviews since, Coe's entire history has been laid bare for public eager to know more about "Gary from Chicago."

Coe had been incarcerated for 20 years for stealing a bottle of perfume, one of many repeat offenders caught up in California's draconian Three Strikes Law, according to his public defender. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison but was released last week thanks to the newly revised Proposition 36, which allows third-strikers whose third offense was not violent to be resentenced.

Coe's release was so recent that as of Tuesday morning, he was still listed as an inmate on the California Department of Corrections' website, according to the Chicago Tribune.

“I spent this afternoon laughing and crying with Gary and Vicky,”Coe's public defender Karen Nash wrote on Facebook Monday. “For those of you who missed it, I spent years working on Gary’s case. He got a life sentence for stealing perfume in 1997, and we finally won release this year. He got out on Friday, and was sight-seeing with his lovely fiancé Vicky. If you watched the Oscars, you know the rest.”

Coe shared his elation in an interview with told ABC 7 Chicago.

"Change is possible," he tsaid. "It's a sad day to be in prison for 20 years and not be able to be a dad, granddad to your children. You know what my son told me today, man, and I almost come to tears. He said he's proud of me. So to hear your children say that they're proud of me means the world to me."

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"He's a really sweet, genuine, loving-type of dad. He's the best. I'm proud of him," Jacqui Williams, Coe's 36-year-old daughter who lives in Lafayette, Indiana, told the Tribune. Williams, also a South Shore native, missed the live Academy Awards telecast, but she had plenty of people telling her about it.

A California Department of Corrections spokeswoman told the Chicago Sun-Times that Coe was jailed in October of 1994 for grand theft exceeding $400 and was paroled two years later. He was then convicted of petty theft, which is why the state's harsh sentencing guidelines kicked in, she told the newspaper.

Coe had been scheduled to appear on Monday night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," but producers originally said the segment was cut for creative reasons, the Tribune reports. However, a source at the show told the Sun-Times on Tuesday that Coe's appearance was axed after learning of his prison time and wanting to avoid another potential Oscar-related fiasco.

One of the endearing parts of Coe's Sunday appearance was his impromptu, faux "wedding" with Vines that was "officiated" by Denzel Washington. Although the couple is planning for a July wedding, "Blackish" star Anthony Anderson offered another suggestion.

"The couple from Chicago, I am actually ordained to marry people, so if they are here, I will marry them," the actor told ABC 7. "It didn't really count when Denzel did it. I'm actually ordained to marry people in the state of California. So if they're around, I was trying to get them up here so I could marry them on this show. Why wait 'til July?"

More via ABC 7 Chicago and the Chicago Tribune

BY Patch Staffer Joe Vince and Paige Austin.

Gary Alan Coe — better known as "Gary from Chicago" — holds the Oscar statue of best supporting actor winner Mahershala Ali (right) during the 89th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26. (photo by Kevin Winter | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images)