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Bill was born and raised in Kent, Ohio and attended Kent State University
from kindergarten clear through college and graduated 1977 with a Bachelor of
Science degree in speech-telecommunications. Bill was very active in high
school theater and music.
It was in college that Bill chose to concentrate full-time on his music
career, playing in several bands, including Climax-- who had the hit Precious And
Few in 1972--and the Classics IV. During the early 1980's he toured the country
with his own group called Expression.
In 1982, after a lengthy recovery from a severe injury while touring with
Expression, he moved to Chicago. He shifted his career in entertainment toward
modeling, and this led to acting. Bill studied at John Robert Powers in
Chicago and became an instructor there for the next two years while pursuing his
new career. Bill spent a lot of shoe leather knocking on doors during those
early days in Chicago, and landed his first modeling job using only his left hand,
holding a silver circle ring for a MasterCard print commercial. Bill's first
bit part in a movie came during the fall of 1982 in an American Playhouse
film titled "The Killing Floor". He played the part of a security guard. By the
following summer, Bill was doing featured bit parts and stand-in on several
films. Bill's first commercial also came while in Chicago when he happened to
knock on the door of Joe Saedelmeyer Productions. His secretary took a black
and white Polaroid of Bill, and two weeks later he auditioned for one of Joe's
commercials. He didn't get a part from that audition, but agreed to work as an
background artist in the commercial. On the day of the commercial, Joe came up
to Bill and asked him to read a line. Later that day Bill said the line in
the commercial as a principal perfromer. Bill also got his first speaking role
in Chicago, a one-liner, on the TV movie "The Impostor" early in 1984 before
he moved to Dallas.
Bill ended up in Dallas after attending a modeling and talent convention in
New York City where he won first place in TV commercial and second in
commercial print.
Over the next five years in Dallas, Bill kept very busy doing several print
ads for magazines and other media-industrial shows. His movies included the
first "RoboCop." Bill also took time to attend film acting school for two years.
While in Dallas Bill actually played his first alien. He portrayed Mr. Spock
in an industrial at the Dallas Convention Center for the Oracle Software
Company.
It was in January of 1990 that Bill made the move to the Los Angeles area.
In the spring of 1992, he attended a week long seminar in Orlando, Florida,
where he met industry people from the Florida area. Bill returned to Florida in
the fall of 1992 and signed with agents in Tampa, Orlando and Miami. After a
short two to three weeks, he auditioned and won a job entertaining at Busch
Gardens new water park called Adventure Land. He was to portray a new life
animated character called " Fabian." Unfortunately, after only working opening
day at the park, Bill was injured in a car accident (hit from behind) and
hospitalized for 10 days. Bill lost the use of his legs for the next two months,
spending the time recovering at his family home in Ohio. In July of 1992, Bill
accepted a 16-week contract offer to work as a disc jockey for American Hawaii
Cruises. In January 1993, Bill finally returned to the Los Angeles area.
After returning to Los Angeles, Bill really began his life as an alien. It
all started when he met make-up designer Richard Snell and his girlfriend on the
feature film "Demolition Man." This led Bill to his first work on the TV
movies of "Alien Nation." It was from there that he found himself working on
the hit cult series "Babylon 5" in their first season, and shortly thereafter
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". Bill worked all five seasons of "Babylon 5" plus
two TV movies for TNT, and Seasons 4 through 7 on "Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine". Bill did his first episode of Sliders on the 1998 season premiere episode
"Genesis" as a Kromag Guard and in 1999, he appeared in various human forms
throughout the season. Bill also worked with his friend Peter Jurasik from
"Babylon 5", on three "Sliders" episodes in 1999. During the 1999/2000 TV season,
Bill appeared in several episodes of Ally McBeal. Since then, Bill has
bounced around from show to show, including such hits as Star Trek: Voyager,
Enterprise, The X-Files, The Invisible Man, Drew Carey, Family Law, The District,
Crossing Jordan, Providence, and more recently, King of Queens, Will and Grace,
"Yes, Dear!", Friends, and now as a regular on "The Division" and the new HBO
Series "Carnivale" premiering in the fall of 2003. You can also 'spot' Bill in
the theater in the films "Alex and Emma" this summer, and this coming
christmas on TV in the TV movie " Secret Santa".
Bill's hobbies and pastimes include music, dancing, camping, remodeling
homes,traveling (especially weekends in Las Vegas), and making new friends.
In 1986, Bill wrote a book titled "The Professionals Talent Handbook: The
Guide To Getting Started". He currently teaches professional courses in Industry
Protocal and Professionalism.
Bill composed a song titled "The Crowning Glory" for the organization known
as National Campers and Hikers Association, now known as Family Campers and
RVers. The song was written for their teen queen pageant for which Bill served as
master of ceremonies for about 10 to 12 years, starting in 1983 when he wrote
the song. 'It was like the Bert Parks of this program' says Bill (ala the
Miss America Pageant).
Bill graced the pages of the "TV Guide" (July 5, 1997), and the August 1998
issue of "Galactic Alliance." Several interviews with Bill in 2001 can be
found in such publications as "The International Star Trek Magazine", "Explorer",
Pen & Quill, and "The Autograph Times"
Check out the upcoming appearances on this page to see when Bill will be in
your area making a personal appearance.
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