May 17, 1955

Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Bill moved to Los Angeles at 18 where he found work in the film industry as a
set dresser for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his film debut in
the Corman film Crazy Mama (1975) directed by Jonathan Demme. Moving to New
York, he studied acting under Stella Adler at New York University. After
landing a small role in Stripes (1981), Bill found steady work in low-budget
films and TV. He also directed, wrote and produced award-winning short films
including Fish Heads (1982) which ai... ... (read more...) red on "Saturday Night Live" (1975). His
first appearance in a James Cameron film was a small role in The Terminator
(1984) followed hard by his very memorable performance as Private Hudson in
Aliens (1986) and as the nomadic vampire Severen in Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark
(1987). Bill also appeared in John Hughes' Weird Science (1985), as Wyatt's
sadistic older brother Chet. Although he continued to work steadily in film and
TV, his big break did not come until his lead role in the
critically acclaimed film-noir One False Move (1992). This quickly led to strong
supporting roles as Wyatt Earp's naive younger brother Morgan in Tombstone (1993)
and as Fred Haise, one of the three astronauts in Apollo 13 (1995), as well as in
James Cameron's offering True Lies (1994).