|
Billy Campbell
| Birth
Name: |
William
Oliver Campbell |
| Birthdate: |
July
7, 1959 |
| Birthplace: |
Charlottesville,
Virginia |
| Occupation: |
Actor |
Claim to Fame: 1999-:
Portrays single father Rick Sammler on Once and Again
Significant
Other(s):
Fiancée: Jennifer Connelly,
actress; met on filming of The Rockateer; together 1990-1995
Family:
Parents: Divorced when Campbell
was young
Siblings: has total of six; Bill is the oldest
Half-brother: David, aspiring actor as of 1999
Half-brother: John, screenplay writer
Awards:
1997: Ovation Award, Fortinbras
2000: People's Choice Award: Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Series, Once
and Again
Factoids:
Heir to the Champion Spark Plug
fortune
Campbell's television debut was as a guest star in Family Ties and Hotel;
became a regular, Luke Fuller, in the primetime series Dynasty
Education:
Baptist Military Academy, Fort Union,
Virginia
American Academy of Art, Chicago, Illinois (studied illustration), 1980
Ted Liss Studio for the Performing Arts
Second City Players Workshop, Chicago, Illinois
TV's hottest dad on baring his butt,
loving his gig and enjoying his renaissance
by Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel
Smith | October 29, 1999
After The Rocketeer crashed
at liftoff, Billy Campbell was lost in space. But with Once and Again
among the hottest of the new fall shows, his star is back on the rise--and the
heartthrob is savoring success the second time around.
 Back
in 1991, when you made The Rocketeer, folks in Hollywood were sure you
were going to become the next big thing. What happened?
I have no idea. I know the movie didn't make as much money as they'd wanted it
to. Plus, right after my next film [Bram Stoker's Dracula], I took off
for New York and stayed there for a year, so I kind of took myself out of the
running.
Let's just say, though, that it's nice to be having a renaissance.
So, does it feel all the more bizarre to become a
breakout heartthrob all these many years later?
[Laughs.] I don't exactly know what that means.
C'mon! You'll probably be deemed the Sexiest Man Alive
by People this year--or at least one of the sexiest.
I'll tell you something, if it translates to more work--or work on a higher
plane than I'm used to doing--then I'm happy for it. It certainly will mean
nothing else to me. I have no thoughts whatsoever about being a sex object or
whatever.
A lot of people are curious about your, um, status. We
know you were engaged for a while to your Rocketeer leading lady,
Jennifer Connelly, but never tied the knot. What about
| "I
wasn't aware how much my bare buns would be on. My head was facing the
other direction, so I couldn't tell what they were doing with
them." |
now?
Well, I'm not really partial to talking about it. But I am in love, and I'll
probably just leave it there.
You can't give us a name?
No. Besides, she's not a name anybody would know. She's not in the business. But
we've been together a little over a year.
You were quoted as saying you don't put much stock in
marriage as an institution. Would that be because of your parents' divorce?
Yeah, I would think so. I've seen quite a few marriages from that perspective. I
love the idea of marriage, but I'm not exactly sure how much the piece of paper
means to me.
Rick, your
character on Once and Again, is one charming guy, particularly with his
antics as a father. But do you ever think you would do things differently than
he does?
I don't have kids now, but I think I'd like to some day--and I'd like to think
I'd do well by them. But it's an enormously taxing and complex undertaking. You
have no way of knowing how you would react in different situations.
 That
aside, how much like Rick are you? So much of the plot has turned on the fact
that he is a needy person. Are you?
I've certainly experienced that in my life. I've grown up a lot in the last
couple of decades, and I'm not much that way anymore--not nearly as needy.
Isn't that one of the nice things about growing older?
Oh, my God! It's the major nice thing. Jeez, if I did have kids, it's one
of the things I'd like to impart early on--a sense of self-sufficiency.
How did you learn it?
Trial and error.
Your parents divorced shortly after you were born, and
you were raised in two cities--which one do you consider home?
I was born and mostly raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, but I went up every
summer to live with my father in Chicago. He's still there; I still go there.
And my mom is still in Virginia. I split my time in both places.
Where are you going for Thanksgiving?
Chicago.
And what about Christmas? Charlottesville?
Africa.
Okay. That's a far cry from Virginia...
I'm visiting a friend. But I have to try to get back before the Y2K thing
happens. I wouldn't want to be stuck over there. Plus, we're only off from,
like, the 17th of December to the 3rd of January.
| "If
it translates into more work, then I'm happy for it. But I have no
thoughts whatsoever about being a sex object." |
I'm sure the folks at ABC will be happy to know you're
so diligent. What can we look forward to from your relationship with Sela Ward's
character?
I don't know. My philosophy is that I'd rather not know. I have such trust in
[executive producers] Marshall Hersovitz and Ed Zwick and the rest of the
writers on the show. I go to work every day just whistling. I don't much care to
know. I'm sure they're going to make it interesting.
But I think it's bound to get more complicated. All the big, scary issues are
in the future. Like, if these two people are meant to be together--if they truly
love each other--what does that mean? You know? That looks like marriage,
possibly. And that's a huge issue.
Talking
about huge issues, how did you feel about showing your bare bottom to millions
of viewers?
Oh, I wasn't really aware of how much my bare buns were going to be on. My head
was facing the other direction from my buns, so I couldn't quite tell what they
were doing with them.
 You
say you've read complaints about the sexual nature of the show. Have the
producers ever been asked to tone it down?
Not that I know of. Not by the network or anyone like that.
Let's hope it stays that way. Has this burst of fame
had any major effects on your life?
It's given me the opportunity to go to work every day, to say good words, to try
to become a better actor. It's sort of a learning ground, kind of a little
school for me. I've never considered myself a very good actor, and I've done
some pretty bad stuff in the past, some pretty bad work.
Not many actors would own up to that. Can you volunteer
any examples?
I'm certainly not going to name anything. I haven't always been as diligent as I
should have been about acting, and part of that was because I never really,
truly thought of acting as what I did. You know what I mean?
Is that because you were an art student first?
Yes. When I was in commercial-art school in Chicago, I dropped in on an acting
class, and I thought it seemed a whole lot of fun and interesting...exciting.
Eventually, I ended up dropping the art and going into the acting class full
time.
So, why did you never truly consider yourself
| "I
always just figured, Well, this will be over soon, and I'll go back to
whatever--art school, maybe." |
to be "an actor"?
I always just figured, Well, this will be over soon, and I'll go back to
whatever--art school, maybe.
And so, most immediately, this show is a chance for me to get better--to be
in front of a camera every day of every week for nine months. And above and
beyond that--it hasn't happened yet, but I'm hoping it will--I'm hoping to have
access to better material and better feature films. I don't think of myself as
being able to do well with anything less than really good material. You know?
I'm not good enough to survive a bad script.
| 
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