Billy Zane Biography

William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. (born February 24, 1966) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for playing Hughie in the thriller Dead Calm (1989), Kit Walker / The Phantom in the superhero film The Phantom (1996), Caledon Hockley in the epic romantic disaster film Titanic (1997), and for his television role as John Wheeler in the serial drama series Twin Peaks.

His other film credits include roles in the science fiction comedies Back to the Future (1985) and Back to the Future Part II (1989), the Western film Tombstone (1993), the horror film Demon Knight (1995), and the comedy-drama CQ (2001).

Early life

Zane was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Thalia and William George Zane, Sr., both of whom were amateur actors and founders of a school for medical technicians. His parents are both of Greek descent (from Chios through his mother and Mani through his father), and his family's original surname, "Zanikopoulos", was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents, who also raised him Greek Orthodox. He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress and singer.

After completing a year abroad in Switzerland at The American School in Switzerland (TASIS), Zane graduated from Francis W. Parker School and attended Harand Camp of the Theater Arts, located in Evanston, Illinois.

Career

1980s

Zane's first two screen roles were in the science fiction films Back to the Future in 1985 and Critters in 1986, around the same time he appeared in the music video for Sheena Easton's song "Do It For Love". In 1988 he played Tony Gambini alongside Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote: A Very Good Year for Murder. Zane also appeared in an episode of Matlock entitled "The Nurse". In 1989 he reprised his henchman role in Back to the Future Part II. Earlier that same year, Zane gained international recognition with the role of villain Hughie Warriner in the thriller Dead Calm, alongside Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill. He also starred in the NBC film, The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989).

1990s

Zane's first starring role was in a 1990 independent film, the low budget science fiction thriller Megaville. In 1990, he also co-starred in the film Memphis Belle, a film version of a 1944 documentary about a World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, as the bombardier. Zane also forayed into television work, and in 1991 he appeared as John Justice Wheeler in several episodes of David Lynch's hit TV-show Twin Peaks. In 1992 Zane co-starred alongside Tilda Swinton in the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. In 1993, he played the Shakespearean actor "Mr. Fabian" in Tombstone, and took a starring role in Sniper.

He also starred in a couple of Tales from the Crypt productions, including Tales From the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, where he played a henchman of Satan called The Collector, and the episode "Well-Cooked Hams", where he played a poorly skilled magician who killed to steal good tricks from other magicians. In 1996, Zane played the eponymous classic comic book hero in the big budget action film The Phantom, based on Lee Falk's comic.

Zane played the snobbish millionaire misanthrope Caledon Hockley in James Cameron's 1997/98 blockbuster Titanic. This role as Rose's (played by Kate Winslet) fianc earned him an MTV Movie Award nomination for "Best Villain" and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award. He was also nominated for a SAG award.

In 1998, he starred in and produced I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a silent film based on Ed Wood's last script, intended as a parody on bad filmmaking. He won several awards at the B-Movie Film Festival, including Best Movie and Best Actor, for this work. The year after, he starred opposite Timothy Dalton, Bruce Payne, Sean Pertwee and Leonor Varela (who became his fiance after shooting ended) in a TV-movie about Cleopatra. Zane played the part of Mark Antony.

The same year, he lent his voice to John Rolfe in Disney's Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World and voiced Etrigan the Demon in an episode of The New Batman Adventures.

2000s

Zane was instrumental in getting the critically acclaimed film The Believer made, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2001. In it, he portrayed neo-Nazi Curtis Zampf, and starred opposite Ryan Gosling. The same year, he also had a cameo as himself in the comedy Zoolander.

Zane appeared on Broadway in Chicago, where he played lawyer Billy Flynn.

Zane also had a recurring role in the television series Charmed in which he played poetry-loving ex-demon Drake. He also provided the voice of Ansem, the main antagonist of the 2002 video game Kingdom Hearts. He was replaced by Richard Epcar for the rest of the series from Kingdom Hearts II onwards.

In 2006, Zane starred in Arthur Allan Seidelman's West End production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks as an acerbic gay dance instructor opposite Claire Bloom. The same year, he appeared in the Turkish film Valley of the Wolves Iraq (Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak in Turkish), part of the Kurtlar Vadisi franchise. The film tells the story of the U.S. Army run amok in Iraq, eventually brought into check by a Turkish soldier. Zane plays Sam William Marshall, a cruel U.S. soldier who is the main antagonist in the film.

He took over Timothy Olyphant's role as Christina Applegate's ex-boyfriend on Samantha Who?. The show, however, was not renewed for the 2009-2010 season.

Zane is a principal at RadioactiveGiant, a film and television production and distribution company. Zane stars in the action/thriller film The Kill Hole.

2010s

In January 2017, Zane appeared in a commercial for KFC as a gold-colored Colonel Sanders to pitch the restaurant chains newest limited-time flavor, Georgia Gold Honey Mustard BBQ chicken.

Personal life

Zane was married to actress Lisa Collins from 1989 until 1995. He was also engaged for a time to Chilean actress Leonor Varela, his costar in the television film Cleopatra (1999).

Zane was later engaged to marry British model turned actress Kelly Brook, whom he met when starring with her in the movie Survival Island (2005), also known as Three. They split in April 2008, got back together again shortly thereafter, then ended the relationship in August 2008. Zane dated Croatian model Jasmina Hdagha in 2010, but they broke up later that year.

Through a friend he met American model Candice Neil, who is the mother of his two daughters and to whom he is also currently engaged. Their first daughter, Ava Catherine, was born in 2011, and their second daughter, Gia, was born in 2014.

In 1999, Zane participated in the first Gumball 3000 rally, driving a 1964 Aston Martin DB5.

In November 2010, he was awarded an honorary degree from Lium University, Bellinzona, Switzerland, for his contribution to cinematography. He is the chairman of the Francesco Fucilla Film production company 21st Century Filmworks.

Other media projects

Zane executive-produced a CD by bluesman Tim O'Connor that includes three songs from Dead Calm, in which Zane had one of the lead roles.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1985	Back to the Future	Match
1986	Critters	Steve Elliot
1986	Brotherhood of Justice	Les
1989	Going Overboard	King Neptune
1989	Dead Calm	Hughie Warriner
1989	Back to the Future Part II	Match
1990	Megaville	Raymond Palinov/Jensen
1990	Memphis Belle	Lt. Val Kozlowski
1990	Millions	Maurizio Ferretti
1991	Femme Fatale	Elijah
1991	Blood and Concrete: A Love Story	Joey Turks
1992	Lake Consequence	Billy
1992	Orlando	Shelmerdine
1993	Flashfire	Jack Flinder
1993	Sniper	Richard Miller
1993	Posse	Colonel Graham
1993	Poetic Justice	Brad
1993	Tombstone	Mr. Fabian
1994	Reflections on a Crime	Colin
1994	The Silence of the Hams	Jo Dee Fostar
1994	Only You	Harry
1995	Reflections in the Dark	Colin
1995	The Set-Up	Charles Thorpe
1995	Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight	The Collector
1996	The Phantom	The Phantom/Kit Walker
1996	Head Above Water	Kent
1997	Danger Zone	Rick Morgan
1997	This World, Then the Fireworks	Marty
1997	Titanic	Caledon N. "Cal" Hockley
1998	I Woke Up Early the Day I Died	The Thief
1998	Susan's Plan	Sam Myers
1998	Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World	John Rolfe	Voice
1999	Promise Her Anything	George Putter
2001	Zoolander	Himself	Uncredited
2001	The Believer	Curtis Zampf
2001	CQ	Mr. E
2001	Morgan's Ferry	Sam
2002	Claim	Roberto Bealing
2002	Landspeed	Michael Sanger
2003	Silent Warnings	Sheriff Bill Willingham	TV movie
2003	Vlad	Adrian
2003	The Kiss	Alan Roberts/young Philip Naudet
2003	Starving Hysterical Naked	Jack
2003	Imaginary Grace	Nero
2004	Silver City	Chandler Tyson
2004	Big Kiss	Billy
2005	The Last Drop	Robert Oates
2005	Dead Fish	Virgil
2005	The Pleasure Drivers	Marvin
2005	BloodRayne	Elrich
2006	Survival Island	Jack
2006	Valley of the Wolves: Iraq	Sam William Marshall
2006	Memory	Taylor Briggs
2007	The Mad	Jason Hunt
2007	Fishtales	Professor Thomas Bradley	Co-Producer
2007	Alien Agent	Tom / Saylon
2008	Perfect Hideout	Victor
2008	The Man Who Came Back	Ezra
2008	Love N' Dancing	Kent Krandel
2009	Surviving Evil	Sebastian 'Seb' Beazley
2009	Blue Seduction	Mikey Taylor
2009	Evil - In the Time of Heroes	The Prophet
2009	Darfur	Bob Jones
2009	The Hessen Affair	Jack Durant
2010	Magic Man	Darius
2010	The Confidant	Monty
2010	Enemies Among Us	Graham
2011	The Roommate	Professor Roberts
2011	Boop	Max Fleischer	Short
2011	Sniper: Reloaded	Richard Miller
2011	Mercenaries	Colonel Torida
2011	Flutter	Edwin
2011	Mysteria	Producer
2011	Lovemakers	Jake's Agent
2011	Guido	Sid Shine
2012	The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption	King Talus
2012	Electrick Children	Paul McKnight
2012	Mama, I Want to Sing!	Dillan
2012	A Green Story	Greg Hutchins
2012	Two Jacks	Max Faraday
2012	Border Run	Aaron Talbert
2012	Dark Star Hollow	The Devil
2013	The Employer	Alan
2013	The Kill Hole	Marshall
2013	Blood of Redemption	Quinn Forte
2013	Come Find Me	Uncle	Short
2014	Scorned	Kevin
2014	The Ganzfield Haunting	Father
2014	HUVr	Himself	Short
2014	Ghost of Goodnight Lane	Alan
2014	Mining for Ruby	Professor Sam Goodwell
2015	Zombie Killers: Elephant's Graveyard	Seiler
2015	Billy Zayn Thinks Zayn Tweets Are About Him	Himself	Short
2015	West of Redemption	Hank Keller
2015	Trouble Sleeping	Charles
2016	A Winter Rose	Preston Holdsworth
2016	Zoolander 2	Himself
2016	Dead Rising: Endgame	Leo Rand
2016	Blue World Order
2016	White Island	Leo
2016	Sniper: Ghost Shooter	Richard Miller

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1986	Brotherhood of Justice	Les	Television film
1986	Heart of the City	Tobin	Episode: "Don't Sell Yourself to the Cannibals"
1987	Matlock	Eric Dawson	Episode: "The Nurse"
1987	Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8	Police Officer	Television film
1988	Crime Story	Frankie 'The Duke' Farantino	Episode: "Protected Witness"
1988	Murder, She Wrote	Tony Gambini	Episode: "A Very Good Year for Murder"
1988	Police Story: Monster Manor	Officer Don Varney	Television film
1989	The Case of the Hillside Strangler	Kenneth Bianchi	Television film
1991	Twin Peaks	John Justice Wheeler	5 episodes
1993	Lake Consequence	Billy	Television film
1993	Running Delilah	Paul	Television film
1993	Tales From the Crypt	Miles	Episode: "Well-Cooked Ham"
1998	The New Batman Adventures	Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon	Episode: "The Demon Within"
1999	Cleopatra	Marc Antony	Miniseries
2000	Sole Survivor	Joe Carpenter	Television film
2000	Hendrix	Michael Jeffrey	Television film
2001	The Diamond of Jeru	Mike Kardec	Television film
2001	Invincible	Os	Television film
2001	Boston Public	Matthew Baskin	4 episodes
2004	Bet Your Life	Joseph	Television film
2005	Charmed	Drake	3 episodes
2008	Finnegan	Brian Clark	Television film
2009	Blue Seduction	Mikey Taylor	Television film
2009	Samantha Who?	Winston Funk	5 episodes
2010	Journey to Promethea	King Laypach	Television film
2010	The Deep End	Cliff Huddle	Series regular 6 episodes
2012	Red Clover	Sheriff Conor O'Hara	Television film
2012	Hannah's Law	Lockwood	Television film
2012	Robot Chicken	Commander Edwards/King Ding Dong	Episode: "Poisoned by Relatives"
2012	Barabbas	Barabbas	Television film
2014	Checked Out	Uncle Dennis	Television film
2014	Psych	Ian Collins	Episode: "The Break-Up"
2015	The Wheel of Time: The Winter Dragon	Ishamael	Television film
2015	Community	Honda Boss	Episode: "Advanced Safety Features"
2015-2016	Mad Dogs	Milo	2 episodes
2016	Guilt	Stan Guthrie	Main

Video games

• SSX Tricky (2001) .... Brodi (voice only)
• Kingdom Hearts (2002) .... Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
• Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004) .... Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (archived recordings)
• Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix (2013) .... Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (archived recordings)

Music videos

• Marilyn Manson - "The Dope Show" (1998) .... Recording industry executive
• Staind - "Epiphany" (2001)
• Avril Lavigne - "Rock n Roll" (2013)