Bill Blair

Acting

Bill Blair

Born 1954-08-17 · Kent, Ohio, USA

Bill is the Guinness World record holder in the category 'most special effect make-up characters portrayed in a career' the new record number set May 6, 2011 is 202. Born and raised in Kent Ohio, Bill graduated Kent State University, in 1977 with a degree in Telecommunications. But during college, Bill realized that he wanted something else. He embarked on a music career, and in the early 1980's he toured, as the leader of a band called Expression. In 1982, after recovering from a serious injury, he moved to Chicago and shifted to a career in entertainment. His first bit-part in a movie came in 1982 in an American Playhouse film titled "The Killing Floor". By the following summer, Bill was landing featured bit-parts and stand-in work on several films. He got his first speaking role, in 1984, in the TV movie "The Impostor". Later 1984, Dallas, TX. Over the next five years, he kept busy with print ads and industrial shows, and played his first alien character. He portrayed Mr. Spock in an industrial film at the Dallas Convention Center for the Oracle Software Company. January 1990 - Los Angeles, Florida - 1992 - job entertaining at the Busch Gardens water park called Adventure Land. January 1993 - Los Angeles. His first experience as an alien on television was in Alien Nation. It started when he met makeup designer Richard Snell, while filming Demolition Man. This led Bill to his first work on the TV movies of "Alien Nation". Since then, he has become one of those few elite actors that seem to specialize in playing aliens, monsters, and other various creatures from other worlds and of this world long ago. It was from there, that he found himself working on the hit series Babylon 5 and shortly thereafter on Star Trek:Deep Space Nine. 1998 - Bill worked on the season premiere episode of Sliders, and more in 1999. Since then, Bill has worked on many TV series, including Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise, The X-Files, The Invisible Man, Drew Carey, The District, Crossing Jordan, King of Queens, Will and Grace, Yes, Dear!, Friends, Desperate Housewives, Criminal Minds, and as a regular on "The Division" and the HBO Series Carnivale, Saving Grace, Justified, Raising Hope, iCarly, The Defenders, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, Mad Men, Modern Family, Mistresses, 2 Broke Girls, and many more. Bill has appeared in Blades of Glory, The Artist, The Muppets, Nightcrawler, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, ARGO and more. In print, Bill was a featured zombie in the book "The Brain Eater's Bible", released in 2011. As one of a special group of actors that has worked extensively on sci-fi, and fantasy/horror shows, Bill has many behind-the-scenes stories to share about what it took to become this extraordinary type of actor. Additionally, Bill has written a book titled "The Professionals Talent Handbook: The Guide to Getting Started" and he has appeared on the pages of TV Guide (July 5, 1997), and in the August 1998 issue of Galactic Alliance. Interviews with Bill can be found in such publications as the International Star Trek Magazine, Explorer, Pen & Quill, Autograph Times, TV Zone and the New York Post..

Acting credits

Gone Girl poster
7.9

With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

Gone Girl

2014

Nightcrawler poster
7.7

When Lou Bloom, desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story. Aiding him in his effort is Nina, a TV-news veteran.

Nightcrawler

2014

Godzilla poster
6.4

Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.

Godzilla

2014

RoboCop poster
7.4

In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.

RoboCop

1987

Argo poster
7.3

As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.

Argo

2012

Horrible Bosses 2 poster
6.2

Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don't go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme.

Horrible Bosses 2

2014

Savages poster
6.4

Pot growers Ben and Chon face off against the Mexican drug cartel that kidnapped their shared girlfriend.

Savages

2012

Marriage Story poster
7.7

A stage director and an actress struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal extremes.

Marriage Story

2019

Gangster Squad poster
6.4

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Gangster Squad

2013

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 poster
5.2

Security guard Paul Blart is headed to Las Vegas to attend a Security Guard Expo with his teenage daughter Maya before she departs for college. While at the convention, he inadvertently discovers a heist - and it's up to Blart to apprehend the criminals.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2

2015

The Master poster
7.1

Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new "religion" he forms after World War II.

The Master

2012

The Artist poster
7.4

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

The Artist

2011

Live by Night poster
6.3

A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.

Live by Night

2016

Ed Wood poster
7.5

The mostly true story of the legendary "worst director of all time", who, with the help of his strange friends, filmed countless B-movies without ever becoming famous or successful.

Ed Wood

1994

Bandits poster
6.3

After escaping from prison, Joe and Terry go on a crime spree, robbing banks through Oregon and California in order to finance their scheme for a new life south of the border. Unfortunately, things get more complicated when they meet Kate, who runs into them with her car. She joins the bandits on their cross-country spree, and eventually she steals something, too: their hearts.

Bandits

2001

Battle of the Sexes poster
6.8

The true story of the 1973 tennis match between world number one Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs.

Battle of the Sexes

2017

The House poster
5.6

When Scott and Kate Johansen’s daughter gets into the college of her dreams it’s cause for celebration. That is, until Scott and Kate learn that the scholarship they were counting on didn’t come through, and they’re now on the hook for tuition they can’t begin to afford. With the help of their friend and neighbor Frank also in need of a major payday they decide to open an illegal casino in his suburban house, risking everything together on a Vegas-style bacchanal where money flows, inhibitions are checked at the door, and all bets are off.

The House

2017

Good Night, and Good Luck. poster
7.1

The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

2005

Hitchcock poster
6.6

Following his great success with "North by Northwest," director Alfred Hitchcock makes a daring choice for his next project: an adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel "Psycho." When the studio refuses to back the picture, Hitchcock decides to pay for it himself in exchange for a percentage of the profits. His wife, Alma Reville, has serious reservations about the film but supports him nonetheless. Still, the production strains the couple's marriage.

Hitchcock

2012

The Puppet Masters poster
5.8

The Midwest USA is invaded by stingray-shaped alien slugs that ride on people's backs and control their minds in order to spread their dominion. Government agency reps Sam Givens, Andrew Nivens, and Mary Sefton must stop the aliens.

The Puppet Masters

1994

Wish I Was Here poster
6.5

Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor, father and husband, is 35 years old and still trying to find a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he'd always dreamed he'd be as a little kid. When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn't find.

Wish I Was Here

2014

First Steps poster
8.0

Teenage Nan Davis is left paralyzed in a car accident and has a tough time accepting her new wheelchair-bound life. One day she hears about new research by Dr. Jerrold Petrofsky, about using external electric stimulations to enable paralyzed people to use their frozen muscles. She enters the research as a test subject and gets her reward when she walks up to receive her college diploma.

First Steps

1985

A Million Little Pieces poster
6.2

A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.

A Million Little Pieces

2019

R.O.T.O.R. poster
4.5

Robotic Officer Tactical Operation Research. A prototype robot intended for crime combat escapes from the development lab and goes on a killing rampage.

R.O.T.O.R.

1987