Billy Campbell Biography

Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Billy Campbell comes from a privileged background as the heir to the the Champion spark plug fortune. He attended military school and had a great interest in rugby and drawing, becoming the school newspaper's cartoonist. His love of acting was discovered at Western Albemarle High School. After taking the lead role in a school production of The Man Who Came to Dinner, he left the world of acting for several years.

After high school, he moved to Chicago to attend the American Academy of Art. Campbell picked up the acting bug again shortly after accompanying a friend to an acting class, and as a result, he dumped his art classes to become a full-time drama student at The Ted Liss Studio For the Performing Arts. While taking classes at the acclaimed Second City in Chicago, he landed his first acting job—performing in an improvisational sword and sorcery theatre extravaganza called Dungeon Master.

Just before his 25th birthday, his agent advised him to move to the West Coast to pursue his career. Billy took the advice and two weeks later he found himself as a guest-star on Family Ties and Hotel. Before long, he had a regular stints on the daytime drama Dynasty, playing Luke Fuller, and Crime Story, playing Joey Indeli.

Though he had made his first appearance on the big screen in 1989's Call From Space, it wasn't until 1991 that he received national recognition for the lead role inf the Disney film, The Rocketeer. He quickly followed up that performance with another starring role in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

During the 1990s he become better known for his starring roles on the television series Moon over Miami (1993) and the mini-series Tales of the City (1993) and More Tales of the City (1998). At the turn of the millennium he landed the role of Rick Sammler on the romantic drama series Once and Again (1999 to 2002), which helped launch him into the pages of the lifestyle/entertainment magazine People in 2000, as one of their 50 Most Beautiful People in the world. He then played Jordan Collier on USA Network's The 4400 from 2004 to 2007, while simultaneously appearing on the hit drama series The O.C. in 2005 in the role of Carter Buckley.

Several other series followed, but he met with the most acclaim after he took on the starring role of John Cardinal on the CTV crime drama series, Cardinal in 2017, which streams on Hulu in the States. For his performance in the role, Billy has won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Actor in a Drama series three times in a role, from 2018 to 2020.

Billy also occasionally returns to the theater to perform onstage, including in A Winter's Tale, Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing at The Old Globe in San Diego.

Billy, who lives in Los Angeles, has dated many actresses, including his The Rocketeer co-star Jennifer Connelly and Virginia Madsen but remains a die-hard bachelor.

Filmography:

Ghost Town (2008)
Gods and Generals (2003)
Enough (2002)
The Rising Place (2001)
The Brylcreem Boys (1997)
Last Chance Love (1997)
The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997)
Menno's Mind (1996)
Past Into Present (1996)
Lover's Knot (1996)
Under the Hula Moon (1995)
Dickwad (1994)
Gettysburg (1993)
The Night We Never Met (1993)
Dracula (1992)
The Rocketeer (1991)
Checkered Flag (1990)
Call from Space (1989)