Peter Billingsley

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Peter Billingsley (born April 16, 1971 in New York City), a.k.a.: Peter Michaelsen^[1] and Peter Billingsley-Michaelsen^[2], is an American actor, director, and producer best known for his role as Ralphie in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story, whose requests for a genuine Red Ryder BB Gun were repeatedly greeted with "You'll shoot your eye out!"

Contents 1 Education and early acting career 2 Producer/Director/Writer/Actor 3 Family Connections 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Education and early acting career

Billingsley received his early childhood education from a combination of tutors (including child actor tutor Wesley Staples), public schools and private institutions (including the Professional Children's School in New York City), and eventually passed his California High School Proficiency Exam at the age of fourteen. He seems to have also attended some public secondary schools following the GED including Arcadia High School in Phoenix. In the late 1980's, Billingsley took a brief break from show business to attend Phoenix College.

Billingsley's first acting gig was as a two-year-old baby in a Geritol commercial with Eight is Enough's Betty Buckley playing his mom. He went on to star in about 120 television ads throughout the seventies and early eighties. At twelve years old he was quoted as saying: "After 100, you lose count." Early articles refer to him as "the Chicken Franks' commercial cutie," but his most famous ads were a series of commercials for Hershey's chocolate syrup in the eighties as the popular character Messy Marvin.^[3][4]

One of the earliest film roles for Billingsley was the 1978 film If I Ever See You Again which was written and directed by Joseph Brooks. In 1981, Peter acted in the film Paternity opposite Burt Reynolds and was nominated as "Best Young Comedian - Motion Picture or Television" at The Young Artist Awards for his work.^[5] Later in the year, he was featured in Honky Tonk Freeway. In October of 1981, Billingsley was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

1982 was the breakout year for Billingsley. He starred in several features including Death Valley, Massarati and the Brain, and the made-for-TV movie Memories Never Die with Lindsay Wagner and his sister, Melissa Michaelsen. Billingsley also had a featured guest role as Gideon Hale on Little House on the Prairie. The best role he landed that year, though, was being himself on the popular hit Real People which would bring him into America's homes each week for the next three years. He was again nominated for The Young Artist Award trophy for Real People.^[6] This gig also led to a very brief stint on the two episode series Real Kids.

1983 saw Billingsley starring in a film that didn't do terribly well on its initial release but has since become a holiday staple. A Christmas Story, based on Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, built its audience slowly over the years and is now shown twenty-four hours a day on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A Christmas Story is a story about a young boy named Ralphie (Billingsley) who wants a particular BB gun for Christmas and all the grown-ups trying to discourage him by warning that he'll shoot his eye out. Along the way, there are many side stories. This film earned Peter another Young Artist Award nomination.^[7]

The following year, Billingsley starred in an adaptation of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency opposite Dick Van Patten, Gabe Kaplan and a 266 pound chicken named Henrietta. This was a special Thanksgiving episode of the PBS series WonderWorks.^[8] He also appeared on the popular game show Family Feud on one of their Super Teens specials and another game show called Celebrity Hot Potato, which was hosted by Bill Cullen.^[9]

As the late-eighties approached, Billingsley's acting career was in decline. He found work as a guest star on series like Who's The Boss?, Punky Brewster, The Wonder Years,^[10] and Highway To Heaven,^[11][12] and saw occasional film work with The Dirt Bike Kid (for which he won a Young Artist Award)^[13], Carly's Web, Russkies and Beverly Hills Brats.

The early nineties saw Billingsley tackling older roles such as a would-be jock who gets hooked on steroids (with predictably catastrophic results) in the CBS Schoolbreak Special The Fourth Man, which also starred Nicole Eggert (as Billingsley's worried girlfriend) and late football great Lyle Alzado (whose life was taken in 1992 by brain cancer traced to years of steroid use), and which boasted a memorable music score by new age-composer/TV host John Tesh. It was on this project where he would meet and form his close friendship with Vince Vaughn.^[14]

Another CBS Schoolbreak Special was 1994's The Writing on the Wall, starring Hal Linden as a rabbi who teaches three teenage boys about the horrors of intolerance after they are caught defacing his home, temple, and car with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti. Linden won an Emmy for his role and Peter was nominated for one.^[15][16]

[edit] Producer/Director/Writer/Actor

As he grew older, his acting career lost momentum, waning through a string of variable projects. The most rewarding of his later film acting assignments was 1993's Arcade, in which he starred as a teenaged "virtual reality" addict, and also worked as the post-production supervisor using the last name Michaelsen. He made some career decisions and began working behind the scenes more. Going under the name Peter Michaelsen, Billingsley worked as an assistant editor on a film called Knights which starred Kris Kristofferson. In 1994, Peter starred in, wrote, and directed the short film The Sacred Fire using the last name Billingsley but was listed with the name Michaelsen as the executive producer. This film won an Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films' Golden Scroll Award. His career behind the scenes continued on with much success including work on The Discovery Channel's A.R.K., The Adventures of Animal Rescue Kids, Patriot Son, The X Show, Made, and Elf . In 2001, he was nominated for an Emmy Award as co-executive producer for the show Dinner for Five. In 2005, he helped produce the movie Zathura (2005). He recently served as an executive producer for the Universal Pictures production The Break-Up starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn in which he also plays the supporting character Andrew appearing alongside frequent collaborator Jon Favreau. Billingsley is currently serving as executive producer on director Favreau's Iron Man feature film.^[17][18]

Billingsley never completely gave up his acting career, having small roles in Sherman Oaks,^[19] Family Reunion: A Relative Nightmare, Elf, L.A. Heat and No Deposit, No Return, which was voted Best Feature Film at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in 2000.^[20] Peter also took an acting part in an experimental film for the new MaxiVision 48 projection system developed by Dean Goodhill.^[21]

Billingsley released a CD entitled Christmas Stories...Christmas Songs on Run For Cover Records in 1999 with longtime friend Brian Evans.^[22]

[edit] Family Connections

Billingsley's father, Alwin Michaelsen, is a financial consultant who graduated from Princeton in 1954^[23][24], and his mother, Gail Billingsley was once Alwin's secretary. Gail is the niece of Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley. Gail's cousin, Glenn Billingsley, was briefly married to actress Barbara Billingsley who continued to use his last name for her stage name.^[25] Gail was the one who initially took the children around to auditions. All five of the children in the family had acting careers when they were young.

The oldest of Billingsley's siblings, Dina, also had the briefest acting career. Billingsley once mentioned in an interview that Dina (then 24) took Peter (then 12) to see the R rated film Scarface starring Al Pacino. Dina and her current husband, Bart Hollobaugh, live in Chester County, Pennsylvania. They are avid golfers and members of the Edgmont Country Club near Philadelphia.^[26]

Billingsley's brother Alwin Cornelius "Win" Michaelsen III (born 1964 in New York City)^[27] was a child actor in commercials during the seventies and early eighties. In March of 1981, Win made an appearance on the long-running television show Little House On The Prairie in the episode I Do, Again playing the character Steven Poulson. Win graduated from the University of Southern California in 1986 with a degree in finance. He then went on to earn a law degree from Arizona State University in 1992. He practiced law in Phoenix and Mesa including a stint in the office of the Maricopa County Attorney. He also was a member of a private law firm. Win is now an attorney in Istanbul, Turkey^[28] working for the Bener Law Firm.^[29] His online bio lists Turkish as a second language. Win is married to a native of Turkey.

Billingsley's older sister Melissa Michaelsen was an American child actress probably best known for her role as Maxx Davis in the 1980 television show Me and Maxx.^[30] She is also remembered for a number of starring roles in made-for-TV movies such as Orphan Train,^[31] Broken Promise, and the Goldie and the Boxer films opposite O.J. Simpson.^[32][33] For a while, Melissa's resume was nearly as extensive as Peter's having appeared in many television commercials and guest starring in quite a number of television shows including Code Red,^[34] Here's Boomer, The Young Riders,^[35] and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.^[36] In 1984, Melissa made another attempt at series television with a role as Stella Stevens' youngest daughter in the western No Man's Land. Stella's two older daughters were played by Terri Garber and Donna Dixon. The show was not picked up, and all that aired was the two hour pilot.^[37] As she grew older, Melissa's acting roles dwindled, and she left the business in the early nineties. She is currently married and has children.

Slightly older than Peter is brother Neil Billingsley. In 1975, Neil began playing Danny Walton on the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow. His role lasted several years. The role was taken over by Cain Devore and later John Loprieno. Besides numerous roles in commercials, and guest shots on TV series like Father Murphy,^[38] Neil also starred in TV movies such as Million Dollar Infield and Shattered Innocence (which also featured sister Melissa and A Christmas Story's Melinda Dillon).^[39] During the third season of The All New Mickey Mouse Club, Neil played a character named Dave on the four episode serial Just Perfect. Following his acting career, Neil graduted from Arizona State University and entered the world of finance. Now using the last name Michaelsen, Neil works for TM Capital^[40] and has worked for APS Financial Corporation.

[edit] External links

• Peter Billingsley at the Internet Movie Database
• Win Michaelsen at the Internet Movie Database
• Neil Billingsley at the Internet Movie Database
• Melissa Michaelsen at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] References