Bill Pullman ’80G
Actor, Director, Producer
April 1-3, 2001
Born in Hornell, New York to parents in the medical profession, Bill is one of seven children. While most of his siblings followed in their parents' footsteps, Bill abandoned technical school for drama and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Directing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He met his wife, Tamara Hurwitz at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. Bill went on to produce plays and teach at Montana State University, where he ran their theatre department for two years.
Following his stint in Montana, Bill worked for several years in New York studying acting and performing in Off-Broadway and regional theaters. He then moved to California to work with the Los Angeles Theatre Center and soon made his debut in feature films with the hit comedy Ruthless People.
Bill Pullman's ability to play a wide range has led him to star in such diverse roles as the President of the United States in the world-wide blockbuster Independence Day, as an eccentric private detective in the critically acclaimed Zero Effect, and as the troubled musician in David Lynch's Lost Highway, to name a few.
Bill recently wrapped production on the Nora Ephron directed, Paramount Pictures release Lucky Numbers in which he stars opposite John Travolta. Bill stars as a detective who ultimately takes down Travolta in a lottery scheme. Additionally, Bill recently completed production on the independent feature The Guilty for director Anthony Waller, in which he portrays a hotshot attorney who becomes entangled in the murder of a young woman.
Pullman garnered critical acclaim when he made his directorial debut this year with the TNT original Western The Virginian, in which he also starred and produced under his Big Town Productions banner. In the film, an adaptation of Owen Wister's classic Western novel of the same name, Bill portrays the Virginian, a laconic Wyoming cowboy with an unwavering sense of justice.
Recently, Bill starred opposite Bridget Fonda in the comedic thriller Lake Placid (Twentieth Century Fox/written by David E. Kelley) for director Steve Minor. Bill also starred in the political thriller Brokedown Palace (Twentieth Century Fox) for director Jonathon Kaplan. ("The Accused"), in which he portrayed an American attorney hired to aid two young students (Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsdale) imprisoned in Bangkok.
Pullman's Big Town Productions currently has several feature projects in development. Those include the action/thriller Supertanker, which re-teams Pullman with "Independence Day" team Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich as his co-producers; the political thrill The September Alternate with Castlerock Entertainment; the drama Streamliners; the film Screenland, which follows an eerie, true tale surrounding an old silent movie house in Los Angeles; the comedy Guerrilla Dating Tactics; and the romantic drama/comedy A Few Days With Me.
Some of Pullman's additional film credits include While You Were Sleeping, Casper, Mr. Wrong, Sommersby, Sleepless in Seattle, Wyatt Earp, Malice, The Last Seduction, Spaceballs, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Accidental Tourist, Sibling Rivalry, Liebestraum, and The End of Violence.
[This article was written by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is protected under copyright. billpullman.org thanks them for making this article available.]
