Peter Billingsley

Peter Billingsley

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Peter Billingsley
Billingsley at the 2014 ATX TV Festival for Sullivan and Son
Born	Peter Michaelsen or Peter Billingsley-Michaelsen (disputed) (1971-04-16) April 16, 1971 (age 46) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, director
Years active	1973–present

Peter Billingsley (born April 16, 1971), also known as Peter Michaelsen^[1] and Peter Billingsley-Michaelsen,^[2] is an American actor, director, and producer, known for his role as Ralphie in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story and as "Messy Marvin" in the Hershey's Chocolate Syrup commercials during the 1970s. He began his career as an infant in television commercials.

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Other work
• 3 Filmography
  • 3.1 Film
  • 3.2 Television
• 4 Awards and nominations
• 5 References
• 6 Further reading
• 7 External links

Early life[edit]

Peter was born in New York City. His father, Alwin Michaelsen, is a financial consultant and his mother, Gail, was once Alwin's secretary. Gail is the niece of Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley, and cousin of Glenn Billingsley who was married to actress Barbara Billingsley (1915–2010). Gail was the one who initially took the children around to auditions. She once took the children to Browns Mills, New Jersey for a commercial commemorating US troops. All five of the children in the family had acting careers when they were young. The oldest of Billingsley's siblings, Dina and Win, had the briefest acting careers working mostly in commercials with brief guest spots on television shows. Peter's elder sister, Melissa, may be best known for her role as Maxx Davis on Me and Maxx.^[3] Peter's older brother, Neil, began playing Danny Walton on the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow in 1975 and has had numerous roles in commercials and guest shots on TV series. Following his acting career, Neil works in finance in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

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), Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley, AZ, 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, Phoenix, Arizona. In the late 1980s, he took a brief break from show business to attend Phoenix College.^{[citation needed]}

On January 28th, 1986, Billingsley was present at launch pad 39B (at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida) for the doomed launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. He and classmates of the son of America's first teacher-astronaut (Christa McAuliffe) cheered as the space shuttle Challenger lifted skyward. Their delight turned to horror as the shuttle exploded 73 seconds into flight. Billingsley was a spokesman for the young astronaut program.^[4]

Career[edit]

Billingsley's first acting role was as a two-year-old in a Geritol commercial with Betty Buckley playing his mom. He went on to star in about 120 television ads throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. At 12 he was quoted as saying: "After 100 (commercials), you lose count." He was likely best known for a series of commercials for Hershey's chocolate syrup in which he portrayed the popular character Messy Marvin.^[5][6] one of Billingsley's earliest film roles was in 1978's If Ever I See You Again, written and directed by Joseph Brooks.^[1]

His role in 1981's Paternity opposite Burt Reynolds earned a nomination for "Best Young Comedian – Motion Picture or Television" at The Young Artist Awards.^[7] In 1981, he appeared in Honky Tonk Freeway, and that October was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In 1982 Billingsley 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. He had a featured guest role as Gideon Hale on Little House on the Prairie, began a three-year stint as a co-host on NBC's popular Real People (for which he earned another Young Artist Award nomination),^[7] and he hosted a two-episode offshoot of the show called Real Kids.

In 1983 Billingsley starred in A Christmas Story, based on Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, which built its audience slowly over the years and is now broadcast for twenty-four hours from Christmas Eve until Christmas Day on TBS. The film earned Billingsley another Young Artist Award nomination, and is arguably the one role he is most associated with. He has been quoted as saying that people still approach him on the street, only to say "you'll shoot your eye out, kid!"^[7]

In 1984 Billingsley starred in an adaptation of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency with Dick Van Patten and Gabe Kaplan, a special Thanksgiving episode of the PBS series WonderWorks.^[8] He appeared on a "Super Teen" special edition of Family Feud, and on Celebrity Hot Potato.^[9]

As the late 1980s approached, Billingsley's acting career slowed. He made guest appearances on Who's The Boss?, Punky Brewster, The Wonder Years, and Highway To Heaven,^[10][11] and appeared in The Dirt Bike Kid (for which he won a Young Artist Award),^[7] and Carly's Web, Russkies, and Beverly Hills Brats.^[1]

The early 1990s saw Billingsley tackling older roles such as a would-be jock who gets hooked on steroids in the CBS Schoolbreak Special The Fourth Man. on that project he formed a close friendship with Vince Vaughn.^[12] His next Schoolbreak Special appearance was in The Writing on the Wall (1994), starring Hal Linden as a rabbi who teaches three boys about the horrors of intolerance after they are caught defacing his home, temple, and car with swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti. Billingsley was nominated for an Emmy Award for this role.^[7][13]

Other work[edit]

The most rewarding of his later film acting assignments was Arcade (1993), in which he starred as a teenaged "virtual reality" addict; he worked as the post-production supervisor (credited as Peter Michaelsen). He made some career decisions and began working behind the scenes more. Known as Peter Michaelsen, he was assistant editor on Knights, a film which featured Kris Kristofferson. In 1994 Peter starred in, wrote, and directed (credited as Peter Billingsley) the short film The Sacred Fire, and credited as Peter Michaelsen in the executive producer function. This film won an Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films' Golden Scroll Award.^[1]

His career behind the scenes continued, 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 which he has a cameo appearance. 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. He was an executive producer for the Universal Pictures production The Break-Up in which he had a small acting role (as Andrew), appearing alongside frequent collaborator Jon Favreau.^[14] Billingsley served as executive producer on director Favreau's Iron Man feature film; he also acted in the film, playing a scientist who works for Obadiah Stane.^[15] Billingsley, Favreau and Vaughn appeared in Four Christmases (2008). Couples Retreat (2009) starring Favreau and Vaughn was Billingsley's first major film as director and this was followed by his second directorial effort Term Life, which also starred Vaughn.^[1]

Billingsley's acting career continues as well, with small roles in Sherman Oaks, 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 and Video Festival in 2000.^[16] He took an acting part in an experimental film for the new Maxivision 48 projection system developed by Dean Goodhill.^[17]

Billingsley released a CD titled Christmas Stories...Christmas Songs on Run For Cover Records in 1999 with longtime friend Brian Evans.^[18] He signed on as Executive Producer of a musical adaptation of A Christmas Story that opened in Seattle in December 2010. He is "...honored to be a part of this project and look forward to bringing the play to more stages... Just think about the idea of a leg-lamp kickline."^[19]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1978	If Ever I See You Again	Child	American romantic drama film directed and produced by Joe Brooks. A paperback novelization of the screenplay was released by Bantam Books in May 1978 as a promotional tie-in. As a further promotional gimmick, Columbia teamed with Pertec Computer to "reunite lost lovers whenever a toll-free number is called" by having a computer match up the details of callers.	[20][21][22][23]
1981	Honky Tonk Freeway	Little Billy	A comedy film directed by John Schlesinger. The film was financed in part by accountant Roy Tucker's tax avoidance schemes funded by the Rossminster banking group.	[24][25][26]
	Paternity	Tad	American comedy film directed by David Steinberg.
1982	Death Valley	Billy	Horror film directed by Dick Richards.
1983	A Christmas Story	Ralphie Parker	American Christmas comedy film Based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, based on his book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements derived from Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. Directed by Bob Clark.	[27][28][29]
1985	The Dirt Bike Kid	Jack Simmons	Directed by Hoite Caston.
1987	Russkies	Adam	American drama film directed by Rick Rosenthal.	[30]
1989	Beverly Hills Brats	Scooter	American comedy film directed by Jim Sotos with Ruby Keeler (in her final film) and Whoopi Goldberg in a uncredited.	[31]
1993	Arcade	Nick	A B-movie science fiction/horror film directed by Albert Pyun.
1994	The Sacred Fire	Kyle Baker	Short film. Also producer, director, and writer.
2000	No Deposit, No Return		Directed by Derek Partridge.
2003	Elf	Ming Ming	Uncredited American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau.	[32]
2005	Zathura: A Space Adventure		American science fiction fantasy adventure film directed by Jon Favreau Loosely based on the illustrated book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, author of Jumanji. Co-producer
2006	The Break-Up	Andrew	American romantic comedy film directed by Peyton Reed Executive producer
	Wild West Comedy Show	Himself	Co-producer Comedy documentary film directed by Ari Sandel.
2008	Iron Man	William Ginter Riva	American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Executive producer	[33]
	Four Christmases	Ticket Agent	Also known as Four Holidays in Australia and New Zealand. Also known as Anywhere But Home in the Netherlands, Norway, United Arab Emirates and in South Africa. A Christmas-themed romantic comedy film directed by Seth Gordon. Executive producer	[34]
2009	Couples Retreat		American romantic comedy film. Directed by Billingsley
2013	A Case of You	Scott	American romantic comedy film that was featured at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Directed by Kat Coiro	[35]
2015	Prescription Thugs		Executive producer
2016	Term Life		A crime-thriller film based on the graphic novel of the same name. Directed by Billingsley	[36]

Television[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1982	Little House on the Prairie	Gideon Hale	Episode: "No Beast So Fierce" (S 8:Ep 12)
	Massarati and the Brain	Christopher 'The Brain' Massarati	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Harvey Hart.
	Memories Never Die	Shawn Tilford	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Sandor Stern.
1984	The Hoboken Chicken Emergency	Arthur Bobowicz	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Peter Baldwin.
1985	Who's the Boss?	Bobby Walsh	Episode: "Double Date" (S 1:Ep 18)
	The O'Briens	Son	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Arthur L. Annecharico.
	Highway to Heaven	Ridley	Episodes: "The Monster, Part 1" (S 2:Ep 10) "The Monster, Part 2" (S 2:Ep 11)
	Punky Brewster	Richmond Matzie	Episode: "Christmas Shoplifting" (S 2:Ep 13)
1986	Tall Tales & Legends	Kevin	Episode: "Pecos Bill" (S 1:Ep 2)
	Punky Brewster	Richmond Matzie	Episode: "Girls Will Be Boys" (S 2:Ep 15)
	The Last Frontier	Marty Adamson	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Simon Wincer.
1987	Carly's Web	Robert Krantz Jr.	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Kevin Inch.
1990	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Joey Martelli	Episode: "The Fourth Man" (S 8:Ep 1)
1993	The Wonder Years	Micky Spiegel	Episodes: "Summer, part 1" (S 6:Ep 21) "Independence Day, part 2" (S 6:Ep 22)
1994	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Tony	Episode: "The Writing on the Wall" (S 12:Ep 1)
1995	Family Reunion: A Relative Nightmare	Mark McKenna Jr.	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Neal Israel.
	Sherman Oaks	Billy Baker	Contract role 1995–97
1999	L.A. Heat	Lance Allan	Episode: "Obsession" (S 2:Ep 9)
	The X Show		Senior field producer
2000	Who's Watching Who?	Starring	Made-for TV Movie Directed by Tony Nassour.
	The New Adventures of A.R.K.		Writer Episode: "An Elephant Remembers"
2001–2004	Dinner for Five		Executive producer 20 episodes
2002–present	Made		Co-producer
2003	Trigger Happy TV		Field producer - final year
2008	Dinner for Five	Guest	Executive producer
2012	Art of Conflict		Producer
2012–2014	Sullivan & Son		Executive producer - All episodes Writer: 33 episodes Director: 6 episodes
2013	Pursuit of the Truth	Himself as a Judge, 1 episode	Producer 10 episodes
2015	F Is for Family		Co-executive producer An animated sitcom web television series on Netflix.	[37]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result	ref
1983	Young Artist Award	Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film	A Christmas Story	Nominated	[38][39][40][41][42]
1985	Young Artist Award	Best Leading Young Actor in a Feature Film	The Dirt Bike Kid	Won	[39][43][44][45][46]