Posted on 12/15/2005 6:04:54 PM PST by presidio9
Some former child actors cringe and protest when reminded by loyal fans of long-ago projects. Not Peter Billingsley, star of “A Christmas Story.”
According to journalist Rebecca Murray, “he seems to genuinely light up when the movie is mentioned.”
Billingsley is also used to passersby tossing their favorite quotes at him. “They all still love it,” he told Murray. People ask him if he’s tired of talking about it, but he’s not. “I’m really, really proud to be a part of it.”
Billingsley still appears in front of the cameras now and then. (He had an uncredited role in last year’s seasonal hit, “Elf,” playing - what else? - an elf. He also served as the movie’s executive producer.
He was executive producer on “Zathura,” which is still playing locally in theatres. In the upcoming comedy, “The Break-Up,” starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston, he also does dual duty in front of and behind the camera.
It’s all part of a day in the life of a talented man who, unlike some child stars, was able to make his way gracefully from kid to grownup and remain in show business.
He credits his parents with this successful transition. From the beginning, back in New York City, the Billingsleys looked on the whole thing as fun, and never let themselves take their son’s stardom too seriously. “It was also something that was just done for fun,” Peter said, in a 2002 interview with Wayne Chinsang. “If it wasn’t fun, it was going to stop.”
On the advice of friends who told her that her sons were cute, Peter’s mother took them to a agent. “The first one said we were too fat, the next one said too ugly, but the third one said, ‘Yeah, they’ll work,’” Peter said.
The three-year-old’s first gig was a Geritol commercial. Other commercials followed, and then some forgettable movies. The Billingsleys moved to Phoenix, Ariz., and struck gold in 1983 with “A Christmas Story.”
Well, not literally gold. The movie was made with a modest budget by a director, Bob Clark, who believed in it. “They (Bob and Jean Shepherd) tried for 12 years to get that film made,” Peter said. “Bob had to agree to direct another junky film for the studio to greenlight it. They hardly gave him any money. MGM didn’t support the release of the movie.”
“It was so different,” Jean Shepherd said in a 1998 interview for TV Guide. “It was too real, and MGM didn’t think kids would like it.”
There’s no way for Peter to avoid the movie, even if he tried, not even in his own family. When the Billingsleys get together in Phoenix for Christmas, someone will invariably slip it in the VCR.
He doesn’t mind the connection. “It’s a great film,” he told Chinsang in the 2002 interview. “It’s something I want to be known for.”
Besides a modest paycheck from the movie, Peter was allowed to keep one of the specially made Red Ryder BB guns, the cowboy suit, and the pink bunny suit. “It’s tucked away,” he said. “But the gun is really cool.”
Peter never really left Hollywood, although he did vanish from sight for a while, leading to those predictable rumors that he died a derelict drug addict and was buried in an unmarked grave.
That’s not his style. He joked with Chinsang about his unremarkable, non-glamorous upbringing. “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said. “I grew up in a loving family in Phoenix. I tried a cigarette once.”
What Peter did do was move into editing, some writing, directing, and then producing, where he is most active today. He frequently teams up on projects with friends such as actor Vince Vaughn and director Jon Favreau.
Favreau and Peter collaborated on IFC’s popular “Dinner for Five,” which ran for five seasons. “Zathura” and “The Break-Up” continue their association as director and producer.
Peter acknowledges there have been many changes since 1983 in the way Hollywood markets pictures. “Today, there are so many things that are our of your control,” he said. “All that you can really ever do, which is what we did with ‘A Christmas Story,’ is tell a great story.”
I grew up in the late 30s and 40s and folks, that's the way it really was! I'll never forget my Granddad's unending war with the coal furnace, kids getting tongues stuck on metallic objects, the guerilla battles with bullies to and from school and my beloved Red Ryder BB gun(s) -- I owned several. I still have both eyes too and I've owned lots of real guns since.
Shepherd remembered the era with amazing detail and totally captured the mood of a time I remember with great longing and fondness.
No it was his other friend, Schwartz.... I always found it funny that the actor who played Flik was named Schwartz in real life.
But I never figured out why he didn't tell his mom that the bully taught him the F - - - word.
XM radios Opie and Anthony had that guy Flick and the little brother of the star on the other day.....funny stuff.
I dont know that I would agree with you about the language...we did not grow up in a bubble during that time...my dad had pretty coarse language, language he picked after 5yrs in the military, and with his buddies in WW11...my mom says, often on a Saturday afternoon, he would take me and my brother into the bedroom, and sing songs to us, as a form of cheap entertainment...mom always wonders if we remember those songs, as she tells us they were quite vulgar...
is that you in that pic??
Yeesh John Kerry looked allot like a girl when he was younger.
Soylent Green!! When my husband and I were in New York City near Rockefeller Center, the crowds were unbelieveable. In fact, at one point, we were stuck and could not go forward or backward....My husband has a "unique" sense of humor and yelled out, "Soylent Green is PEOPLE"...and all the people our age turned and started laughing out loud!
It was great to see New Yorkers with a sense of humor!
Butbutbut... I thought gay cowboys were a novelty.
:)
I stand corrected! I can't believe after all of the times I have seen it that I would forget!
Incidently, the real "Flick" was a childhood friend of Sheppard's. He was killed in WWII. Bomber pilot.
I grew up in the 50's and I too thought the movie captured the flavor of the time just about perfectly.
Thats ok...I have seen it so many times myself, and I had to stop and try to remember exactly who Ralphie accused...
I assume you mean the vulgar language used in that period. Boys used that language all the time. I never heard girls swear. Perhaps you were a girl.
People used to tell me that I should get my oldest daughter into movies or advertisements, but she ended up being an American record holder in swimming.
So far no one has mentioned ( I guess no one saw it) that only a few years after the Christmas Story movie, the tragic Challenger space launch (in '87?) had in its audience , live at the event, among others, Peter Billingsley, whose face was as delighted as everyone else's watching Challenger go up, and horribly stricken as he watched the Challenger blow up/ anyone else remember seeing this and identifying him as someone there in the audience?
For those of who did grow up in the 50s, this movie is just so familiar...and it takes place in the midwest, Indiana, I think...I grew up in Chicago...so all the snow, all the snowsuits, and hats, and galoshes, and scarves and mittens were normal outdoor gear for us during the long cold midwestern winters...
When I see that house where Ralphie lived, I think to myself, I could have lived in that house, it was so familiar looking...
I DOUBLE-DOG dare you to stick your tounge there...I triple-dare you!
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