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.”
Yes, it was grand having fathers like that. My dad has been gone ten years, and I still miss him. I think I love this movie so much because it reminds me so much of him, and of my family during those years of the early 50's.
Thanks for that pic of the old man holding his broken award....the look on his face is priceless...Darren Mcgavin, as an actor, can say more with the looks on his face, than a lot of other actors can say in a whole movie with dialogue...
The scene where Randy is acting like a litte piggy at the table, when the mom tried to get him eat, and his face is smeared with Mashed potatoes, is priceless...the old man looks at Randy, and without saying a word, just gives him a look of absolute disgust...
I found no language offensive.
I am mystefied at your speaking of the profanity in the movie. I can't remember any, except for the muffled noises of the Old Man, and none of it was real swearing.
Do you realize kid stuck his tongue on flag pole in that movie it now Porno star LOL!
BTW going be TBS this year 24 hours of Christmas story
I feel exactly the same way...my dad has been gone for 16yrs now, and he is so missed...Growing up during those early 50s years were wonderful...my dad was quite the camera addict, so I have tons and tons of pictures of him and our family during the whole time we were growing up...those pics are so precious to me, and when I get them out and look at them, I am so grateful, that I grew up when I did, and had the parents and family that I did...
Like most boys of that era, one of my important chores was removing clinkers from the furnace with a long rod-like implement that had metal claws to grab them. I'd deposit them in a fireproof bucket and haul them to the alley when they cooled off for the garbage truck -- they were heavy!
Every night after school I had to check the coal hopper and fill it with coal slack from the coal room next to the furnace. The hopper had an electric worm gear that fed coal to the furnace at a steady rate -- most of the time. But occasional belches of nasty-smelling black sulferous smoke pouring through the heat registers are a vivid memory too. People today would be aghast at the smoke pollution. We often had foggy overcast and with everyone heating with high-sulfer coal the poisonous black smoke was heavy. We didn't notice -- warmth was a lot more important than pollution during those frigid Idaho winters.
F*ck and cr*p
What on earth are you talking about? Are you talking about the same movie we are? There are no curses in "A Christmas Story". The only allusion to a curse is when Ralphie "says" the F word and has his mouth washed out with soap, though of course it's not said in the film. "Fudge" is substituted. And the father apparently yells at the dysfunctional furnace but all you hear is gibberish like "rackafracka dadgum". "A Christmas Story" is just about one of the most wholesome movies I can think of. I'm truly puzzled.
I remember two. "Smartass" and "sonavabitch." MILD by today's standards.
My favorite thing about the movie was his melodramatic fantasies - reminds me of me at that age! I just knew some day......
The old man had muffled noises in the beginning but by the middle of the movie some were un muffled and the children were vulgar.
Same here. They did have him say "fudge" only he really said something else.
His father was constantly cursing but it was made up nonsensical words.
"Deck the halls with boughs of howrrry
Fa rah rah rah rah----"
My dad often said that we didn't appreciate how clean the air was (in the 60's) from when he grew up. Indianapolis mostly heated with coal until oil-burners (and later gas and electric furnaces) came on the market. He said some days you could hardly see downtown, the coal smoke was so thick.
Perhaps. The words were loud and clear on our version and my children were asking me whether we should turn off the cd.
Thanks for that. I really love Shepherd's work. I'll tune in.
"THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the 'F-dash-dash-dash' word!!!"
Gosh, I am surprised to hear this...people during the 50s used 'colorful' language, I heard it often...
I really dont understand why you wanted the characters to redeem themselves or redeem themselves for what?
This is a wonderful movie, and the colorful language used, was not done to shock or anything like that...people of that time, especially many of the men, did talk like that...my dad did, and I never thought that he should redeem himself for it...
Sorry, but I just dont see this the way you do...
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