Bio
Bill Pullman is an American actor best known for his starring roles in the feature films Spaceballs, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Casper and Scary Movie 4.
He also starred as convicted killer Oswald Danes in the fourth season of the science fiction television series Torchwood: Miracle Day, in 2011.
Pullman started acting professionally in New York Theatre in 1983 and shortly thereafter began his film career which spans dozens of features.
His movie work includes blockbuster comedies (Ruthless People, Spaceballs, Casper), dramas (The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Accidental Tourist, Igby Goes Down), romantic comedies (Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping), action (Independence Day), thrillers (Malice), Westerns (The Virginian, Wyatt Earp), film noir (The Last Seduction, Lost Highway, The Zero Effect), and horror (The Grudge).
Other films include Killer Inside Me (with Casey Affleck), Rio Sex Comedy (with Irene Jacob and Charlotte Rampling), Bottle Shock (with Alan Rickman), Phoebe in Wonderland (with Elle Fanning and Felicity Huffman), Surveillance (with Julia Ormond), Your Name Here (a fantasy on the last days of author Philip K. Dick).
His theatre work includes acting in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's Oleanna opposite Julia Stiles; the Broadway world premiere of Edward Albee's The Goat (Drama Desk nomination); and in Albe's production Peter and Jerry (Drama Desk nomination), as well as productions of new plays by Beth Henley (with Holly Hunter) and Thomas Babe (with Tom Waits).
Pullman directed for the anthology TV series Night Visions, and directed and produced the TNT movie The Virginian (Wrangler Award/Best Picture, 2000).
He also starred in a television mini-series for NBC entitled Revelations and appeared in HBO's Too Big To Fail for director Curtis Hanson.
Pullman has been an Ambassador for the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Society since 1998; serves on the board of Cornerstone Theater Company (using theatre collaborations to engage the issues of underserved communities); and has helped facilitate health programs in his hometown of Hornell, New York where his father practiced medicine.
Pullman received a BA from the State University College at Oneonta, and an MFA in Theater Directing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
He taught in the Theatre Department at Montana State University in Bozeman for two years before heading to New York.