Person Biography:
Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1937, Bill attended Grandview Heights High School and the Ohio State University, where he majored in fine arts with the hope of getting into advertising or cartooning. Despite his aspirations, he received rejection slips from The New Yorker and Playboy, but this did not deter him from pursuing his passion.
Bill's introduction to the theatre came when he volunteered to design the set for a friend's student production. He then worked on the art staff of the OSU Motion Pictures Department and the University TV station, WOSU. After completing his education, he moved to New York City in 1963, where he worked as a page and production assistant at NBC.
In the 1960s, Bill became a backstage jack-of-all-trades with various regional and off-Broadway theater groups, including The New York Shakespeare Festival, The Playhouse of the Ridiculous, and many others. He also worked as a stage manager for PDQ Bach, a satirical music series, and became known for his irascible on-stage persona.
For 46 years, Bill worked as the technical coordinator, production manager, road manager, and stage manager for the PDQ Bach series, which had its first public performance in 1965 at Town Hall in New York. He joked that he felt like Sky Masterson, the gambler-hero of "Guys and Dolls," who noted that "There are two things that have been in every hotel room in America: Sky Masterson and the Gideon Bible."
In addition to his work in concerts and theatre, Bill has also dabbled in background work in movies and TV, written unproduced plays and film scripts, and taught film-making and video production to children. He also works as a tour guide for Gray Line New York Sightseeing, riding around on the top of a double-decker bus and telling lies about New York City to unsuspecting tourists.
Bill is married to the actress Donegal Browne, and their daughter Samantha Browne-Walters is also an actress.
