Bill Walters

Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1937, Bill attended Grandview Heights High School and the Ohio State University where he majored in fine arts hoping to get into advertising or cartooning. Among his many mementos are a sheaf of rejection slips from The New Yorker and Playboy. He was introduced to the theatre by volunteering to design the set for a friend's student production. He worked on the art staff of the OSU Motion Pictures Department and the University TV station, WOSU. In 1963, after the usual summer stock assignments, he arrived in New York City, where he worked at NBC as a page and as a production assistant. He became a backstage jack-of-all-trades with The New York Shakespeare Festival, The Playhouse of the Ridiculous, and many other regional and off-Broadway theater groups. In 1966 he was hired by Peter Schickele as the stage manager for PDQ Bach, and became known to thousands of concert goers in New York and around the country as the irascible and irritable but always efficient apologist for Schickele's satiric presentations of the infamous "Evening of Musical Madness". Despite his crusty on-stage persona, Bill was for 46 years the technical coordinator, production manager, road manager, and the REAL stage manager of the series of concerts that had its first public performance in 1965 at Town Hall in New York. He once said 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." Walters continues to work in concerts, theatre, dabbles in background work in movies and TV, writes lots of unproduced plays and film scripts, and teaches film-making and video with kids. He also works for Gray Line New York Sightseeing as a tour guide riding around on the top of a double-decker bus telling lies about New York City to gullible and unwary tourists. He is married to the actress Donegal Browne. Their daughter Samantha Browne-Walters is also an actress.

Filmography

• 2018Can You Ever Forgive Me? — Homeless Man (uncredited)
• 2017John Wick: Chapter 2 — Homeless Man in Chinatown (uncredited)
• 2017Marjorie Prime — Old Jon (as W.A. Walters)
• 2017The Dark Tower — Homeless Man in Alley (uncredited)
• 2016Barry — Homeless Man in Stairwell (uncredited)
• 2016The Comedian — Homeless in Soup Line (uncredited)
• 2015Ricki and the Flash — Salt Well Regular (uncredited)
• 2015Sisters — Airport Traveler (uncredited)
• 2015The Night Before — Christmas Bartender (uncredited)
• 2015True Story — Inmate (uncredited)
• 2014A Most Violent Year — Subway Rider (uncredited)
• 2014Annie — Soup Kitchen Guest (uncredited)
• 2014Shelter — Homeless Man with Cart (uncredited)
• The Americans — Homeless at Soup Kitchen (uncredited)
• 2012Being Flynn — Homeless Man in Shelter (uncredited)
• 2012Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life — Homeless Dude
• 2012Man on a Ledge — Inmate
• 2011Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close — Homeless Man (uncredited)
• 2010Fair Game — Vietnam Vet at Rally (uncredited)
• 2010The Extra Man — Panhandler
• 2010You Don't Know Jack — Michigan Inmate (uncredited)
• 2009Back — Homeless at Bowling Green
• Bored to Death — Barfly (uncredited)
• White Collar — Weird Guy in Lobby
• 2008Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist — Homeless at PABT (uncredited)
• 2008The Wrestler — Wrestling Fan (uncredited)
• 2007Enchanted — 42nd Street BG (uncredited)
• 2006P.D.Q. Bach in Houston: We Have a Problem! — Manager of the Stage
• Six Degrees — Subway Rider (uncredited)
• 2002Analyze That — Sing Sing Inmate (uncredited)
• 100 Centre Street — Perp (uncredited), Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
• 2001Riding in Cars with Boys — Hippie at Party (uncredited)
• 1991The Refrigerator — Eileen's Father
• 1969Midnight Cowboy — St. Bernard Owner (uncredited)
• 1967Wait Until Dark — BG with Dog (uncredited)
• 1966You're a Big Boy Now — Commerce Street BG (uncredited)