Billy Gray (actor)
Billy Gray | |
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![]() Billy Gray in 1977 | |
Born | William Thomas Gray January 13, 1938 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Actor, businessman |
William Thomas Gray (born January 13, 1938) is an American actor, who is best known for playing James "Bud" Anderson Jr. in Father Knows Best (1954–1960). Gray was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1959 (but lost to Tom Poston).
Billy Gray started his film career in the late 1940s. He portrayed a young Jim Thorpe in Jim Thorpe – All-American and starred in the science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. He portrayed "Bullseye Tag", younger brother of Annie Oakley in the pilot episode of the TV series Annie Oakley. Gray continued his acting career into the 1980s, although later roles were not as successful as Father Knows Best. He is also a motorcycle collector and businessman.[1]
Personal life[]
Gray was born in Los Angeles, California, to William H. and Beatrice Gray, and began acting as a child. His mother was an actress, and both had appeared in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (in separate scenes), a 1949 horror comedy.[2] As of July 2020, Gray lives in a house in Topanga, California, which he bought in 1957 with the money earned from Father Knows Best.[3] He never attended an actual school, and was educated by teachers hired by the film studios; often having class in tents set up on studio lots.[4]
Filmography[]
![]() | This list is incomplete; you can help by . (December 2019) |
Film[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1948 | Fighting Father Dunne | Chip | Supporting role |
1950 | Father Is a Bachelor | Feb Chalotte | Supporting role |
1950 | Mister 880 | Mickey | Uncredited role |
1951 | Jim Thorpe – All-American | Jim Thorpe as a child | Supporting role |
1951 | On Moonlight Bay (film) | Wesley Winfield | Supporting role |
1951 | The Day the Earth Stood Still | Bobby Benson | Co-starring role |
1952 | Talk About a Stranger | Robert 'Bud' Fontaine Jr. | Starring role |
1953 | All I Desire | Ted Murdoch | Supporting role |
1953 | By the Light of the Silvery Moon (film) | Wesley Winfield | Supporting role |
1954 | The Outlaw Stallion | Danny Saunders | Starring role |
1955 | The Seven Little Foys | Bryan Lincoln Foy | Supporting role |
1961 | The Explosive Generation | Bobby Herman Jr. | Supporting role |
1966 | The Navy vs. the Night Monsters | CPO Fred Twining | Co-starring role |
1971 | Dusty and Sweets McGee | City Life | Starring role |
1980 | Porklips Now | Dullard | Starring role |
Television[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1953 | Adventures of Superman (TV series) | Young Alan Harper | Snapping photo of Clark Kent changing to Superman |
1954-1960 | Father Knows Best | James "Bud" Anderson Jr. | Main role |
1957 | The Thin Man (TV series) | Mike Edwards | Episode: "Come Back Darling Asta" |
1960 | Stagecoach West (TV series) | Episode: "Dark Return" | |
1965 | Rawhide (TV series) | Lindsay McCullers | Episode: "Moment in the Sun" |
1977 | The Father Knows Best Reunion | James "Bud" Anderson Jr. | TV film |
1977 | Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas | James "Bud" Anderson Jr. | TV film |
References[]
- ^ "Ken Hall, "Billy Gray, Bud from Father Knows Best. Collects Racing Motorcycles"". go-star.com. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
- ^ Edward Torchy Smith. "Billy Grey, better known as Bud from Father Knows Best" (Podcast). Baby Boomers Talk Radio. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
- ^ Uhler, Steve (July 23, 2020). "My Visit With Bud From 'Father Knows Best'". nextavenue.org. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Tom Goldrup, Jim Goldrup (2015). Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television. pp. 101–102.
Bibliography[]
- Goldrup, Tom and Jim (2002). Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Film and Television. McFarland & Co. pp. 94–102. ISBN 1476613702.
- Holmstrom, John (1996). The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich: Michael Russell, p. 206-207.
External links[]
- Living people
- American male child actors
- 1938 births
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- Businesspeople from Los Angeles
- Male actors from Los Angeles
- People from Topanga, California
- 20th-century American male actors