Name Billy Zandt Role Playwright | Siblings Steven Van Zandt | |
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Full Name William Van Zandt Occupation Actor, Director, Playwright Children William Dalton Van Zandt, Walker Steven Van Zandt Books You've Got Hate Mail, High School Reunion: The Musical, Wrong Window!, Silent Laughter, Playing Doctor Movies and TV shows Similar People Jane Mil, Adrienne Barbeau, Steven Van Zandt, John Carpenter, Maureen Van Zandt | ||
Interview you ve got hate mail s billy van zandt and jane milmore
William "Billy" Van Zandt (born December 13, 1957) is an American playwright and actor.
Contents
- Interview you ve got hate mail s billy van zandt and jane milmore
- Drop Dead video 1
- Personal life
- Career
- Full length plays
- Television
- Film
- References
Drop Dead video 1
Personal life
Van Zandt was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, to Mary H. Lento and William Brewster Van Zandt. He is of Italian and Dutch descent He grew up in Middletown Township, New Jersey.
Van Zandt is the half-brother of musician/actor Steven Van Zandt and brother-in-law of Steven's wife, actress Maureen Van Zandt. Billy married actress Adrienne Barbeau on December 31, 1992. The couple met in 1991 during the West Coast premiere of Billy's play Drop Dead! They have twin sons, William and Walker (born March 17, 1997).
Career
Van Zandt is the co-author and star of the Off-Broadway plays You've Got Hate Mail, Silent Laughter, Drop Dead!, and 21 other theatrical plays written with Jane Milmore, including A Night at the Nutcracker, Wrong Window, and summer stock perennial Love, Sex, and the I.R.S. He also wrote The Property Known as Garland for Adrienne Barbeau, which ran Off-Broadway at the Actor's Playhouse in 2006.
Van Zandt was nominated for an Emmy Award for his television special I Love Lucy: The Very First Show, and won People's Choice and NAACP Image Awards for his work on the Martin Lawrence comedy Martin and a Prism Multi-Cultural Award for his work on TV's The Hughleys.
Along with partner Jane Milmore, he created and/or developed television's The Wayans Bros. for Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, Suddenly Susan for Brooke Shields, Bless This House for Andrew Dice Clay, and Daddy Dearest for Don Rickles and Richard Lewis.
In addition to starring in his own plays, he has had roles as Bob, one of the sailing teenagers, in Jaws 2 (1978), an alien Starfleet ensign in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), a military school cadet in the 1981 movie Taps, and a mobster wannabe in the 1999 film A Wake in Providence, which he also co-wrote.
On television, Billy was a regular cast member on the second season of ABC's Anything but Love and usually does small cameo roles within his own writing-producing television work, notably acting as writer, creative consultant and guest star on the 1990 Valerie Bertinelli series Sydney.
He is currently tours in the Off-Broadway hit You've Got Hate Mail which ran at the Triad Theater from 2010-2015 as well as his newest play The Man*O*Pause Boys.
Full-length plays
The plays are published with Samuel French, Inc. and performed worldwide.
World premieres of the Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore comedies take place every May and June in New Jersey.