Birthday: June 23, 1962
Birth Place: New York City, New York
Birth Name: William E. Wirth
Mr. Wirth attended Collegiate Prep School in Manhattan and Brown University in Providence, RI with a degree in economics and business. While there he managed to break a few school track records including the high jump.
Discovered by photographer Bruce Weber while at Brown University he started modeling in NYC in the mid 80's for such magazines as Seventeen, GQ, Interview, and teen magazines.
Before Brown University Billy had excelled in sports all through school and has always been an athlete at heart. He dream was to be in the Olympics an as a young man he did participate in the first Empire Games in New York City while attending Collegiate. At Colligate one of his fellow basketball players and student was David Duchoveny who he later acted with in Red Shoe Diaries for Showtime Network
While at Brown he did his first ever commercial for Diet Pepsi before moving on to television and movies. His first television show was The Equalizer and moved to LA to start an acting career. His first movie was Seven Minutes In Heaven. Fifteen years later he has finally made it behind the camera as a director and also running his own production company. As he fine tunes his craft he will keep acting but likes the feeling of being in control of the complete film project.
Early in his career he appeared on the first televised showing of American Gladiators, and a couple of years later MTV Rock and Jock series . Billy has always had a fondness for basketball and has managed in at least five movies and one music video to be using a hoop.
Billy has always been serious about writing, directing, and has taken his love of photography to a new level by doing Polaroid Art which he sells to private collectors, and has shows in many California galleries. At the present time he is working on having his own website, he will feature his art and photography for fans and collectors.
His first directing job was for the short film, Kismet in 1999, it is this project that opened doors for backing his first full length Independent film, MacArthur Park, produced by his own Wirthwhile Productions.
As of December 2001 Billy has a distributor with 10 theaters country wide looking to close a deal on MacArthur Park, Showtime Network and the Sundance Channel have shown an interest in the cable rights with his company keeping the music and DVD/Video release rights. The Premiere for MacArthur Park will be a fund raiser and fans will be kept updated as this gets settled.
MacArthur Park had it's World Premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival 2001 (Grand Prize nominee) and this lead to the film festival circuit starting with Taos Talking Picture Festival (Land Grant nominee),Seattle International Film Festival as part of the Black Experience in Films, Side Walk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham AL, Athens International Festival, Milan Italy International Festival, Halifax Festival, Urban World Festival in New York City, and ending the year of festivals in November 2001 with St. Louis 10th Film Festival.
In 1989 Billy played Eddie Tempest, a glam rock singer in the television series Wise Guy . Inspired by that role in the 90's he fronted as a vocalist for a rock band in LA called Dust N'Bones no tapes were ever released by this band but they did work the local LA Club Scene. He now has a band called The Cronies, they are currently working on an acoustic CD with music written by Billy and Steven Costentino. He will be making this CD available to fans.
Billy is very comfortable behind the scenes of movie making, liking directing to being "The Quarterback in the Super Bowl". He is still into acting and still looking for that one big break through role. At the present time he is working on a documentary that combines the plight of the homeless, one of his long time interests and a strong force behind the making of MacArthur Park.
As of December 2001 he has been pitching two new projects to the Hollywood Community, one being an Upbeat Urban Comedy/Love Story and the other a long time project close to his heart "Street Urchins", a modern day Oliver Twist.
Over the past two years many Billy Wirth fans have had the opportunity to meet Billy at different Film Festivals and events, as have the two owners of the fanclub site. We invite everyone to check out their thoughts and remarks to get a better picture of this complicated man.
Whether it is a Teen Vampire in Lost Boys, a modern day Warrior in War Party, doing background work on music videos for such singers as Shania Twain,Meredith Brooks or the Rock Band Testament.
Between 1998 and 2001 Billy branched out on television playing a doctor with a Vigara supply on Sex In The City went back in time to be a Witch in Charmed , and a high rolling hitman/thief on Martial Law .
Billy spent time in 2002 shooting a documentary on the anniversary of 911 by covering the "Magic Bus Tour" with musicians Jill Gatsby and Biddy Sullivan hitting 17 cities in 21 days and ending in NYC on September 11, for the anniversary. We have great photos and background on this project on the site. Fans and viewers contributed along the way. Aside from this there is great news about Billys personal site www.billywirth.com has opened but is a work in progress. His personal artwork and other projects will be listed for fans and viewers.
MacArthur Park Billy's first feature length directing film has been released as of May 18th 2004 on DVD and VHS. There is a behind the scenes making of the film a commentary by Billy,Tyrone Atkins and Thomas Byrd.
In July 2003 Billy was in Santa Fe, New Mexico shooting a film for director and long time friend Andrew Wagner. This film "The Talent Given Us" opened in as it's World Premire on June 2004 at The CineVegas Film Festival where it won The Jury Prize. We will update fans on upcoming screening as we get them. Check the News and Update Pages for more.
2003 also saw the release of Kismet on DVD/VHS, a new film The Drone Virus for Little Studio Productions.
January 2004 had Billy appearing on CSI/Vegas in "Eleven Angry Jurors", MacArthur Park was released on DVD/VHS by Sundance Entertainment and is currently running on the Sundance Channel.
A new film 7 Mummies was filmed in Arizona for Pretty Dangerous Films and is being edited and has of release date of July 2005.
As of 2004 a new mailing address for fans and viewer letter and Billy's new management company has been updated.
2005 has Billy appearing in CSI/Las Vegas and the WB's Summerland Season 2 Premier.
Business Management Company:
Billy Wirth
CMG
9465 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 335
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(updated 2005 mm)