Billy Bullion, Chicago stage director, actor, and off-Loop theater fixture, dies at 63
Billy Bullion, an esteemed Chicago actor, stage director, and writer who was a fixture in Chicago's off-Loop theater scene, died last week.
Inclusive Funeral Care confirmed that Bullion died Thursday, Sept. 24. He was 63.
Sarah Scanlon, Bullion's self-described "long time chosen family [and] co-habitant," wrote in social media posts that Bullion had been suffering from cancer.
Bullion grew up in Evanston and graduated from Evanston Township High School, published reports note.
He went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree from UCLA, where he got to know Tim Robbins and others in the Los Angeles-based Actors' Gang, and then spent a year studying and directing at the Goodman School of Drama, which became the Theatre School at DePaul University, a Newcity Stage article noted.
Bullion later acted and directed with numerous Chicago theater companies. He was described on his website as a "self-styled tragicomedian" who was attracted to "finding the humor in tragedy and the biting depth of comedy works."
Bullion was the founder of the theater company Sliced Bread Productions in 1988, and also worked with the Playwrights' Center as casting and marketing director from 1986 to 1990. He was the theater curator for the Around the Coyote Festival in Wicker Park in 1991 and 1992, and served in positions with Prop Thtr on the Northwest Side, The Factory Theater in Rogers Park, and Akvavit Theatre, which focuses on Nordic and Scandinavian works.
Bullion's website noted that he directed Akvavit's smash-hit U.S. premiere of Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason's "Blue Planet," the Midwest and Chicago premiere of Jon Fosse's "A Summer's Day," and the original burlesque satire "Pippi's Lost Stockings: A Skirt Raiser." His long list of credits also included Jill Oliver's sci-fi fantasy comedy production "Lametown and the Adventure of Spirit Force Five" and Stacie Barra Tournis' "Born Ready" with The Factory Theater, David Cerda's "Scream, Queen, Scream!" with Hell in a Handbag Productions, "LARP Fiction" at Donny's Skybox at The Second City, and the Jeff Award-recommended "Private Eyes" by Steven Dietz with Sliced Bread Productions.
In addition, Bullion served as artistic director of The Conspirators, where he developed several original productions, and worked as director of programs with the artists' service group DirectorsLabChicago.
He also acted in commercials, and was involved in numerous theatrical tours and demonstrations at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
Tributes to Bullion have poured in over recent days.
"As the Artistic Director of The Conspirators, he invested both the stage and the entire Chicago storefront theatre community with his wit, his candor, and his constant puckish smile," the Idle Muse Theatre Company wrote on Facebook. "We remember him today as a hero with a glint in his eye who fulfilled his lifelong mission to make sure we never took ourselves too seriously."
Steven Townshend, the creator of Distant Era fine art and portrait photography firm, wrote of Townshend's sense of humor and "community spirit."
"Every holiday season following Christmas, Billy had a tradition of writing a series of posts from the perspective of the recipient of the gifts from 'The Twelve Days of Christmas.' As more and more surprising and outlandish gifts arrive, Billy wrote how the overwhelmed recipient tries to figure out what to do with a house full of these swans, geese, French hens, turtle doves, calling birds, and partridge, not to mention the rest. I will miss this tradition, so uniquely Billy, which he shared with his friends," Townshend wrote. "On birthdays, he always wished me, 'Happy bidet!'"
Townshend wrote that he called Bullion "the heart of Chicago theater."
Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones also paid tribute to Bullion in a written brief, noting that Bullion was a "frequent, witty and passionate online presence" with whom Jones sparred "often and always enjoyably."
Scanlon wrote on Facebook: "Please light a candle, tell a joke, be a wise-guy, be kind to someone who can't give you anything in return, yell about someone's terrible driving, listen to The Specials, have some champagne and sushi, watch something from the Star Wars universe, or just ponder the absurdity of life in Billy's honor."
