| Birth Name: | William George Zane Jr. |
| Birth Date: | 24 February 1966 |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1985–present |
| Partner: | Candice Neil (2010–present; engaged) |
| Family: | Lisa Zane (sister) |
| Children: | 2 |
William George Zane Jr. (born February 24, 1966) is an American actor. His breakthrough role was in the 1989 Australian film Dead Calm, a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series, notably playing the main antagonist Caledon Hockley in the epic romance disaster film Titanic (1997), for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Zane's other film roles include Kit Walker / The Phantom in the superhero film The Phantom (1996), "Match" in the Back to the Future franchise, Lieutenant Val Kozlowski in Memphis Belle (1990), The Collector in Demon Knight (1995), Curtis Zampf in The Believer (2001), and Richard Miller in the Sniper film series. He also played the recurring role of John Justice Wheeler in the second season of the TV series Twin Peaks, and provided the voice of Ansem in the video game Kingdom Hearts (2002).
Zane was born in Chicago to Thalia and William George Zane Sr.; both were professional actors and founders of a school for medical technicians.[1] [2] His parents are of Greek descent (from Chios through his mother and Mani through his father); and his family's original surname, "Zanetakos", was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents. He grew up in the Greek Orthodox faith.[3] [4] [5] He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress and singer.[6]
After completing a year of school at The American School in Switzerland (TASIS), Zane graduated from Francis W. Parker School and attended Harand Camp of the Theater Arts in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Zane's first two screen roles were in the science fiction films Back to the Future in 1985 and Critters in 1986, around the same time he appeared in the music videos for Sheena Easton's songs "Do It For Love" and "Magic of Love". In 1988, he played Tony Gambini alongside Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote: A Very Good Year for Murder. Zane also appeared in an episode of Matlock entitled "The Nurse". In 1989 he reprised his henchman role in Back to the Future Part II. Earlier that same year, Zane gained international recognition with the role of villain Hughie Warriner in the thriller Dead Calm, alongside Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill. He also starred in the NBC film The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989), and Adam Sandler's "no budget" debut Going Overboard (1989) which was not released to a wider audience until 1996.
Zane's first starring role was in a 1990 independent film, the low budget science fiction thriller Megaville. In 1990, he also co-starred in the film Memphis Belle, a film version of a 1944 film about a World War II Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, as the bombardier. Zane also forayed into television work, and in 1991 he appeared as John Justice Wheeler in several episodes of David Lynch's hit TV-show Twin Peaks. In 1992 Zane co-starred alongside Tilda Swinton in the film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. In 1993, he played the Shakespearean actor "Mr. Fabian" in Tombstone, took a starring role in Sniper he also starred alongside Mario Van Peebles as a cold-blooded and corrupt Colonel Graham in Posse and also in Lake Consequence and played a playboy named Harry, posing as the elusive, albeit fake Damon Bradley alongside Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. in Only You.
He also starred in a couple of Tales from the Crypt productions, including Tales From the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, where he played a henchman of Satan called The Collector, and the episode "Well-Cooked Hams", where he played a poorly skilled magician who killed to steal good tricks from other magicians. In 1996, Zane played the eponymous classic comic book hero in the big budget action film The Phantom, based on Lee Falk's comic.
Zane played the snobbish millionaire misanthrope Caledon Hockley in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic. This role as Rose's (played by Kate Winslet) fiancé earned him an MTV Movie Award nomination for "Best Villain" and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award. He was also nominated for a SAG award.
In 1998, he starred in and produced I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a silent film based on Ed Wood's last script, intended as a parody on bad filmmaking. He won several awards at the B-Movie Film Festival, including Best Movie and Best Actor, for this work. The year after, he starred opposite Timothy Dalton, Bruce Payne, Sean Pertwee and Leonor Varela (who became his fiancé after shooting ended) in a TV-movie about Cleopatra. Zane played the part of Mark Antony.
The same year, he voiced John Rolfe in Disney's and Etrigan the Demon in an episode of The New Batman Adventures.
Zane was instrumental in realizing the critically acclaimed film The Believer, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2001.[7] In it, he portrayed neo-fascist Curtis Zampf, and starred opposite Ryan Gosling. The same year, he also had a cameo as himself in the comedy Zoolander.
Zane appeared on Broadway in Chicago, where he played lawyer Billy Flynn.
Zane also had a recurring role in the television series Charmed in which he played poetry-loving ex-demon Drake. He also provided the voice of Ansem, the main antagonist of the 2002 video game Kingdom Hearts, opposite Haley Joel Osment. Though archive audio of Zane was later used for , he was replaced by Richard Epcar for the rest of the series from Kingdom Hearts II onwards. Zane's performance, however, was kept for the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix remaster in Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix.
In 2006, Zane starred in Arthur Allan Seidelman's West End production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks as an acerbic gay dance instructor opposite Claire Bloom.[8] In the same year, he appeared in the Turkish film Valley of the Wolves Iraq (Kurtlar Vadisi: Irak in Turkish), part of the Kurtlar Vadisi franchise. The film tells the story of the U.S. Army run amok in Iraq, eventually brought into check by a Turkish soldier. Zane plays Sam William Marshall, a cruel U.S. soldier who is the main antagonist in the film.
He took over Timothy Olyphant's role as Christina Applegate's ex-boyfriend on Samantha Who?. The show, however, was not renewed for the 2009–2010 season.[9]
Zane is a principal at RadioactiveGiant, a film and television production and distribution company.[10]
Zane starred in the 2012 action/thriller film The Kill Hole,[11] and in January 2017 he appeared in a commercial for KFC as a gold-colored Colonel Sanders to pitch the restaurant chain's newest limited-time flavor, Georgia Gold Honey Mustard BBQ chicken.[12] Zane also appeared in an episode of Community, season 6's "Advanced Safety Features".
Zane was also featured in two episodes of The Boys portraying a fictional version of himself who made a movie with Popclaw and also attended a comic convention with Tara Reid. In season 3, Zane appeared as himself portraying Alastair Adana in the Vought film Not Without My Dolphin.
In 2024, Zane portrayed Larry Ray in the Lifetime film as part of its "Ripped from the Headlines" feature films.[13]
Zane was married to actress Lisa Collins from 1989 to 1995. He was also engaged for a time to Chilean actress Leonor Varela who was his co-star in Cleopatra (1999), a television film.[14]
Later Zane was engaged to British model-turned-actress Kelly Brook; he met her when they co-starred in the movie Survival Island (2005), also known as Three. They split in April 2008, got back together again shortly after that, and ended the relationship in August 2008. Zane dated Croatian model Jasmina Hdagha in 2010; they broke up later that year.[15]
Through a friend he met American model Candice Neil with whom he has two daughters; they became engaged.[14] [16] Their first daughter, Ava Catherine, was born in 2011, and their second daughter, Gia, was born in 2014.[17]
In 1999, Zane participated in the first Gumball 3000 rally, driving a 1964 Aston Martin DB5.[18] He is an abstract expressionist painter and he has had many solo and group exhibitions.[19]
Zane executive-produced an album by bluesman Tim O'Connor that includes three songs from Dead Calm, in which Zane had one of the lead roles.[20]
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Back to the Future | |||
| 1986 | Critters | Steve Elliot | ||
| 1989 | Going Overboard | |||
| Dead Calm | Hughie Warriner | Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor | ||
| Back to the Future Part II | "Match" O'Malley | |||
| 1990 | Megaville | CKS Agent Raymond Palinov / Jensen | ||
| Memphis Belle | Lieutenant Val Kozlowski | Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor | ||
| 1991 | Femme Fatale | Elijah | ||
| Blood and Concrete | Joey Turks | |||
| Millions | Maurizio Ferretti | |||
| 1992 | Orlando | Shelmerdine | ||
| 1993 | Sniper | NSC Agent Richard Miller | ||
| Posse | Colonel Graham | |||
| Poetic Justice | Brad | |||
| Tombstone | Mr. Fabian | |||
| Betrayal of the Dove | Jesse Peter | |||
| 1994 | Reflections on a Crime | Colin | ||
| data-sort-value="Silence of the Hams, The" | The Silence of the Hams | Jo Dee Fostar | ||
| Flashfire | Jack Flinder | |||
| Only You | Harry / Fake Damon Bradley | |||
| 1995 | data-sort-value="Set-Up, The" | The Set-Up | Charles Thorpe | |
| Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight | The Collector | |||
| 1996 | data-sort-value="Phantom, The" | The Phantom | ||
| Head Above Water | Kent | |||
| Danger Zone | Rick Morgan | Also co-producer | ||
| 1997 | This World, Then the Fireworks | Marty | Also executive producer | |
| Titanic | Caledon N. "Cal" Hockley | |||
| 1998 | I Woke Up Early the Day I Died | The Thief | Also producer | |
| Susan's Plan | Sam Myers | |||
| Voice, direct-to-video[21] | ||||
| 1999 | Promise Her Anything | George Putter | ||
| 2001 | Zoolander | Himself | Uncredited cameo | |
| data-sort-value="Believer, The" | The Believer | Curtis Zampf | ||
| CQ | Mr. E. | |||
| Morgan's Ferry | Sam | Direct-to-video | ||
| 2002 | Claim | Roberto Bealing | ||
| Landspeed | Michael Sanger | |||
| 2003 | Silent Warnings | Sheriff Bill Willingham | Direct-to-video | |
| Vlad | Adrian | |||
| data-sort-value="Kiss, The" | The Kiss | Alan Roberts / Young Philip Naudet | Direct-to-video | |
| Starving Hysterical Naked | Jack | |||
| Imaginary Grace | Nero | |||
| 2004 | Silver City | Chandler Tyson | ||
| Big Kiss | Billy | Also director and executive producer | ||
| 2005 | Dead Fish | Virgil | ||
| data-sort-value="Pleasure Drivers, The" | The Pleasure Drivers | Marvin | ||
| BloodRayne | Elrich | |||
| 2006 | data-sort-value="Last Drop, The" | The Last Drop | Lieutenant Robert Oates | Direct-to-video |
| Survival Island | Jack | |||
| Sam William Marshall | ||||
| Memory | Taylor Briggs | |||
| 2007 | data-sort-value="Mad, The" | The Mad | Jason Hunt | |
| Fishtales | Professor Thomas Bradley | Also co-producer | ||
| Alien Agent | Tom Hanson / Saylon | Direct-to-video | ||
| 2008 | Perfect Hideout | Victor | ||
| data-sort-value="Man Who Came Back, The" | The Man Who Came Back | Ezra | ||
| Love N' Dancing | Kent Krandel | |||
| 2009 | Surviving Evil | Sebastian "Seb" Beazley | ||
| Blue Seduction | Mikey Taylor | |||
| Evil – In the Time of Heroes | Prophitis Messenger | |||
| Darfur | Bob Jones | |||
| data-sort-value="Hessen Affair, The" | The Hessen Affair | Jack Durant | ||
| 2010 | Magic Man | Darius | ||
| data-sort-value="Confidant, The" | The Confidant | Monty | ||
| Enemies Among Us | Graham | |||
| 2011 | data-sort-value="Roommate, The" | The Roommate | Professor Roberts | |
| Boop | Short film | |||
| NSC Agent Richard Miller | Direct-to-video | |||
| Mercenaries | Colonel Torida | |||
| Flutter | Edwin "The Dentist" | |||
| Mysteria | The Producer | |||
| Lovemakers | Jake's Agent | |||
| Guido | Sid Shine | |||
| 2012 | data-sort-value="Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, The" | King Talus | Direct-to-video | |
| Electrick Children | Paul McKnight | |||
| Mama, I Want to Sing! | Dillan | |||
| data-sort-value="Green Story, A" | A Green Story | Greg Hutchins | ||
| Two Jacks | Max Faraday | |||
| Border Run | Aaron Talbert | |||
| Dark Star Hollow | The Devil | |||
| 2013 | data-sort-value="Employer, The" | The Employer | Alan | |
| data-sort-value="Kill Hole, The" | The Kill Hole | Marshall | ||
| Blood of Redemption | Quinn Forte | Direct-to-video | ||
| Come Find Me | Uncle | Short film | ||
| 2014 | Scorned | Kevin | ||
| data-sort-value="Ganzfield Haunting, The" | The Ganzfield Haunting | Father | ||
| HUVr | Himself | Short film | ||
| Ghost of Goodnight Lane | Alan | |||
| Mining for Ruby | Professor Sam Goodwell | |||
| 2015 | Seiler | |||
| Billy Zane Thinks Zayn Tweets Are About Him | Himself | Short film | ||
| West of Redemption | Hank Keller | |||
| Trouble Sleeping | Charles | |||
| 2016 | data-sort-value="Winter Rose, A" | A Winter Rose | Preston Holdsworth | |
| Zoolander 2 | Himself | |||
| Swing State | Governor Richard Sollow | |||
| Leo Rand | ||||
| White Island | Leo[22] [23] | |||
| NSC Agent Richard Miller | Direct-to-video | |||
| data-sort-value="Adventure Club, The" | The Adventure Club | Langley | ||
| 2017 | NSC Agent Richard Miller | Direct-to-video | ||
| 2018 | Samson | King Balek | ||
| Holmes & Watson | Himself | Cameo | ||
| Blue World Order | Master Crane | |||
| 2019 | Cliffs of Freedom | Christos | ||
| data-sort-value="Great War, The" | The Great War | Colonel Jack Morrison | ||
| 2020 | Ghosts of War | Dr. Engel | Also executive producer | |
| Final Kill | Carl Riser | |||
| Guest House | Douglas Masters | |||
| Battle of the Bulge: Winter War | General Omar Bradley | Direct-to-video | ||
| Centurion: The Dancing Stallion | Jeffrey Hall | |||
| 2021 | data-sort-value="Believer, The" | The Believer | Dr. Benedict | |
| Iké Boys | Newt Grafstrom | Also co-executive producer | ||
| Rupture | Victor | |||
| 2022 | Hellblazers | Joshua | ||
| 2023 | Legend of Destruction | English dub | ||
| Jeffrey Hall | ||||
| data-sort-value="Oath, The" | The Oath | King Aaron | ||
| Takeover | Gamal Akopyan | |||
| Tapawingo | ||||
| Waltzing with Brando | Marlon Brando |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Brotherhood of Justice | Les | Television film | |
| Heart of the City | Tobin | Episode: "Don't Sell Yourself to the Cannibals" | ||
| 1987 | Matlock | Eric Dawson | Episode: "The Nurse" | |
| Police Officer | Television film | |||
| 1988 | Crime Story | Frankie "The Duke" Farantino | Episode: "Protected Witness" | |
| Murder, She Wrote | Tony Gambini | Episode: "A Very Good Year for Murder" | ||
| Police Story: Monster Manor | Officer Don Varney | Television film | ||
| 1989 | data-sort-value="Case of the Hillside Strangler, The" | The Case of the Hillside Strangler | Television film | |
| 1991 | Twin Peaks | John Justice Wheeler | 5 episodes | |
| 1993 | Lake Consequence | Billy | Television film | |
| Running Delilah | Paul | Television film | ||
| Tales From the Crypt | Miles | Episode: "Well-Cooked Ham" | ||
| 1998 | data-sort-value="New Batman Adventures, The" | The New Batman Adventures | Voice, episode: "The Demon Within" | |
| 1999 | Cleopatra | 2 episodes | ||
| 2000 | Sole Survivor | Joe Carpenter | Television film | |
| Hendrix | Michael Jeffrey | Television film | ||
| 2001 | data-sort-value="Diamond of Jeru, The" | The Diamond of Jeru | Mike Kardec | TV movie |
| Invincible | Os | Television film | ||
| Boston Public | Matthew Baskin | 4 episodes | ||
| 2004 | Bet Your Life | Joseph | Television film | |
| 2005 | Charmed | Drake | 3 episodes | |
| 2008 | Finnegan | Brian Clark | Pilot | |
| 2009 | Blue Seduction | Mikey Taylor | Television film | |
| Samantha Who? | Winston Funk | 5 episodes | ||
| 2010 | Journey to Promethea | King Laypach | Television film | |
| data-sort-value="Deep End, The" | The Deep End | Cliff Huddle | 6 episodes | |
| 2012 | Red Clover | Sheriff Connor O'Hara | Television film | |
| Hannah's Law | Lockwood | Television film | ||
| Robot Chicken | Voices Episode: "Poisoned by Relatives" | |||
| Barabbas | Television film | |||
| 2014 | Checked Out | Uncle Dennis | Pilot | |
| Psych | Ian Collins[24] | Episode: "The Break-Up" | ||
| 2015 | data-sort-value="Wheel of Time: The Winter Dragon, The" | The Wheel of Time: The Winter Dragon | Television film; also executive producer | |
| Community | Honda Boss | Episode: "Advanced Safety Features" | ||
| 2015–2016 | Mad Dogs | Milo | 2 episodes | |
| 2016 | Guilt | Stan Guthrie | 10 episodes | |
| 2017 | Legends of Tomorrow | Episode: "Freakshow" | ||
| 2018 | Deception | "Switch" | 2 episodes | |
| 2019 | Curfew | "Joker" Jones | 8 episodes | |
| 2019, 2022 | data-sort-value="Boys, The" | The Boys | Himself | 3 episodes |
| 2021 | True Story | Ari | 2 episodes | |
| MacGruber | Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth | 5 episodes | ||
| 2024 | Television film |
| Year | Film | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | SSX Tricky | Broderick "Brodi" Ford | |
| 2002 | Kingdom Hearts | Ansem | |
| 2013 | Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix | Archival audio; Kingdom Hearts Final Mix only | |
| 2017 | Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix | Archival audio; Kingdom Hearts Final Mix only |
| Year | Song | Artist | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | "Do It For Love & Magic of Love" | Unknown | ||
| 1998 | data-sort-value=""Dope Show, The"" | "The Dope Show" | Recording Industry Executive | |
| 2001 | "Epiphany" | Unknown | ||
| 2013 | "Rock n Roll"[25] | Protagonist / Antagonist / BearShark |