Beau Billingslea

John "Beau" Billingslea^[1] (born 1944)^[2] is an American actor, known as the voice of Jet Black in the critically acclaimed anime Cowboy Bebop, Ogremon in Digimon and Homura and Ay, the Fourth Raikage in Naruto Shippuden. In addition to voice acting, he appeared in many television shows and some films including North and South Book II: Love and War, Just Jordan, The Hannah Montana Movie, and Star Trek Into Darkness.

Beau Billingslea
Billingslea in 2016
Born	John Billingslea 1944 (age 80–81) Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.
Education	University of Connecticut (BA, JD)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1977–present
Spouse	Cecelia Billingslea
Children	2

Biography

Early life and career

Billingslea was born in Charleston, South Carolina.^[3] His mother was from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, near Charleston, and his father was from Macon, Georgia.^[3] His family moved to Meriden, Connecticut, where he grew up.^[2][1] At Maloney High School, he lettered in football, basketball and baseball and was offered a contract with the Kansas City Athletics,^[1] but at the advice of his father, went to University of Connecticut, where he played football and co-captained in his senior year.^[3][1][4] He graduated with a Bachelor's in Political Science in 1966.^[2] He was involved in ROTC and had to turn down entering the NFL in order to fulfill his military service, however, his commitment was deferred so that he could attend UConn Law School, where he graduated and passed the Connecticut bar in 1969.^[3][1] He became an officer in the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps and had tours in Germany and Europe, working on a number of cases. In Germany, he also taught criminal law for the University of Maryland's extension program.^[3][1]

Acting career

While in college, Billingslea was encouraged by his fraternity brother to perform the lead role in a production of The Emperor Jones. This inspired him to go into acting, and he started getting involved professionally while he was in law school.^[3][1] After moving to Los Angeles, he was involved in a number of action shows, including TJ Hooker, Hunter, The Fall Guy and The A-Team. Billingslea mentioned in an interview that it was probably because of his military background that he was often cast as an officer.^[3][5] He portrayed Ezra in the TV miniseries North and South and was involved in a number of shows including Who's the Boss?, Murphy Brown and Married... with Children. On the Nick series Just Jordan he played Jordan's maternal grandfather Grant.^[6] In the TV sitcom Franklin & Bash he portrayed Judge Douglas. He also acted in films such as Night Shift, The American President, Hannah Montana: The Movie, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and a remake of The Blob.^[1] In 2013, he portrayed Captain Abbot of the Starship Bradbury in the feature film Star Trek Into Darkness.^[5] He continues to act in stage plays such as Driving Miss Daisy where he was nominated for a Los Angeles Ovation Award in 2005.^[7]

Voice-over career

Billingslea's voice-over work started with radio spots for various businesses and organizations, including Honda, Hood and California Highway Patrol.^[3] He worked on several cartoons and anime, his most notable being Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop, which was broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block.^[3][1] He also voiced starring characters Captain Michael Heartland in Argento Soma; Oji Tanaka in The Legend of Black Heaven, which was broadcast on International Channel and was the voice of Ogremon and various "mons" in Digimon. In Naruto, he voices Homura and Ay, the Fourth Raikage. He attended several anime conventions, including the 2016 Anime Expo, which united the Cowboy Bebop English voice cast.^[8] He has also been involved in narrating shows on The History Channel including Hero Ships, Modern Marvels, and Suicide Missions.^[5][9]

Personal life

Billingslea lives in the Los Angeles area. He is married to Cecelia Billingslea;^[10] they have a son and a daughter together.^[3][1] In 1987, Billingslea was inducted into the Meriden Hall of Fame.^[2] In 2014, he gave the keynote address at a UConn Law School reunion.^[10]

Filmography

Live-action filmography

Television

List of acting performances in television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source[1]
1984–87	Hunter	Officer Bolin	3 episodes: "The Hot Grounder", "Flashpoint", "The Shooter"	[11][12][13]
1984–85	Santa Barbara	Police Officer	Unknown episodes	[14]
1985	The Atlanta Child Murders	Commissioner Lee Brown	TV miniseries	[15]
1985	Dallas	Dr. Miller		[citation needed]
1985–86	Hotel	Cop #2, Officer	Episode: "Recriminations"	[16]
1985–86	The A-Team	Armored car guard, Owens	2 episodes: "Incident at Crystal Lake K Love", "Family Reunion"	[16][17][18]
1986	North and South	Ezra	TV miniseries, Book II: Love and War	[19]
1985	Moonlighting	Announcer	Episode: "Brother, Can You Spare a Blonde?"	[20]
1986	Trapper John, M.D.	Ambers	Episode: "Self-Diagnosis"	[21]
1987	MacGyver	Meridan	Episode: "Family Matter"[22]
1989	Murder, She Wrote	Kei Murray	Episode: "Three Strikes, You're Out"	[23]
1991	Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story	Hal	Television film	[24]
1993	NYPD Blue	Det. Hankin	Episode: "Oscar, Meyer, Weiner"	[25]
1993	Married... with Children	Moderator	Episode: "Banking on Marcy"	[26]
1994	Melrose Place	George	Episode: "Michael's Game"	[16]
1994	L.A. Law	Detective Don Cuva	Episode: "Whistle Stop"	Uconn profile
1995	The Young and the Restless	Trenton Jordan		Uconn profile
1996	Terror in the Family	Judge Roubal	Television film
1996	Married... with Children	Reverend Hightower	Episode: "A Bundy Thanksgiving"	[27]
1997	Murphy Brown	Agent Scanlon	Episode: "Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow"	[28]
1997	Mad About You	Security Chief	Episode: "The Birth: Part 2"	[29]
1998	Profiler	Prison Director	Episode: "Coronation"	[16]
1999	Baywatch	Ben Frazier	Episode: "The Big Blue"	[16]
2001	Walker, Texas Ranger	Tom Jakes	Episode: "Justice for All"	[16]
2001	NYPD Blue	Deputy Warden Jim Cullen	Episode: "Hit the Road, Clark"	[30]
2001	JAG	Col. Klesko	Episode: "Ambush"	[16]
2001	7th Heaven	Gene Carter
2001–02	Family Law	Judge Lawrence Harrington	Unknown episodes
2003	Modern Marvels	Narrator	2 episodes	[9]
2004	The West Wing	Agent Caswell
2006	Gone, but Not Forgotten	Chester Shortridge	Television film (Lifetime)	[31]
2007–08	Just Jordan	Grant Cunningham	Unknown episodes	[6][32]
2008	Hero Ships	Narrator	History Channel series	[33]
2010	Wizards of Waverly Place	Burt Parker
2011	General Hospital	Prof. Russell Stern
2011–14	Franklin & Bash	Judge James Douglas	Unknown episodes	[9]
2014	Castle	Dr. Walter Parish	Episode: "Bad Santa"	[34]
2016	Star Trek Continues	Vulcan Vice Admiral Stomm	Episode: "Embracing the Winds"	[35]
2017	NCIS	Denny Rydell	Episode: "Burden of Proof"
2020	Cherish the Day	Pastor Gordon	2 episodes

Feature films

List of acting performances in film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source[2][1]
1977	Alex Joseph and His Wives	FBI Agent Vernon Wood		[36]
1982	Night Shift	Donny		[37]
1983	10 to Midnight	Desk Sergeant		[38]
1985	Real Genius	George		[39]
1988	The Blob	Moss Woodley		[9][40]
1994	In the Army Now	Sgt. Daniels		[41]
1995	The American President	Agent Cooper		[42]
1997	Final Justice	Charles	Made in 1994, released to video in 1997	[43]
1998	Halloween H20: 20 Years Later	Detective Fitzsimmons		[9][44]
2003	Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood	Thompson		[9]
2005	Rebound	NCBA Board Member		[45]
2009	Hannah Montana: The Movie	Mayor		[46][47]
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	Captain Abbott		[35]

Voice-over filmography

Anime

List of voice performances in anime

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1995	Macross Plus	Col. Millard Johnson		[48]
1998	Outlaw Star	Narrator		[49]
1998	Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory	Admiral Kowen		[50]
1999	Digimon	Ogremon, Sagittarimon, Parrotmon		[35]
1999	Cowboy Bebop	Jet Black	as John Billingslea	[51][52][53]
2000	Rurouni Kenshin	Gohei		[35]
2000	The Legend of Black Heaven	Oji Tanaka	as John Billingslea, grouped under English Voice Talent	[54][55]
2001	Rave Master	Bear / Dearhound		[56]
2001–02	Cyborg 009	Geromino Jr. / Cyborg 005		[57]
2003	Argento Soma	Captain Michael Heartland		[9]
2003	Wolf's Rain	Sea Walrus		[35]
2004	Gungrave	Bear Walken		[58]
2008	Digimon Data Squad	Leopardmon		[59]
2009	Monster	Milan Kolasch		[48]
2009–15	Naruto: Shippuden	Homura, Ay (Fourth Raikage)		[35]
2012	Tiger & Bunny	Ben Jackson		[60]
2017	Hunter × Hunter	Light Nostrade	2011 series	[61]
2017	Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: Bandit Flower	Orphe, Bull, Julio Sawasdee		[50]
2018	Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World	Valga "Rom" Cromwell		[62]
2018	Last Hope (TV Series)	Cain Ibrahim Hasan	Also named Unit Pandora	[63][circular reference]
2021	Godzilla Singular Point	Additional Voice	Netflix dub
2021	Super Crooks	Eric	Netflix dub	[50]

Animation

List of voice performances in animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2004	Megas XLR	Grrkek The Planet Killer & Orange Scaley Thing 1		[50]
2015	Stakes	The Moon	Mini-series special for Adventure Time	[64][65]
2019	The Forge	Booger	TIE special for Toonami	[66]

Direct-to-video and television films

List of voice performances in direct-to-video and television films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source[1]
1995	Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie	Dee Jay	As John Hammond	[35]
2002	Cowboy Bebop: The Movie	Jet Black		[67][68]
2006	Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children	Barret Wallace		[50][69]
2013	Tiger & Bunny: The Rising	Ben Jackson		[70]
2015	The Last: Naruto the Movie	Fourth Raikage / Ay	Nominated for Best Male Supporting Vocal Performance in an Anime Movie/Special, 4th Annual BTVA Anime Dub Awards 2015	[50][71]

Feature films

List of voice performances in feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2012	War of the Worlds: Goliath	Abraham Douglas	Premiered in Malaysia in English; U.S. release in 2014	[72][73][74]
2015	The Laws of the Universe Part 0	Goat-type Alien	Limited theatrical release	[50]

Video games

List of voice performances in video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1997	Outlaws	"Buckshot" Bill Morgan		[50]
2003–14	Dynasty Warriors games			[35][75]
2004	Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War	"Swordsman" Marcus Snow		[50]
2006	Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII	Barret Wallace		[50]
2011–16	Naruto games	Ay (Fourth Raikage)		[50]
2014	WildStar	Judge Kain, Osun Male		[76]
2020	Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise	Tyrone Sanders		[50]
2020	Fallout 76: Wastelanders	Paige, Chase Terrier, Deathklaus		[77]
2022	Horizon Forbidden West	Garokkah, Emboh		[50]
2023	Starfield	Percival Walker		[78]
2024	Tekken 8	Leroy Smith		[79]
2025	Bleach: Rebirth of Souls	Edrad Liones		[50]