Michael Billington (critic)

Michael Keith Billington OBE (born 16 November 1939) is a British author and arts critic.Drama critic of The Guardian since October 1971, he is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts; most notably, he is the authorised biographer of the playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008).

Early life and education

Billington was born on 16 November 1939, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and attended Warwick School, an independent boys' school in Warwick. He attended St Catherine's College, Oxford from 1958 to 1961, graduating with a BA degree.

As a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), in 1959, Billington played the Priest in The Birds, by Aristophanes, his only appearance as an actor, and, in 1960, he directed a production of Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Prima Donna, a performance of which was attended by Harold Hobson, the drama critic for The Sunday Times. Although it won "an Oxford drama competition" and was an entry in that year's National Student Drama Festival (NSDF 1960), which Hobson had co-founded in 1956, Billington's directorial debut was not well received at the Festival, yet Billington credits Hobson with having "changed my life." After the Festival, he decided to forego pursuing a career as a theatre practitioner to "follow" Hobson's "footsteps" and become a critic of theatre too; five years later, they would become colleagues at The Times.

Michael Billington

Michael Billington may refer to:

Michael Billington (activist)

Michael O. Billington is an activist in the LaRouche Movement, Asia editor for the Executive Intelligence Review, and author of Reflections of an American Political Prisoner: the Repression and Promise of the LaRouche Movement.

Billington graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in 1967. He then joined the Peace Corps, where he taught Mathematics and Music, first in Guyana, then in Thailand. Upon returning to the U.S. he joined the LaRouche movement in 1972, in the early stages of the movement's history. His wife, Gail, and his brother, Joe, and his sister, Margaret Greenspan, were also members of the movement. Billington's book provides an "insider" look at the history of this highly controversial movement.

Billington ran on the U.S. Labor Party platform for County Executive of Westchester County, New York in 1977, and for New York's 24th congressional district in 1978.

Trials

In the latter part of the 1980s, there were numerous criminal trials of LaRouche movement leaders (see LaRouche criminal trials) that were alleged by LaRouche supporters to be political show trials. Billington was tried and convicted twice, first in Federal court, then in Virginia state court. He served two years of a three-year sentence in the first case, and was then re-tried in the state of Virginia and sentenced to 77 years, of which he served 10 before being paroled.

Michael Billington (actor)

Michael Billington (24 December 1941 – 3 June 2005) was a British film and television actor. He was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England.

Career

Television

In 1966 Billington appeared in Incident at Vichy at the Phoenix Theatre in London but was best known for his role as Colonel Paul Foster in the 1970 science fiction TV series, UFO, and for creating the character of Daniel Fogarty from 1971 to 1974 in the historical drama, The Onedin Line. He also appeared as Sergeant Jacko Jackson of the Royal Wessex Rangers in the series Spearhead and as Czar Nicholas II in the ITV drama series Edward the Seventh (1975).

Billington's last major TV role came in the 1986 BBC drama The Collectors, but his final appearance was in an episode of early 1990s TV series Maigret as a villain.

Film

Billington was screen-tested for the role of James Bond more than any other actor and was said to have been Albert R. Broccoli's first choice had Roger Moore not been available (see: 1981's For Your Eyes Only). He was also screen-tested for Live and Let Die (1973), Moonraker (1979), and Octopussy (1983). Billington ultimately appeared in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, playing Sergei Barsov, Agent XXX's ill-fated lover, at the start of the film. His other film credits included Alfred the Great (1969) and KGB: The Secret War (1985).