Biography
Born and raised in Stockton, California Bill Humphreys has worked from coast to coast as an actor and director in film, television and live theatre his entire life.
From the acting side of his career, national audiences have seen Bill in such roles as The Actor in The Woman in Black, Gilbert Foote in The Things We Do For Love, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind, Fagan in Oliver, Harold Ryan in Happy Birthday Wanda June, Littlechap in Stop the World, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. Bill also produced and starred in a tour of the one-man show Clarence Darrow. In total, Bill has more than 140 live theatre credits to his name including such titles as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Cat on the Hot Tin Roof, The Mousetrap, Boys in the Band, Happy End, My Fair Lady, All the Way Home and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In 1994, Bill created the role of Cy Gorman in the world premiere of Murdering Mother, written and directed by Ernest Thompson, Academy Award winning author of On Golden Pond. Bill has also portrayed the role of Norman Thayer in Golden Pond again under Thompson's direction. His motion picture credits include such films as: The Celebrant with Rae Dawn Chong; The Terrible Meek; Tech Support, Banazynski, Pale In Your Shadow, The Moonshine War with Alan Alda; R.P.M. with Anthony Quinn, Strawberry Statement with Bruce Dern; Hamburger Hill, The Vals, Against The Tide, Under Arrest, Flying With Icarus, Willow's Way and Chappaquiddick with Jason Clarke. On the small screen Bill's work goes as far back as The Name of the Game, and comes forward as recently as The Winds of War, The Works of Ambrose Bierce, The Works of Robert Frost, two recent projects for the History Channel; Witch Hunt and Conquest of America: The Northeast. Bill is seen regularly as the Down East Farmer in commercials for Oakhurst Dairy and as the caring father for Cross Jewelers.
As a director, Bill has worked with the likes of Carol Channing, Sarah Stiles, Billy Barty, Amy Spanger, Anthony Quinn, Bob Hope, Ed McMahann, Phyllis Diller, Brian Knowlton, Dick Martin, Morgan Woodward, Patty Duke, Terry Moore, Grant-Lee Phillips, Marjorie Main, Jack LaLanne and many others. He has directed live and taped broadcasts of presidential and gubernatorial debates, national commercial spots for such clients as Sears, Columbia Record House, Betty Crocker and Rolex Watches. He has also pointed the cameras for The Hollywood Lane Parade of Stars, The Jerry Lewis Telethon, NBA Basketball and NASL Soccer games in addition to a wide variety of children's educational and entertainment programs ranging from Romper Room and City Kids to See Here, Kids Court and Hobo Kelly. Bill has directed more than 25,000 hours of television and film and more than 50 live theatre productions during his career. The feature film Just Say Love for Stagewright Films is the 7th full length feature Bill has helmed over a wide range of genre's from documentary: To Kill In California; Sumner Weinbaum: Working In Time; On The Wing; In Focus: The Hollywood lens of Murray Garrett - to music; Loggins and Messina Live; RockBack - The Iron Butterfly; BackStage/FrontRow. From dramatic; A Scrapbook of Late Beginnings; Pale In Your Shadow; The Terrible Meek - to cultural; The Works of Robert Frost; In Conversation - Bill Moyers; The Civil War Filmmaker-Ken Burns. On The Wing, a 90-minute documentary about the 780th Bomb group of WWII was recently completed and is in distribution over PBS. In Focus:... Murray Garrett - a look at the life and work of Bob Hope's personal photographer, is currently in rotation on the PBS circuit. Bill was also the originating Executive Producer for the longest running cooking show on PBS Ciao Italia - with Maryann Esposito.
Bill has been recognized by the International Film and Television Festivals of NY three times, The American Film Institute, The Telly Awards with six 1st place wins, American Women in Radio and Television twice, The Ohio State Awards, The Associated Press five times, The National Association of Broadcasters and the Aurora Awards among others. He's been nominated 10 times for Televisions Emmy Award and has taken four Emmy's home - the first for The Works of Robert Frost which he created, produced and directed and the second for directing the narrative film A Scrapbook of Late Beginnings. Both projects are distributed through APT to PBS. The third Emmy came for the RKO Pictures production To Kill In California and the fourth for Stand-up, Step Forward a PSA against child abuse which received its initial national air on the Cobert Report. Bill is a member of the Screen Actors Guild nominating committee for Primetime Television performances.
A graduate of Columbia College of Television and Motion Picture Arts in Hollywood, California, Bill focused his studies in Film Production, Directing and Acting. Thirty years ago he, his wife Betsy and their son Trevor relocated to the east coast from the flats of Los Angeles in order to find "... air you can breathe without seeing it first" and a place more conducive to raising a son. That son is now a Master Electrician in Vermont and Betsy, who holds a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education from UNC-Chapel Hill is the Director of the LEND program at UNH. Bill's 'day-job' is that of Executive Director for Portsmouth Public Media (PPMtv) - he and Betsy live in Eliot, Maine.
