William Tepper

William Tepper (aka Billy Tepper) was born in The Bronx and studied filmmaking at UCLA Film School where his first film, Evidence Of Tradition, was voted Best Film of the Year. His Hollywood career began at age 20, when his first screenplay won the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award. Fresh out of film school, Tepper convinced his new agents at ICM to get him an interview with director Jack Nicholson who was looking for an actor to star in Drive, He Said, Nicholson's first directorial effort. Nicholson felt that with Tepper he had found his actor, telling producer Bert Schneider, who was against casting him, that Tepper was "the best actor of his generation." After representing the U.S. at the Cannes Film Festival, Drive, He Said went on to become a cult favorite as the best of the films depicting the social unrest of the time. Vincent Canby of the New York Times called Tepper's debut an 'Exceptional performance.' L.A. Times movie critic Charles Champlin described it as a 'Performance of outstanding quality,' while Pauline Kael in New Yorker Magazine called the performance 'One of the most inventive performances of the year.' After guest-starring on episodic television shows, Tepper turned his attention to screenwriting. After producing the Jack Kerouac biopic Heart Beat starring Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek, Tepper starred as a love-struck journalist living in Rome in the romantic comedy Miss Right opposite Margot Kidder and Karen Black, and as an unscrupulous corporate executive in Magnetic Field directed by Oscar-nominated director Mary Benjamin. The two films that Tepper is most recognized for are his co-starring roles in Breathless as Richard Gere's rival, and the 20th Century-Fox hit comedy Bachelor Party as Tom Hanks' sex-obsessed brother. As a screenwriter and script doctor for companies like Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, 20th Century-Fox and New Line Cinema, Tepper has consulted and re-written during production on films like Breathless, Nunzio, and Jack Nicholson's The Two Jakes. His writing credits include screenplays for Miss Right, Magnetic Field and the New Line Cinema comedy Grilled, which he also produced, starring Kevin James and Ray Romano. He has also written for the T.V. series The Street, the gritty police drama starring Stanley Tucci for Universal Studios. In 2014, he wrote, directed and produced the award-winning romantic comedy The Duchess Of Love (aka Barry's Last Shot) filmed and set in Prague.