Basically, we are a whole world of people desperately trying to figure out what is the dark side of our natures and how much can we explore without becoming something else.
I didn't want to play a lawyer. I didn't want to play a doctor. I didn't want to play a single dad. I wanted to do something I felt I could learn from, something that would be a challenge and something that would not dry up.
I get a lot of stuff from Germany - stuffed bugs and tarantulas.
I want to live and work in Chicago for the rest of my life. You know when you were growing up and you wanted to become president? What I want now is to be mayor of this damned town in ten years.
I'd lulled myself into the insularity of competence. I'd forgotten that, to do good work as an actor, you have to keep alive that part of yourself that's rebellious, that's an outlaw, that's... that's stark, raving crazy.
I've been telling anybody who would listen that I wanted to do a series for the last 10 years. But I wouldn't do it if I was just another cop pushing bad guys up against the wall.
I've never been in this business for the recognition or the awards. I just want to do good work, grab a decent paycheck, and move onto the next job.
If I stayed a football player, my career would have been over 20 years ago. As it is, my knees are shot. I found I got the same good feeling in acting that I had in sports, but I found I could have a more profound impact on people.
Maybe they know my name, maybe they don't, but we're going to get that damned play on, even if I have to hit a liquor store.
One of the things I love about theater, one of the reasons I'll never give it up, is that it's fifty percent the audience's responsibility.
Sure, I always chose rebels to identify with - I still do - but to me a rebel isn't so much someone who breaks the law as someone who goes against the odds.
Thomas McGuane's characters are always a little quirky, but they're so rich, so expressive. There isn't an actor around who wouldn't kill to play one of them.
We're getting to the age when we're starting to see that responsibility isn't such a bad thing, when we see maturity as the key to sustenance.
Billy was runner up for “Sexiest Boss” in TV Guide’s The Sexy Issue (2007).
After college, Billy and his then wife, Joanne, spent time in Spain, where they started a Shakespeare company in the Basque region.
Billy's grades were so poor in college that he wasn't allowed to play football. He began taking theater classes to raise his Grade Point Average.
When he was 15 Billy ran away to Boise, Idaho, to live with an older brother.
William Petersen has five siblings; Billy is the youngest.
Petersen attended Idaho State University on a football scholarship.
William's role as Gil Grissom shares the number 82 spot with Catherine Willows in "Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters".
He turned down a major part in
He attended Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Idaho. He wears his old football jersey from that school in most of his movies.
Petersen's favorite pigout food is the Double cheeseburgers at the Gaslight on Halsted Street in Chicago.
When William was younger he was into rock concerts, drinking and the usual pot smoking. He called it "General brattiness."
When
William is the co-founder of the Remains Theater Ensemble which also includes other Chicago actors
In 2002 William & co. were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for:
In 2003, William & co. were nominated for the Television Producer of the Year Award in Episodic Drama for:
William starred with
In 2002, Billy was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Series, Drama for:
William owns the rights of James Ellroy's crime novel Clandestine.
William shares his birthday with actor
William has one child, a daughter named Maite. She was born in 1975.
William's nickname is Billy.
Billy owns a production company called High Horse.
William is approximately 5'11" tall.
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