Bill Wise, a Constant Presence in Austin’s Film Scene, Dies at 61

When people talk about memorable actors, their default thinking is A-listers, or maybe the big-name supporting actors. But often just as important are the bit part players who add that undefinable something to a movie. Austinite Bill Wise was one of those actors, the definitional “I know that guy!” creative force who would change a scene for the better in moments. Now the Austin film scene is reeling from the confirmation over the weekend of his death last week at the age of 61.

Wise’s story is a history of Austin film for the last three decades. Starting with his first onscreen performance as “Heckler” in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, he soon became a constant presence. Whether it was a visiting production like schmaltzy TV movie The Soul Collector or a homegrown project like horror satire Attack of the Bat Monsters, Wise was on the call sheet. His name in the credits was like that “Made in Georgia” peach at the end of a movie: If he was there, it really was an Austin movie.

He undoubtedly became a go-to guy in Austin’s film defiantly indie film scene for the pivotal directors in its sway. He worked with Richard Linklater on SubUrbia, Waking Life, $5.15, and Up to Speed. Andrew Bujalski cast him in Support the Girls, Computer Chess, and Results. He became a regular for Bob Byington, appearing in Frances Ferguson, Harmony and Me, Somebody Up There Likes Me, and R.S.O.: Registered Sex Offender. Some of the most memorable moments in Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha involve Wise; the director brought Wise back for his third film, Waves. Plus, he was a part of the legacy of local online studio Rooster Teeth, with multiple parts in projects like Red vs. Blue and Lazer Team.

Most of Wise’s parts were small: Indeed, he created one of his own rare leading roles himself in the web series Master Class, as a bombastic and clueless acting coach. But small parts didn’t mean small talent or small presence. What casting directors saw was the kind of actor that could make a big impact in a few moments. He cornered the Austin market in cops, coaches, and sports announcers, giving them a quirky gravitas that made them instantly memorable, like the beleaguered captain dealing with Jim Arnaud’s antics in Jim Cummings’ Thunder Road. His comedy instincts made him perfect for the woefully inappropriate Uncle Steve in Boyhood.

Busy as he was as a film and TV actor, that didn’t always pay the bills. It seemed like he was everywhere, in countless commercials, doubling as both a performer and Friday night house manager for ColdTowne Theatre, stage managing at the Zach, running the ground for the city of Austin’s Trail of Lights.  He even recorded a spoken-word introduction for burlesque performer Something Blue’s routine inspired by Greek mythology, Persephone. Plus, like everyone else in Austin, he ended up in a band as a member of party punks the Gay Sportscasters under the moniker Nashville Bill.

He was also a talented voice actor, working on video games and anime dubs (if you grew up watching the 1995 Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, then every time Knuckles opens his mouth, that was Bill Wise). It was actually the world of animation and one of his regular directors that gave him arguably his most memorable roles, as the Dad in Richard Linklater’s memories of Houston in the shadow of NASA, Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood. Capturing a certain era of parenting, he’ll be forever remembered for teaching his kids the “right way” to drink and drive.

Wise embraced Austin for his acting career, rather than relocating to either New York or LA, because he felt at home in a creative community where no one was pigeonholed. At the same time, he was always aware that it could be a tough place to get a project going, or to make a living, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth the effort. As he told the Chronicle in 2015 on the release of Master Class, “If you overthink a lot of these projects, it’s like, you’re never going to get to be Goliath. You’re always just going to be David, and after a while, you gotta get that fuckin’ slingshot and that sling together and start throwing fucking rocks.”

The outpouring of memories and tributes to Wise from across the Austin film community and beyond speaks to his impact. On Instagram, actor Lee Eddy said that Wise “had the RPMs of a thousand hummingbirds. … He pursued every opportunity and milked every scene.” Amos David McKay, who directed Wise in the upcoming Neighbor, called him “a strange bird of the best variety,” while John Merriman called him “insanely brilliant [and] incredibly funny.” Craig Staggs, cofounder of animation studio Minnow Mountain, recalled that he’d first got to know Wise when they were both working on the Trail of Lights, and reunited with him on Apollo 10 ½: He wrote that Wise “seemed to understand a secret that the rest of us didn’t about being yourself.” Gay Sportscasters cofounder and vocalist Jeff Smith added that “he was one of those rare friends I could share anything with and I knew that any judgment came from a place of love.”

Yet it was up to actor and filmmaker Heather Kafka to sum up the feelings of so many in the Austin creative scene at this moment: “I miss you tonight Bill.”

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