Will Oldham

Will Oldham Headshot

Singer • Songwriter • Actor

Birth Date: December 24, 1970

Age: 53 years old

Birth Place: Louisville, Kentucky

Also known as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Will Oldham became a celebrated cult figure on both the indie music and movie scenes thanks to a prolific number of lo-fi folk albums and Sundance hits such as "The Guatemalan Handshake" (2006) and "Old Joy" (2006). Born in Louisville, KY in 1970, Will Oldham began his career as an actor, making his screen debut in country music comedy "What Comes Around" (1985) before showing up as a teenage preacher in coal mining drama "Matewan" (1987), father Chip in TV movie "Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure" (1989) and Miles in American Old West tale "Thousand Pieces of Gold" (1991).

Frustrated by the film industry, Oldham then switched his attention to music in the early 1990s, fusing alternative country, freak folk and Americana on a handful of albums recorded under the guise of either Palace Brothers or Palace Music, including 1993 debut There Is No One What Will Take Care Of You and 1995's highly acclaimed Viva Last Blues. After releasing 1997's Joya under his own name, Oldham adopted his more familiar Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker for 1999's I See a Darkness.

Oldham's work rate became even more prolific as he entered the new century, with a new LP arriving on average every twelve months. Alongside acclaimed albums such as 2003's Master and Everyone, 2006's The Letting Go and 2009's Beware, Oldham also recorded joint efforts with the likes of Tortoise, Matt Sweeney, Dawn McCarthy and The Cairo Gang, provided the soundtrack to documentary "Seafarers" (2004) and formed a brief supergroup with Jason Molina and Alasdair Roberts named Amalgamated Sons of Rest.

He also returned to the film world in 2005 with a cameo in indie drama "Junebug" (2005) and a year later landed the leading roles of demolition derby driver Donald Turnupseed and hippie camper Kurt in Sundance favorites "The Guatemalan Handshake" (2006) and "Old Boy" (2006), respectively. After briefly showing up in lost dog tale "Wendy and Lucy" (2008) and "Jackass 3D" (2010), he once again took center stage as evangelical Christian Ike in "New Jerusalem" (2011), played artefact-smuggling novelist John in Mexican small-town drama "Eden" (2014) and appeared as the Prognosticator in supernatural mood piece "A Ghost Story" (2017).

He also maintained his reputation as the indie-folk scene's most idiosyncratic artist, covering both a collection of Merle Haggard classics and the entirety of Susanna and the Magical Orchestra's Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos, recording EPs with Trembling Bells, Oscar Parsons and Marquis de Tren and reinterpreting several Bonnie "Prince" Billy favorites under his own name on 2018's Songs of Love and Horror.

Credits

The BikeridersStream

Actor
Bartender
Movie
2023
80%

Magnetic Reconnection

Narrator
Movie
2021

Hands That Bind

Actor
Barkeep
Movie
2021

The Freak Zone Playlist

Host
Show
2017

A Ghost StoryStream

Actor
Prognosticator
Movie
2017
91%

AnimalsStream

Guest Voice
Series
2016
84%

Sailing a Sinking Sea

Executive Producer
Movie
2015

Edén

Actor
John
Movie
2014

Revenge of the Mekons

Actor
Movie
2013

CBS This Morning: Saturday

Music Performer
Show
2012

Wonder: The Lives of Anna and Harlan Hubbard

Actor
Harlan Hubbard
Movie
2012

Music Makes a City

Narrator
Show
2011

Pioneer

Actor
Dad
Movie
2011

New Jerusalem

Actor
Ike Evans
Movie
2011

This Must Be the Place

Lyrics
Movie
2011

Wendy and Lucy

Actor
Icky
Movie
2008

The Dirty Three

Actor
Movie
2007

Old Joy

Actor
Kurt
Movie
2006

The Guatemalan Handshake

Actor
Donald Turnupseed
Movie
2006

Bonnie Prince Billy: Agnes, Queen of Sorrow

Music Performer
Show
2004

Tripping With Caveh

Actor
Will
Show
2004

Slitch

Actor
Movie
2003

Ode

Original Music
Movie
1999

Dutch Harbor: Where the Sea Breaks Its Back

Actor
Movie
1998

Radiation

Actor
Will
Movie
1998

Thousand Pieces of Gold

Actor
Miles
Movie
1990

Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure

Actor
Chip Mcclure
Movie
1989

Matewan

Actor
Danny Radnor
Movie
1987
94%