William Sadler Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" in 1992
• Was nominated for a Fright Meter Award in 2009 for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "The Hills Run Red․"
• Holds a Master's degree in Acting from Cornell University
• While still in high school, he split his time between playing guitar in a rock band called The Knight Ryders and doing solo stand-up routines as the joke-cracking, banjo-playing Banjo Bill Sadler
• An old acquaintance offered him his first New York theater role, and while playing the role, the lead in a production of "Ivanov," he slept on his friend's couch and swept floors at a Mexican Restaurant to pay his subway fare
• Quote: "Part of what you're doing as an actor on the set is 'finding the scene․' You understand it on the page to some degree, but an awful lot of discovery happens once you put it on its feet with other actors, on a real set․"
• Quote: "That's my Achilles' heel as an actor․ I'm always drawn to characters who are not easy to understand․ They make you dig for the truth about them․ They sometimes do awful things, but for very human reasons․"
• Has appeared in multiple movies adapted from the works of Stephen King and directed by Frank Darabont, "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile" and "The Mist․"
• Often plays menacing villains and corrupt figures of authority
• Earned his BS in speech communication at the State University of New York College at Geneseo and is a certified speech teacher