Billy Boyd

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For the Northern Ireland Labour Party activist, see Billy Boyd (politician). For the Scottish footballer, see Billy Boyd (footballer).

Billy Boyd
Boyd at Comic-Con International 2004
Born	William Boyd 28 August 1968 (1968-08-28) (age 39) Glasgow, Scotland
Years active	1998 - present
Official website

Billy Boyd (born 28 August 1968) is a Scottish actor and musician most widely known for playing the characters Peregrin "Pippin" Took in the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and Barrett Bonden in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

1 Biography
2 Filmography
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Boyd was born in Glasgow, Scotland to William and Mary Boyd,^[1] who died, a year apart, when Boyd was in his early teens.^[2] He was raised, along with his older sister, Margaret, by their grandmother. In 1984, at the age of sixteen, he appeared in local musical company Theatre Guild, Glasgow's production of Hans Anderson. He worked as a book-binder for 7 years before pursuing an acting career. One of the books he bound was The Lord of the Rings. He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he earned a diploma in Dramatic Arts.

[edit] Career

As well as being a screen actor, he also appears on the stage. He has been in several plays; most recently, San Diego and The Ballad Of Crazy Paola. He is also an accomplished musician, singing and also playing the guitar, bass, and drums. He wrote the melody for and sang in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King called The Steward of Gondor. He topped list of top 100 Most Eligible Men in Scotland in 2002. Currently, he is the lead singer and co-songwriter in the band, Beecake [1]. He has also made a cameo appearance in the popular Scottish comedy Still Game in the second episode of the first series. In 2008, Boyd will star in Ecstasy based on the #1 best-selling book by Irvine Welsh as Woodsy. This film has now been removed from IMDb and it is uncertain if it will go ahead.

[edit] Beecake

Based in Glasgow, Scottish band Beecake initially started out as an excuse for four good friends to have some fun making music. Beecake are Billy Boyd, John Crawford, Billy Johnston and Rick Martin and have all been long-term friends and played individually and together in various bands over the past several years. Beecake was formed in late September 2006 after a conversation over a bottle of malt whisky in a Glasgow west end bar when the guys remembered how much fun they had when they made music together. Having acclaimed actor Billy Boyd as your front man, best known for his portrayal of the hobbit Pippin in the Lord Of The Rings movie trilogy, obviously opens doors for the band and enables Beecake to get extensive press coverage which has all been very positive, however the band as a unit hold their own both live and in the studio and keep that door firmly wedged open. After the success of selling out there very first gig as Beecake at Barfly, Glasgow in late January 2007 and the surprise of having fans travel from as far a field as Japan, Germany, Italy and all over the UK to see them play live, they quickly decided to record some of their original music at various studios within Glasgow, in total five tracks which would later be included in their EP “Just B”. Beecake have hit the number one spot on the myspace unsigned charts within the UK several times and continue to regularly hold a position within the top 10 unsigned bands in the UK, in various genres. They also continue to hold a respectable position within the myspace worldwide-unsigned charts. After playing shows in Glasgow, London and Los Angeles among others, Beecake began to get the bug for playing live and throughout the remainder of 2007 gathered a very dedicated live audience. Interest in the music press began to grow after several demo tracks were played on various radio shows including X-FM Scotland’s X Posure Show and BBC Radio Scotland. In mid 2007 Beecake again visited the recording studio craving the need to record some of their new songs (Cava studios based in the west end of Glasgow) and very successfully began to produce, develop and create a sound and feel that they knew was the way forward for the band. They recorded four new tracks, Radio, Ball Of Earth, In My Arms and Something’s Wrong, which became instant hits at their live shows and on their myspace player. The band continue to produce strong tracks that would easily stand up along side anything that is currently being produced today by more established signed artists. Beecake have to date also played live along with such artists as Sandi Thom, Amy McDonald and Eddie Reader and easily held their own and have opened for the recently revived Big Country at the end of December 2007 as well as headlining King Tuts in Glasgow in January 2008. Beecake have also recorded exclusive live acoustic sessions for X-FM Scotland and BBC Radio Pudsey showcasing the bands strong harmonies and vocal ranges among stripped down versions of their songs and are currently penned in for several festivals over the forthcoming summer including The Wickerman Festival 08. Beecake are a band not willing to stand still and rest on their laurels and have recently entered the studio yet again in March 2008 and recorded some brand new material, which they have an extensive back catalogue of waiting patiently to be recorded.

[edit] Personal life

Aside from his musical aspirations, Boyd is an avid surfer, which stems from his time spent surfing in New Zealand during the production for Lord of the Rings.^[2] He also holds a Grade 7 in foil fencing and a Phase 4 rank in both Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali.^[3]

Boyd at Ring*Con 2005 in Fulda, Germany

He currently owns a house in Glasgow with his wife, Ali McKinnon. On 26 April 2006, he and Mckinnon welcomed their first child, son Jack William Boyd.^[4]

Boyd has a tattoo of the Elvish word for "nine", a reference to his involvement in the Lord of the Rings and the fact that his character was one of the nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring. The other actors of "The Fellowship" (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Ian McKellen, Dominic Monaghan, Viggo Mortensen, and Orlando Bloom) got the same tattoo with the exception of John Rhys-Davies whose stunt double got the tattoo instead.^[5]

He remains close with Lord of the Rings co-star Dominic Monaghan and they have written a script together but at the moment there are no plans for it to be made.