“Actor Profile: Billy Drago (1945-2019)” by S.M. O’Connor

William Eugene Burrows, Jr. (1945-2019) who acted under the stage name Billy Drago, died on June 24, 2019 as a result of a stroke. He is best known for his performance as the Chicago Outfit’s Frank Nitti (1886-1943) in The Untouchables (1987),[1] directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet, but he played villains in many films and television shows due to his fierce appearance.

He played the villainous Deputy Mather in the supernatural western Pale Rider (1985), which starred Clint Eastwood and Michael Moriarty and that Eastwood directed. More recently, Drago played “Papa Jupiter,” the head of a psychopathic family of mutant murderers, rapists, and cannibals in the 2006 remake of the horror film The Hills Have Eyes.

On television, he played John Bly, the gang leader who killed Marshall Brisco County, Sr. in six episodes of the western/science fiction/fantasy series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993-94), which starred Bruce Campbell as the eponymous Brisco County, Jr. He also had a recurring role as the demon Barbus in seven episodes of Charmed (1998-2006) from 1999 to 2004. In 2000, he played “hoodoo man” Orell Peatie on The X-Files (1993-2002) Season 7 episode “Theef,” which was a monster-of-the-week episode rather than an episode about the larger narrative of alien invasions and government conspiracies.

Born in Hugoton, Kansas to William Eugene Burrows, Sr. and Gladys Marie Wilcox, he was a journalist for the Associated Press news service and worked in radio before he became an actor.[2] His father was said to have American Indian ancestry and his mother was said to have Romany (Gypsy) ancestry.[3] He had over 100 film and television credits.

Burrows had two sons: Darren E. Burrows and Derrick Burrows. Darren E. Burrows is best known for his performance as Ed Chigliak in Northern Exposure (1990-1995). Like his father, he appeared in an episode of The X-Files, but it was actually the season before his father appeared in the show.[4] He wed Melinda Delgado in 1993 and they have four children.

In 1980, Billy Drago wed the film and television actress and acting coach Sandra Silvana Gallardo (1953-2012), who used the stage name Silvana Gallardo. She died in Paris, Kentucky in 2012.

Billy Drago is survived by his sister Patty; brother, Steve; sons Darren Burrows and Derrick Burrows; at least one daughter-in-law; and at least four grandchildren.[5] Laura Ortiz, who appeared in The Hills Have Eyes with Billy Drago, paid tribute to him on Instagram.

Credit: James Obie Caption: This video is a tribute to Billy Drago’s performance as Frank Nitti in The Untouchables (1987).

Credit: OSSA Caption: This video is a tribute to Max Wright, Billy Drago, and Beth Chapman, who all passed away this week.

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ENDNOTES

[1] The film was quite entertaining, but inaccurately depicted Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) as having killed Nitti to avenge Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery). In reality, Jimmy Malone was still alive when the film was released and Nitti succeeded Al Capone (1899-1947) as Boss of the Chicago Outfit.

[2] Ryan Parker, “Billy Drago, Actor in ‘The Untouchables,’ Dies at 73,” The Hollywood Reporter, 26 June, 2019 (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/untouchables-actor-bill-drago-dies-at-73-1221296) Accessed 06/27/19

[3] Pat Saperstein, “Billy Drago, “Untouchables’ Star, Dies at 73,” Variety, 26 June, 2019 (https://variety.com/2019/film/news/billy-drago-dead-dies-untouchables-1203254180/) Accessed 06/27/19

[4] The Season 6 episode “Monday” was also a monster-of-the-week episode, but it involved the whole world be stuck in a time loop – the way Phil Conners (Bill Murray) is stuck in a time loop in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania in the movie Groundhog Day (1993), but was inspired by the Twilight Zone episode “Shadow Play” – instead of having a monster.

[5] Parker

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.