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Billy Drago

Billy Drago built a screen career around faces and voices that suggested danger before a character had even made a move. Born in Hugoton, Kansas, he grew up visiting the movie theater in his rural hometown. Before acting, he worked as an Associated Press journalist and in radio, which took him to Canada and New York City. He also spent time with a touring theater group and worked as a stuntman at Boot Hill in Dodge City before attending the University of Kansas and joining an acting company. Drago began his acting career in 1979, with early film appearances in No Other Love, Windwalker and Cutter's Way. He later played Frank Nitti, the gangster assassin in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables, the role that brought him international prominence. It also captured what filmmakers often found so useful about Drago: a lean, unsettling presence that could give a villain an edge beyond the dialogue. His work moved freely between film and television. He guest-starred on Hill Street Blues, Moonlighting, Walker, Texas Ranger and Trapper John, M.D., and appeared in The X-Files. On The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., he had a recurring role as outlaw John Bly. In 1999, he first appeared on Charmed as the demon Barbas. Intended as a one-episode villain, the character became popular enough to return across five of the show's eight seasons. Drago's film credits also included Pale Rider, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, the 2006 version of The Hills Have Eyes and Low Down. Beyond conventional film and television work, he appeared in music videos for Michael Jackson's You Rock My World and Mike + The Mechanics' Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground). Across those varied projects, Drago remained a dependable character actor whose particular intensity made even a brief appearance feel charged.