Patrick Billingsley


Patrick Paul Billingsley was an American mathematician and stage and screen actor, noted for his books in advanced probability theory and statistics. He was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946.
In Young Men and Fire, fellow University of Chicago professor Norman Maclean wrote about Billingsley that "he is a distinguished statistician and one of the best amateur actors I have ever seen".

Academic career

After earning a Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton University in 1955, he was attached to the NSA until his discharge from the Navy in 1957. In 1958 he became a professor of mathematics and statistics at the University of Chicago, where he served as chair of the Department of Statistics from 1980 to 1983, and retired in 1994. In 1964–65 he was a Fulbright Fellow and visiting professor at the University of Copenhagen. In 1971–72 he was a Guggenheim Fellow and visiting professor at the University of Cambridge. From 1976 to 1979 he edited the Annals of Probability. In 1983 he was president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He was given the Lester R. Ford Award for his article "Prime Numbers and Brownian Motion." He was elected a Fellow of the American [Academy of Arts and Sciences] in 1986.

Books

Statistical Inference for Markov Processes Ergodic Theory and Information Convergence of Probability Measures The Elements of Statistical Inference
  • ''Probability and Measure''

Stage plays

Three Magic Keys, Taliesin The Pirates of Penzance, Pirate Read Me a Story Clue of the Circus Clowns, Circus Master Finian's Rainbow, Buzz Collins Beadle-Levi Show Guys and Dolls, Arvide Abernathy We Bombed in New Haven Victorian Children Vaudeville Show, singer The Threepenny Opera, street singer Four Plays of Fantasy and the Unusual Moulin Rouge Oh, What a Lovely War! Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus The Caretaker, Aston The Father, The Captain Murder in the Cathedral, First Knight Twelfth Night, Feste The Same Room, Tom Ferris Dracula, Dr. Seward Much Ado about Nothing, Balthazar and Friar Frances Exits and Entrances Trifles, Sheriff Peters The Lover, Richard-Max The Tempest, Alonzo She Stoops to Conquer, Mr. Hardcastle Measure for Measure, The Duke Mrs. Warren's Profession, Rev. Samuel Gardiner Equus, Dr. Dysart The Seagull, Sorin Twelfth Night, Antonio Under Milk Wood, Rev. Eli Jenkins et al. The First Night of Pygmalion, Beerbohm-Tree et al. Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Quince Much Ado about Nothing, Leonato Heartbreak House, Mazzini Dunn Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, KGB colonel The Birthday Party, Petey Arms and the Man, Major Petkoff Moonlight Daring Us to Go Insane, J. Earl Sheets Coastal Disturbances, R. Hamilton Adams

Films

The Fury - CIA agent LanderMy Bodyguard - Biology TeacherSomewhere in Time - ProfessorOne More Saturday Night - Mr. McGrathThe Untouchables - Bailiff #2

Television

Dummy - Dr. MorrisFlesh and Blood - Boxing officialThe Children Nobody Wanted - PreacherThe Dollmaker - CooperThe Last Leaf – A Parable of Easter - Dr. WinchesterThe Private Eye - GuardMurder Ordained - Ray CallJack and Mike - JudgeSable - SullivanThe Father Clements Story - Father Donovan

Death

He died in 2011, aged 85, in his Hyde Park, Chicago home. He was survived by his children, Franny, Patty, Julie, Marty and Paul, and his companion, Florence Weisblatt. His wife of nearly 50 years, social activist Ruth Billingsley, died in 2000.