Bill Allen – Actor, Author, Musician

Bill Allen (1)By: Judy Shields

Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 9/2/15 –  “I have a book, CD and a movie to talk about,” Bill Allen told The Hollywood Times during a telephone conversation today.

Bill Allen has been a working actor for the past 30 years and has guest starred on television shows ranging from classics like “Family Ties,” and “Hill Street Blues” to contemporary series, like “Breaking Bad.”  He has also worked on films like Oliver Stone’s Fourth of July opposite Tom Cruise and Lou Diamond Phillips “Sioux City” and the 2009 movie “Brothers.”  Christopher “Cru “Jones on the 1986 film “RAD.”

bill2Thirty years ago, actor Bill Allen starred in a film called “RAD” – a coming of age story set against the backdrop of BMX racing.  Although a failure at the box-office, the VHS release of the film turned it into one of the most successful rentals in history – and turned Bill, who played the main character of Cru Jones, into an underground superstar.

Now, Bill Allen is back in the world of BMX-themed movies, co-starring as father to a young biker in the upcoming independent release “Heroes of Dirt,” being released in hundreds of theatres across the country this Friday, September 5th and available on DVD and VOD on December 8.   He said that he is “the Dad this time around and not the young stub on a bike.”

bill3Bill Allen said that he was not allowed to even have a bike growing up and would Borrow a neighbors bike to learn to ride as a child.  I asked him how he got his training to ride for the RAD movie and he said that it was too dangerous to learn the tricks and it was not necessary, because he had the best stunt riders and he could barely ride in a straight line.

There’s simply no limit to the way in which RAD and Cru Jones influenced an entire generation of extreme sports athletes and enthusiasts:  There have been parodies of the film on American Dad and The Tonight Show, and Bill’s many fans include Comedy Central’s Daniel Tosh (who has welcomed “Cru” on episodes of Tosh.O).  RAD director Hal Needham (“Smokey and the Bandit”) once told Bill Allen that none of his films had the remarkable, lasting impact of RAD.  Now there are fake Cru Jones twitter and Facebook accounts, children (male and female) named “Cru,” and even a clothing boutique in Argentina named after Allen’s character.

bill4His wife Carol Allen, who is also an author, “Love is in the Stars.com, told him to write about the BMX life that he has led, since back in 1986 RAD movie and the book was written for the film’s fans.  Every Tuesday, the BMX gang still get together for some lunch and to catch up on their lives.  Bill Allen is planning on having some book signings in the near future and The Hollywood Times will keep you posted as to when those book signings take place.

Allen’s lifelong friend and fellow Texan Lou Diamond Phillips, along with his Brother Sherman toured as the Pipefitters for over a decade, playing at Farm Aid and opening for Billy Ray Cyrus and getting great gigs, due to the fame of Lou Diamond Phillips.  Life was good traveling around in a bus with seven of his good friends and that love for music continues today.  Allen recently produced with his Brother Sherman, an All-Star Tribute CD Dedicated to the music of blues legend Bugs Henderson called “The King of Clubs.”  There are many famous musicians on this CD, so to order yourself a copy, click here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bugshendersontributecd

bill5Bill Allen has remained active in his performing career, and has recently played with the 80s tribute band called Flux Capacitor, who he said are huge and what a turn out they had.

One of Bill Allen’s hobbies is power-parachuting, an ultra-light airplane with three wheeled cart, two seater and semi-electrical parachute is the actual wing and you take off at 28 mph and go 13,000 feet and it is quite a thrill and his Mother really liked it, but not his wife of 18 years, Carol.  They live in Los Angeles with an angry dog (Jack Russell Terrier), and too many cats and refers to his wife as a cat lady.

You can purchase Bill Allen’s new book “My RAD Career” on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/My-RAD-Career-Bill-Allen/dp/0692203001) or click the link to purchase it from Bill Allen’s website:  http://myradcareer.com/

For more information about his new movie “Heroes of Dirt” click here:  https://www.heroesofdirt.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/bill.allen.5268

Twitter: @billslimallen

http://www.billallenrad.net
About Bill Allen

If you were a teenager around 1986, odds are you ended up in an emergency room somewhere, with a broken arm or collar bone, trying to reenact the bike stunts performed in a little sleeper movie that became a home rental sensation, called RAD.

This wholesome, sweet movie about a “local boy who makes good” set a generation of kids on fire for BMX… and yet amazingly, in real life, its star had never actually owned a bicycle.

In his memoir, My RAD Career, Bill Allen shares what it was like to play Cru Jones alongside Lori Loughlin, Olympic Gold Medalist Bart Conner, and Talia Shire, as well as the thrill of discovering the inventors and first stars of BMX (Eddie Fiola, Jose Yanez, Martin Aparijo, and so many more – riders and stunt doubles in the film), witnessing them literally risk their necks as they invented and executed amazing feats on set, not to mention the history-making filming techniques of director and Oscar-Winner, Hal Needham.

Covering Bill’s work in film and television on such illustrious TV shows as Hill Street Blues, Family Ties, and Breaking Bad, to his film work on Born on the Fourth of July, Astronaut Farmer, and Brothers as well as his decade as a musician with a rhythm and blues band, The Pipefitters with Lou Diamond Phillips, touring stadiums with Billy Ray Cyrus, and playing in front of 100,000 people at Farm Aid.

The story travels from the suburbs of his childhood in Richardson, Texas, through the heady years in Hollywood, to his escape after Brandon’s death to a spiritual community in New Mexico. Over time the amazing impact of RAD and the many athletes, bike companies, and grown men who credit the film for their careers or happiest childhood memories, becomes more and more clear to him.

Leading Bill to where he is today: back in the ‘burbs of Los Angeles with his astrologer wife and too many cats, a grateful accidental cult icon from the birth of BMX.

Told with humor and honesty, this insider’s view of the making of RAD to life as a working actor and musician will take the reader on a wild, exciting ride – one you might just want to wear a helmet for.  (Myradcareer.com)