Peter Billingsley (born April 16, 1971), also known as Peter Michaelsen^[1] and Peter Billingsley-Michaelsen,^[2][3] is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for portraying Ralphie Parker in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story and its 2022 sequel A Christmas Story Christmas. He also played Jack Simmons in The Dirt Bike Kid, Billy in Death Valley, and Messy Marvin in a series of commercials for Hershey's Syrup in the 1980s. While an infant, he began acting in television commercials.

Peter was born in New York City. His father, Alwin Michaelsen, is a financial consultant, and his mother, Gail, was once Alwin's secretary. She is the niece of Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley, and the cousin of Glenn Billingsley who was married to actress Barbara Billingsley.

All five of the children in the family had acting careers when they were young. The older Billingsleys, Dina and Win, had the briefest acting careers working mostly in commercials, with minor guest spots on television shows. Peter's elder sister, Melissa, is best known for her role as Maxx Davis on Me and Maxx.^[4] Peter's older brother, Neil, began playing Danny Walton on the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow in 1975 and has had numerous roles in commercials and guest shots on TV series.

Peter Billingsley received his early childhood education from a combination of tutors, public schools, and private institutions (including the Professional Children's School in New York City), Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley, Arizona and Longview Elementary School in Phoenix and eventually passed his California High School Proficiency Exam (CHSPE) at the age of 14. He seems to have also attended some public secondary schools prior to passing the CHSPE, including Arcadia High School (in Phoenix).^{[citation needed]}

Billingsley was a spokesman for the young astronaut program and was present in 1986 at launch pad 39B (at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida) for the doomed launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger.^[5]

Billingsley's first acting role was when he was 2 in a 1973 Geritol commercial. He went on to star in about 120 television advertisements throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.^[6] At 12 he was quoted as saying, "After 100 [commercials], you lose count."^{[citation needed]} He was best known for a series of commercials for Hershey's chocolate syrup in which he portrayed the character Messy Marvin.^[7][8] One of Billingsley's earliest film roles was in 1978's If Ever I See You Again, written and directed by Joseph Brooks.^[1]

His role in 1981's Paternity opposite Burt Reynolds earned a nomination for "Best Young Comedian – Motion Picture or Television" at the Young Artist Awards.^[9] In 1981, he appeared in Honky Tonk Freeway. In 1982, Billingsley starred in several features, including Death Valley, Massarati and the Brain, and the made-for-TV movie Memories Never Die with Lindsay Wagner and his sister, Melissa. He had a featured guest role as Gideon Hale on Little House on the Prairie, began a three-year stint as a co-host on NBC's popular Real People (for which he earned another Young Artist Award nomination),^[9] and hosted a two-episode offshoot of the show called Real Kids.

In 1983, Billingsley starred in A Christmas Story, based on Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, which built its audience slowly over the years and is now broadcast each year for 24 hours from Christmas Eve until Christmas Day on sister cable networks TBS and TNT. The film earned Billingsley another Young Artist Award nomination, and is arguably the one role with which he is most associated. He has been quoted as saying that people still approach him on the street, only to say "you'll shoot your eye out, kid!"^[9] After about 40 years, he reprised the role in a sequel film titled A Christmas Story Christmas directed by Clay Kaytis for HBO Max.^[10]

In 1984, Billingsley starred in an adaptation of The Hoboken Chicken Emergency with Dick Van Patten and Gabe Kaplan, a special Thanksgiving episode of the PBS series WonderWorks.^[11] He appeared on a "Super Teen" special edition of Family Feud, and on Celebrity Hot Potato.^[12]

As the late 1980s approached, Billingsley's acting career slowed. He made guest appearances on Who's the Boss?, Punky Brewster, The Wonder Years, and Highway to Heaven.^[13][14] He appeared in The Dirt Bike Kid (for which he won a Young Artist Award),^[9] Russkies, and Beverly Hills Brats.^[1]

The early 1990s had Billingsley tackling older roles such as a would-be athlete who gets hooked on steroids in the CBS Schoolbreak Special The Fourth Man. On the project he formed a close friendship with Vince Vaughn.^[15] His next Schoolbreak Special appearance was in The Writing on the Wall (1994), starring Hal Linden as a rabbi who teaches three boys about the horrors of intolerance after they are caught defacing his home, temple, and car with swastikas and antisemitic graffiti. Billingsley was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role.^[9][16]

Billingsley married Elizabeth "Buffy" Bains in 2015, with whom he has two children.^[23][24]