The Real Reasons You Don't Hear Much From Billy Zane Anymore

Forget Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's star-crossed romance, the spectacular sight of the Titanic sinking into the North Atlantic Ocean, and Celine Dion's lung-busting power ballad "My Heart Will Go On." The real star attraction of James Cameron's world-conquering weepie "Titanic" was its only real villain. Not the iceberg, no, but Rose's dastardly other half Caledon Hockley, played by Billy Zane.

But while many of his co-stars either kept their places on or graduated to the A-list, Zane's career appeared to stutter. He's certainly remained busy. His IMDb page lists more than 100 credits since gracing the watery blockbuster. But how many of them has the casual moviegoer even heard of, let alone seen? Indeed, over the last 25 years, the actor seems to have been confined to TV movies, straight-to-VOD affairs, and the occasional recurring role on the small screen. 

So what happened to one of the '90s best big screen baddies? From artistic side hustles and fast-food commercials to business controversies and stalled projects, here's a look at Billy Zane's recent life story.

Appearing as the boo-hiss villain in the highest-grossing movie of all time no doubt had its pros: a hefty paycheck, for one thing. The reveling in all of its Oscars glory, the adulation of cinemagoers across the world, and a guaranteed place in Hollywood history are just a few others. But as Billy Zane told Express in 2022, his performance as Rose's cowardly groom-to-be Caledon Hockley in "Titanic" also came with its cons.

"There are those who know you're an actor and enjoy the performance, and those who quite simply think I'm a natural b******," Zane said. "But I'm a sheep in wolf's clothing." The Chicagoan acknowledged that he benefited from the role at the time, adding, "It expanded my sphere of influence and awareness; it's quite an international calling card. It extended my privileged access to heads of state and captains of industry who perhaps identified with that character."

However, Zane was so convincing as the nefarious steel empire heir that casting directors found it hard to see him as anything other than the baddie. "It's like wearing a pair of golden handcuffs," he remarked.

You might not know that Billy Zane has dedicated much of his latter-day career to another art form: painting. Yes, the multi-talent has shown off his skills with a brush at exhibitions across the world including galleries in Los Angeles, London, and Milan. And it's all thanks to "Titanic."

Indeed, in order to pass the time in between shooting the blockbuster, Zane turned to art, an ironic hobby considering his character Caledon Hockley was entirely ignorant about the subject. In a chat with IndieWire, the actor explained that initially, it was all just for fun: "... I turned my garage into a studio and started painting. It was Abstract Expressionism. I did it just for the pleasure of doing it, and I would have cast members over for painting parties."

But that all changed when Zane's work was spotted by a gallerist who encouraged the Chicagoan to display it in public. And he remains grateful to the James Cameron film for helping him to discover another passion: "I still use the technique I applied then, which is improvisational and uses pieces that would otherwise have been discarded, like recycled paint and objects I found around Mexico. There was something about the location that unlocked it for me. That was really important."

There's one way that Billy Zane is trying to overcome the typecasting problem he's suffered since playing Caledon Hockley in "Titanic": developing his own content. And that doesn't just mean the odd show, either. 

In a 2016 interview with City AM, the actor revealed that he has plans to launch an entire network: "I want to bring the best of traditional media into the new media space. I like the quick turnaround, I like how low the barriers to entry are and how vast the audience is, how much impact it can have. It's exciting to try to bring quality into a space that has incredibly low standards. I find myself at the bleeding edge of it and I'm really happy."

Sadly, Billy Zane TV (or whatever the channel would be called) has yet to surface. But speaking to Express in 2023, the star revealed that he's still very much working behind the scenes, and in another area that you might not necessarily expect: "There's comedies I'm developing for television and film. That's my favorite genre. I never do enough."

In 2020, Billy Zane took to Instagram to share the sad news that his father William had died. He captioned an accompanying photo, "Rest In Peace Dad. Gentle warrior. Spartan. Chicagoan. Actor. Businessman. Educator. Soldier. Husband. Uncle. Grandfather. Father. Mentor. Man."

Two weeks later, the "Memphis Belle" star told his followers that he'd lost his father, who was also a professional actor, to COVID-19 on the same day both parents were due to celebrate their 67th wedding anniversary. And he implored fans to follow the science and stick to government guidelines, particularly the wearing of masks, to help reduce the threat of the virus.

Zane wrote, "Youth, the elderly are at risk and so is society, as thus your stewards are at risk, should we lose all our teachers, our sages, our crones our storytellers our first handers recklessly and lazily. Be wise as they, and learn from every tragedy, and mistake and thrive in comforting knowledge that you acted, that you did your part."

Billy Zane first became a father in 2011 when he and then-girlfriend Candice Neill welcomed daughter Ava Catherine into the world. Three years later, the couple added to their family unit with the birth of Gia. And while "The Phantom" star's relationship is sadly no more, he still has a super-strong connection with his children.

In a piece for Mirror, Zane stated that Gia and Ava are the two most important things in his life, adding, "I hope I can give them an emotional intelligence. There is a Greek word, 'philotimo' meaning 'the love of honor,' it's about being of service to others' needs." As well as instilling certain qualities, the star also hopes to pass on his love of Hollywood's Golden Age, and not just for entertainment purposes.

Zane said, "I'm a firm believer in using the best of the past with the most cutting edge. I expose my children to a lot of classic cinema, because I think there's a lot to be learned from sifting through these iconic tales. They love MGM musicals. I try to set the bar saying, 'This is Gene Kelly, a really super man, and I'd be very happy if you brought someone like him home when you're a teenager.'"

Billy Zane's eventful love life took another turn in 2022 when he confirmed that he'd parted ways with Candice Neill, the mother of his two children Gia and Ava Catherine. The pair met at the start of the 2010s and later got engaged but never actually made it down the aisle.

Zane had form when it came to splitting with actress fiancees. In 2008, the Chicagoan and Kelly Brook called things off before tying the knot and it was a similar story with Leonor Varela nine years earlier. The actor has actually said "I do" on one occasion, but his six-year marriage to Lisa Collins ended in 1995.

When asked about his new-found singledom by Express, Zane appeared to be in good spirits. In fact, he admitted that he was already ready to find love again. And his passion for art is apparently popular with the ladies: "Painting keeps a middle-aged man sexy," he remarked before adding, "Being an artist gives one an allure. That's what drew me to it, and the lifestyle. I have friends who are actors, musicians, and painters; it was the painters who were pulling in more interesting partners."

While Billy Zane has made several memorable guest appearances in the subversive superhero drama "The Boys," the majority of his recent small-screen work hasn't left much of an impression on audiences.

The 2014 comedy pilot "Checked Out," in which he appeared as Uncle Dennis, didn't even make it to air. The long-awaited "Saturday Night Live" spinoff "MacGruber," in which he played the fabulously-named villain Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth, hasn't returned since dropping in 2021, while "Guilt," the mystery drama in which he played lawyer Stan Gutterie, was canceled after a single season. 

Zane was no doubt left disappointed at the latter going to the TV schedules in the sky. When asked about the prospect of a second season by Pop City Life, he replied, "For Stan, we've set some of the markers regarding his personal preferences and idiosyncratic style and case preferences and certain decoration in the home and activities, but I'd like to expand upon and see his personal life, his romantic world. I think we've thrown a wide net and it would be nice to reel in a few of those fish and see what exactly is revealed."

In 2017, Billy Zane followed in the footsteps of Norm Macdonald, George Hamilton, and Rob Lowe when he portrayed fried chicken extraordinaire Colonel Sanders for a KFC promotional campaign. Well, a version of him anyway.

Indeed, you might not have recognized the "Dead Calm" star in the ads as he was dripped in gold from head to toe at the time. There was a method to this madness, though. Zane was helping to sell the new barbecue-glazed honey mustard chicken as the Georgia Gold Colonel. "Success isn't earned — it's eaten," the Chicagoan states in one TV commercial. "And nothing says success like gold."

In a press release, Kevin Hochman, the Chief Marketing Officer for KFC, explained why Zane was the perfect man for the job. He said (via Ad Age), "Billy has this playful irreverence that he plays in characters on the big screen that we needed for this colonel's personality. The whole idea of the campaign is, you don't have to be a millionaire to eat like one."

You might not have seen Billy Zane on screen but chances are you may have spotted him at a conference center or two if you happen to be a regular attendee of the celebrity convention. In 2021, the actor hit the Chicago leg of Days of the Dead alongside the likes of Alice Cooper, Priscilla Presley, and C. Thomas Howell. And in an interview with Forbes, he managed to convince them that he wasn't there entirely for the paycheck.

"I've always enjoyed the human interaction with an audience," Zane said. "It's a fairly new experience for me only really found within the con circuit. I love how much some of the legacy projects have inspired others. And I feel it's really about them. The need to express what those films meant to them seems really significant. And I just love providing the forum for them to finally tell me something about them, as a representative of a film, what that particular project meant to them in their journey. It seems like a seminal moment. It's just really inspiring in both directions."

And Zane seems to be a popular draw. He has since shown up at the likes of the Los Angeles Comic Con, the Houston Horror Film Fest, and the Calgary Horror Con: the actor has appeared in numerous scarefests over the years including "Critters," "Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight" and "Evil — In the Time of Heroes."

In 2019, Billy Zane headed to the annual Global Ventures Summit in Luxembourg as a partner of Parkpine Capital, a Delaware-based company run by entrepreneur friend Ahmed Shabana. The actor also graced a documentary about the startup for CNN Indonesia and posed for pictures with its founder and Adonis Georgiadis, the Greek investment minister.

Zane's reputation was undoubtedly tarnished a year later, however, when the firm made headlines for some unscrupulous business dealings. According to USA Today, the firm made a 600 percent profit of $1.4 million during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the U.S. government buying 60 rebranded ventilators from them. The total should have only come to roughly $150,000 and so perhaps unsurprisingly, Zane did his best to distance himself from the backlash.

A spokesperson for the Chicagoan said, "Mr. Zane was approached to partner with Mr. Shabana and his company, Parkpine Capital, whose portfolio includes Global Ventures Summit. While he awaited delivery of basic corporate documents to review, he touted Parkpine's interests in good faith. However, Mr. Shabana repeatedly failed to produce any documentation." Shabana himself later stated that the "Titanic" actor had nothing to do with the ventilator controversy but by then the damage was already done.

In 2017, it was revealed that Billy Zane would portray Marlon Brando in an adaptation of architect Bernard Judge's 2011 memoir about his friendship with the Hollywood legend. "Waltzing with Brando," which took place between 1969 and 1974, was tipped to be something of a big-screen comeback for the Chicagoan, and he was certainly excited about the prospect during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Zane revealed that there's been talk of him playing Brando ever since the early 1980s but only now did he feel the time was right: "As I got older and changed as an actor ... I started to gravitate [toward] his later work in that period between "[The] Godfather" and "Last Tango in Paris" and what was happening in his life personally and the kinds of films that he was making, which were more consistent with his personal politics and world view."

But fast forward three years later and there still hadn't been any sign of the project. Speaking to Express at the end of 2022, Zane explained the hold-up while revealing some more positive news: "We've finally started filming, and we're finishing in March. Because of Covid and delays we've had location changes: we've been to Fiji and Mauritius, but now we're filming in Tahiti. I'm very happy with it. It's moving along nicely."

In 2019, Billy Zane joined an all-star cast that included Adrien Brody, Sean Bean, and Miranda Richardson in "Curfew," an eerily prescient British action drama about a near-future virus that causes the government to impose daily 12-hour quarantine restrictions.

The Chicagoan played Joker Jones, a thrill-seeking online sensation who participates in an illegal cross-country street race where the prize is freedom. In an interview about the show with Mirror, Zane enthused, "It has the energy of an '80s horror action comedy from a John Carpenter kind of vain but with very real modern accessible characters. It's dope and every week will look like a mini-feature. If you mashed up something like 'Death Race' meets '28 Days Later' and 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,' you'd have a wild mash-up of what 'Curfew' is."

Unfortunately, most Zane fans on the other side of the Atlantic didn't get the chance to see this wild mash-up. While it was screened in the whole of the United Kingdom on Sky One, "Curfew" only aired as a Spectrum original in certain parts of America.

With more than 180 acting credits to his name, it's inevitable that Billy Zane would have made a few stinkers from time to time. In fact, the Chicagoan currently has three films with the dreaded 0% Rotten Tomatoes rating: 1994's "The Silence of the Hams," 2011's "Mercenaries" and 2020's "Guest House."

Still, at least they were regarded as worthy of critiquing. A significant proportion of Zane's body of work hasn't received enough reviews from reputable publications to even merit a rating. Luckily, the man himself appears to recognize that not every movie he's made is a winner.

Referring to the seemingly arbitrary nature of his career in an interview with Complex, Zane said, "I've always mixed it up. I always peppered mainstream with limited, fringe, experimental independents. There are some turkeys along the way because you can never control the caliber or quality of a piece. All you can hope for is that you keep working and I guess maintain some relevance."

It's hard to remember a time when comic book movies didn't dominate the multiplexes. But back in 1996, the prospect of seeing Billy Zane in a purple spandex suit didn't quite hold the same appeal as it may have done a decade later. Indeed, "The Phantom" bombed on its release, grossing just $17 million domestically on a budget almost twice that amount.

But like any box office flop, "The Phantom" has become something of a cult classic over time. So much so that there have been two attempts to revive its fortunes, firstly with a reboot in 2008 and then again six years later. But neither managed to get beyond the ideas stage. Who knows whether Zane would have played a part in any of the proposed adaptations, or whether his big-screen career would have received a major boost as a result. However, the Chicagoan still feels like there's unfinished business there.

In a 2021 interview with Comicbook.com, Zane said he'd be up for returning to the superhero world: "To be honest, a Phantom return would be quite interesting. Twenty years later, it's a father-to-son business and a bit of a hand-off. And I dug him because he didn't have superpowers, really. It was just kind of super-humane. Again, that moral compass could be a nice reminder. So, right out of the comic universe, I'd say that character would be a hoot."