Peter Billingsley was born on April 16, 1971 in New York City. His siblings all had acting careers during their childhood, and he was no exception. He first appeared in an advertisement for Geritol when he was two years old, and has since appeared in almost 120 advertisements as a child. The most popular among them were his appearances for Hershey’s chocolate syrup, in his role as “Messy Marvin.”
His first movie appearance was in 1978’s If Ever I See You Again. He later appeared in the 1981 film Paternity, alongside Burt Reynolds. This gave him a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Comedian for Motion Picture or Television. He also appeared in other films like Death Valley and the made-for-television movie Memories Never Die.
That same year, Peter Billingsley landed a role on the reality program Real People, which gave him another Young Artist Award nomination. It also led to his appearance on the two-episode program Real Kids.
Billingsley’s most memorable role, however, was in the 1983 film A Christmas Story, in which he played Ralphie, a young Midwestern boy who longs for a BB gun for Christmas, and is being dissuaded by grown-ups around him. For this, he was nominated for a third Young Artist Award.
The late ‘80s and early ‘90s saw Billingsley’s career enter a decline. He had guest appearance in different television programs such as The Wonder Years, Highway to Heaven and Who’s the Boss? He also won a Young Artist Award for his performance in the 1985 film The Dirt Bike Kid.
In the ‘90s, Peter Billingsley took on more mature roles, on television movies such as The Fourth Man and The Writing on the Wall, which earned him an Emmy nomination. In 1993, he appeared in Arcade, as a teenager with a virtual reality addiction. He also started moving towards behind-the-scenes work using the name Peter Michaelsen, first as an assistant editor.
He has since worked for Discovery Channel programs, and also produced films such as Elf, Zathura, The Break-Up, and Iron Man, where he also appears. He was nominated for an Emmy Award as executive producer for the talk show Dinner for Five. He continues, though, to perform small roles in movies.