Peter Billingsley is one of those rare celebrities that almost everyone learns to love from a young age. That’s because he played Ralphie in A Christmas Story, and because that movie is one that families watch each year around the holidays, generations of fans have grown up quoting Ralphie and showing the film to their own children.
Despite that early acting success, Billingsley didn’t appear in that many films later in life. Just what has he been up to? How has his career changed, and what prompted him to bring Ralphie back one last time? Keep reading to find out!
His acting career began early in life
Many actors get their start when they are very young. However, few start as early as Peter Billingsley did: in an interview with The Orlando Sentinel, he recalled being only 2.5 years old when he starred in a Geritol ad. Even then, his acting skills were quite solid, and he went on to star in more than 100 commercials.
For all his commercial success, it was Billingsley’s role in A Christmas Story that transformed him into a household name. But that didn’t happen overnight: as the star revealed to Buzzfeed, the movie didn’t generate major buzz at first, but it later became a phenomenon through television airings and VHS sales and rentals. “It was just a very odd, gradual fame,” he rsaid. “For better or worse, it didn’t hold me back, and it didn’t propel me.”