Billy Boyd! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scotland

Billy was born in Glasgow. In 2002, he was voted as Scotland's most eligible bachelor, in a poll by Scotland's national newspaper. Billy has said that "Hobbits are a lot like Scots. It's all about nature and enjoying their land, which is a very Scottish thing."

Answer: 1968

He was born to William and Mary Boyd. His father worked at a brewery, and his mother was a clerk at a car hire firm. Billy also has an older sister named Margaret.

Answer: True

Sadly, both of his parents died when he was only 12 years old. His father died from lung cancer and his mother died from a heart attack.

Answer: Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

He graduated in 1995 with a Diploma in Dramatic Arts. The other three schools on the list are where some of his "Lord of the Rings" co-stars went to school (Ian Holm and Sean Bean graduated from RADA which is in London, Orlando Bloom graduated from Guildhall, and Miranda Otto and Hugo Weaving both graduated from Australia's NIDA).

Answer: Edinburgh Royal Lyceum

Of the choices given, the only possible correct answer is the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum, because Billy has never acted for the Royal Shakespeare Company (which is in Warwickshire in central England) or the Auckland Theater Company (which is in New Zealand).

The Byre Theater is a tiny, informal theater that Billy has not acted in since graduating from school. He was only in 2 plays there, they were both as part of his schooling, and he has not shown any signs of wanting to go back to work at the Byre.

It is extremely unlikely that the answer to this question will change anytime soon, since Billy only does 1 to 2 plays per year (according to his official resume') and his immediate plans are for movies - a scuba diving movie and a voice-over for a horror movie have been announced as his next projects. Even if he were to move to the other side of the U.K. and join the Royal Shakespeare Company, or move to the other side of the planet and join the Auckland Theater Co., it would take several years to equal or surpass the number of plays he has performed for the Edinburgh Lyceum. By 2004, Billy had acted in a total of 17 professional plays. All of them have been in Scotland.

The plays Billy has acted in for the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum include: "Merlin the Magnificent", "The Merchant of Venice", "Calendonia Dreaming", "Much Ado About Nothing", "Hansel and Gretel", "Britannia Rules", "Therese Raquin", "An Experienced Woman Gives Advice", "The Speculator", "The Ballad of Crazy Paola", and "San Diego".

Answer: "An Insomniac's Nightmare" (2003)

Billy played a loan shark in "Urban Ghost Story", and a musician in "Julie and the Cadillacs". He got the main role for the short film "Sniper 470" by being able to do the best impression of weightlessness while sitting in a chair (the main character is an astronaut).

Other films Billy has been in include "The Soldier's Leap" in 1998, and "Coming Soon" in 1999. He is also known in Scotland for his talented role as a young man named Jamie Holmes who had Aspergers Syndrome on the t.v. show "Taggart".

Answer: Pippin

When he got the job, he had never read "The Lord of the Rings" before. He took the job because, as he said, "To play one of the main characters in it, it's not the kind of thing you don't do. Oh, I'd rather not play Pippin in 'The Lord of the Rings'...

In fact, what else would you rather do, you know? I can't actually think of another job that I'd rather do." After reading the book for the first time he commented, "I realized that it was just about Pippin and some other people!"

Answer: Barrett Bonden

Bonden is the ship's coxswain. Among other duties, he is responsible for steering the ship, is in charge of the boat crews (especially the captain's rowboat), and fights alongside the captain during hand-to-hand combat. In the books that the movie was based on, Bonden even saved the captain's life once during a pistol fight aboard an enemy ship.

Answer: Worked for a local newspaper

His high school counselor strongly discouraged his dream of becoming an actor, so instead Billy decided to work at a book-binding workshop when he was 17. He worked there for 6 years; it wasn't until he was 23 years old that he began to seriously pursue a career as an actor.

While working as a book-binder, Billy was also the lead singer/guitarist in a rock band called "Foreign Country". He plays both guitar and bass. Billy sang the song "The Steward of Gondor" in the movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". Billy has never worked at a newspaper.

Answer: Loons

The name "Loons" originally came from a room on Billy's official forum called "The Loony Bin". It referred to the silly, random subjects that could be found in the threads of that room. The bottom of every page within the forum used to contain a quote that Billy once said about the contents of his forum; that quote was "Sweet Jesus, I'm feart!" The Grey Panthers are a group of Elijah Wood fans. I made up the other two names. Billy's official website can be found at http://www.billyboyd.net