William R. Bullion, IV

As a lifelong contrarian, iconoclastic outsider and teller of tales, it is fitting that William R. Bullion, IV’s final work was directing an independently-produced adaptation of
Molière’s society-skewering comedy centered upon an imposter in the drawing rooms,
anti-hero Tartuffe, and performed in an utterly unrealistic acting method, no less. In this
as everything in his non-conforming life, being often himself, an outsider looking in he
rejected the cozy and normal, embraced the theatrical and absurd — despite all risks
and against most sound advice — casting spells to enchant us all.  Yet unlike his
unhappy anti-hero Tartuffe, in the end he somehow found himself not abandoned or
condemned, but instead surrounded, appreciated and beloved by friends and family.

William Russell Bullion was born February 3, 1963, to William Radcliffe Bullion and Julia
Bullion (née Prescott Cresswell), in Berkeley, California.  Any secret of his actual and
not professed age is now revealed.

During his early childhood he would move homes with his family several times, both
across the United States and indeed internationally, an itinerancy which didn’t suit him— and to which he would put an end following university. Within a span of only a few years, his family took him from Palo Alto, California to Clinton, Iowa and then to
Evanston, Illinois.

In 1971 at the age of eight, he and his family moved to South America for several years.
There he was given “loose rein,” being warded mainly by housemaids, leaving him free
to train his natural mischief skills to master level. Eventually discovering that as a
foreigner even his startling blue eyes wouldn’t charm him out of trouble forever, he
quickly picked up the Spanish language to add to his exculpating arsenal.

By the time the family returned to the United States in 1974, temporarily known as
Rusty, he was only partly delinquent but fully bilingual, English-Spanish, and remained
both throughout his life. His language skills broadened to also include Portuguese. He
eventually reached a level of language proficiency qualifying him to work as a translator — including of medical textbooks.

A born producer, his theatrical oeuvre extends back to age eleven. He produced money-
spinning “in-house” spectaculars, staged secretly from the Evanston family home while
his father worked downtown, deploying his younger siblings as performers. These
furniture-toppling extravaganzas included open-kitchen intermissions, often leading to
rave reviews from neighborhood kids (whose paid entry fees remain unaccounted for). But the smash hits led also to raving neighborhood parents. Clearly suburban Evanston had not yet matured to his vision, and his shows were discontinued.

Undaunted, the precocious extrovert chose not to “hide under a bushel” his quick- wittedness and penchant for mocking authority. For this he was rewarded by being put up a grade. Thus, enrollment in Haven Junior High School a year early — younger and smaller but mouthier than his perhaps unamused classmates — dealt him hard lessons in humility, which he predictably refused to learn.

He next entered Evanston Township High School, a top-tier academic institution also
boasting a fine dramatic arts pedigree — in fact a hot-bed for Chicago area talent, many
of whom making late-night appearances at his home. He appeared in many ETHS
productions, deftly navigating starring roles directed by the hands-on auteur Bruce
Siewerth.  He also co-wrote ETHS’s annual student variety show, YAMO. His unique
personality contributed to the expected reputation also in that vaunted school; in fact, for several years after his graduation the mention of his name would raise eyebrows among the ETHS staff. During his teenage years, he also appeared in several iterations of Plays on Wheels, presenting travelling summer-stock theatre for the Chicago Metro
area public.

His deep dramatic background and strong academic achievement including high SAT
scores, led him next (and another year early) to the prestigious University of California
at Los Angeles. There he majored in dramatic arts, developing and honing skills in
acting, writing and directing, alongside many theatre notables. At UCLA he again took
leading roles in school productions, and naturally a new faculty reputation for
incorrigibility, entirely consistent with his last one, proudly flourished.

Also during his time at UCLA, he was exposed to Los Angeles’s burgeoning punk/new
wave/ska outsider music scene, meeting and befriending many of the progenitors of that most irreverent music genre. Throughout a lifetime of eschewing the mainstream, he remained a fan and friend particularly of several major ska bands and musicians.
Riding his scooter wearing full two-tone black-and-white was a lifetime achievement.

Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago, and in 1994 matriculated to the then-DePaul
Goodman School of Drama as a Master in Dramatic Arts candidate, majoring in
directing. A Goodman administrator commented (at the time), “We’re lucky to have
him.”  But alas everyone’s luck would run out, and he “dematriculated” the following
year. An observer would comment that “He just would not fit in with such prestige-filled
personages, even if he could.”

He finally embarked upon what would be his life’s work: writing, directing and producing
independent live “off-Loop” “storefront” full-frontal-farce theatre.

With no thought of fleeing to the dramatist’s twin meccas New York or Los Angeles, he
chose to found Sliced Bread Productions in downtown Chicago, and over many years
produced a wide variety of live performances of scripts written by well-known playwrights but also local authors, including his own written works.  With so much free time, he participated in countless other Chicago projects and companies.

And so, most recently, he and long-time friend Sidney Feldman co-founded The Conspirators, a successful Chicago theatre production company. The Conspirators is noted also for revitalizing and uniquely propounding within Chicago theatre the formalized, avant-garde “The Style” mode of acting, rejecting realism for an overtly “theatrical” neo-commedia — cf. Brechtian, even ancient Greek — presentation.  The Style, despite its obvious inherent commercial risks, did eventually win over audiences. But of course, William Bullion had never prioritized pleasing anyone — whether hip Chicagoans or tsk-tsking 1970s Evanston neighbors — over his art.

Bookending his adult years were two important relationships: a marriage to Monica Bartsch, which ended in divorce, and more toward the end of his life with Sarah Scanlon.

While having no children of his own, his five younger siblings were reared by him, willingly or unwillingly, in some form throughout each of their lives. William’s loss may indeed have a profound impact on the community and his many close friends, yet it is his family who will have to find their way forward without one of their “parents.”

In his waning years, which should have been just months, William jousted with his biggest foe, ((cancer)) as he called it, colorectal. Fighting daily with his body and his pen, he gained admirers known and unknown to him as they followed his ass-inine travails through his ((cancer)) battle and the healthcare system he admired so much. “Billy” – or Wm. in written form – loved the Chicago Cubs and Bears, chess, and Monty Python, but nothing as much as all nine eras of Star Wars, soccer, and whichever best- friend dog he had at the time.

It has been widely noted that only a few have been smarter, and no one is, was, or will be funnier. Jesus Christ Superstar, Christmas
(including but not limited to his Santa leaping off a garage for maximum effect and the
subtler Twelve Days anthologies), and anyone’s happy “bidet” cannot be the same.

A celebration of Billy’s life and death will be announced by his family. At such time all
flowers received will be burned or turned into a newt. His ashes have taken a long walk
off a short Lake Michigan pier.

William R. Bullion, IV, dramatist, was born on February 3, 1963. He died onSeptember 24, 2026, aged 63. He was admired by, and leaves, his brother Andrew and wife Carolina, his brother Justin and wife Ann, his sister Sarah Burrowes and husband Mike, his sister Maryann Bullion Mitchell and husband Bryon, and his brother Michael and wife Christy. He is also survived by his mother and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by Captain Steve Rogers.

Arrangements by Inclusive Funeral Care, 773-318-1305 or www.InclusiveFuneralCare.com.