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American mathematician
Patrick Paul Billingsley (May 3, 1925 – April 22, 2011
[1]
[2] ) was an American mathematician and stage and screen actor, noted for his books in advanced
probability theory and
statistics . He was born and raised in
Sioux Falls, South Dakota , and graduated from the
United States Naval Academy in 1946.
Academic career
After earning a Ph.D. in mathematics at
Princeton University in 1955, he was attached to the
NSA until his discharge from the Navy in 1957. In 1958 he became a professor of mathematics and statistics at the
University of Chicago , where he served as chair of the Department of Statistics from 1980 to 1983, and retired in 1994. In 1964–65 he was a
Fulbright Fellow and visiting professor at the
University of Copenhagen . In 1971–72 he was a
Guggenheim Fellow and visiting professor at the
University of Cambridge (
Peterhouse ). From 1976 to 1979 he edited the
Annals of Probability . In 1983 he was
president of the
Institute of Mathematical Statistics . He was given the
Lester R. Ford Award for his article "
Prime Numbers and
Brownian Motion ."
[3] He was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986.
[4]
He starred in a number of plays at
Court Theatre and
Body Politic Theatre in Chicago and appeared in at least nine films.[
citation needed ]
In
Young Men and Fire , fellow University of Chicago professor
Norman Maclean wrote about Billingsley that "he is a distinguished statistician and one of the best amateur actors I have ever seen".[
citation needed ]
Books
Statistical Inference for Markov Processes (1961)
Ergodic Theory and Information (1965)
[5]
Convergence of Probability Measures (1st Edition 1968, 2nd Edition 1999)
[6]
The Elements of Statistical Inference (with David L. Huntsberger, 1986)
Probability and Measure (1st Edition 1976, 2nd Edition 1986, 3rd Edition, 1995, Anniversary Edition 2012 )
Stage plays
Three Magic Keys , Taliesin (1964)
The Pirates of Penzance , Pirate (1966)
Read Me a Story (1966)
Clue of the Circus Clowns , Circus Master (1968)
Finian's Rainbow , Buzz Collins (1968)
Beadle-Levi Show (parody of The Homecoming ) (1968)
Guys and Dolls , Arvide Abernathy (1969)
We Bombed in New Haven (Court Theatre, 1970)
Victorian Children (1970)
Vaudeville Show , singer (1970)
The Threepenny Opera , street singer (1970)
Four Plays of Fantasy and the Unusual (1970)
Moulin Rouge (1971)
Oh, What a Lovely War! (1973)
Midsummer Night's Dream , Theseus (Court Theatre, 1973)
The Caretaker , Aston (Court Theatre, 1973)
The Father , The Captain (1974)
Murder in the Cathedral , First Knight (1974)
Twelfth Night , Feste (Court Theatre, 1974)
The Same Room , Tom Ferris (1975)
Dracula , Dr. Seward (1975)
Much Ado about Nothing , Balthazar and Friar Frances (Court Theatre, 1975)
Exits and Entrances (1976)
Trifles , Sheriff Peters (1976)
The Lover , Richard-Max (Court Theatre, 1977)
The Tempest , Alonzo (Court Theatre, 1977)
She Stoops to Conquer , Mr. Hardcastle (Court Theatre, 1978)
Measure for Measure , The Duke (Court Theatre, 1979)
Mrs. Warren's Profession , Rev. Samuel Gardiner (Court Theatre, 1980)
Equus , Dr. Dysart (Court Theatre, 1980)
The Seagull , Sorin (Court Theatre, 1981)
Twelfth Night , Anotnio (Body Politic Theatre, 1981)
Under Milk Wood , Rev. Eli Jenkins et al. (Court Theatre, 1982)
The First Night of Pygmalion , Beerbohm-Tree et al. (Court Theatre, 1982)
Midsummer Night's Dream , Peter Quince (Court Theatre, 1983)
Much Ado about Nothing , Leonato (Court Theatre, 1984)
Heartbreak House , Mazzini Dunn (Court Theatre, 1985)
Every Good Boy Deserves Favor , KGB colonel (Court Theatre, 1985)
The Birthday Party , Petey (1978 and 1985)
Arms and the Man , Major Petkoff (Court Theatre, 1985)
Moonlight Daring Us to Go Insane , J. Earl Sheets (Body Politic Theatre, 1987)
Coastal Disturbances , R. Hamilton Adams (Body Politic Theatre, 1987)
Films
Television
Death
He died in 2011, aged 85, in his
Hyde Park, Chicago home. He was survived by his children,
Franny , Patty, Julie, Marty and Paul, and his companion, Florence Weisblatt. His wife of nearly 50 years, social activist Ruth Billingsley, died in 2000.
References
^
Mathematician-Actor Patrick Billingsley Dies at 85
^
Patrick Billingsley, probability theorist and actor, 1925–2011
^ Patrick Billingsley,
"Prime Numbers and Brownian Motion" ,
American Mathematical Monthly , 1973, volume 80, pp. 1099–1115
^
"Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF) . American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 20, 2011 .
^ Hajian, Arshag (1967).
"Review: Patrick Billingsley, Ergodic and Information " . Annals of Mathematical Statistics . 38 (1): 285–286.
doi :
10.1214/aoms/1177699086 .
^
Dudley, R. M. (1971).
"Review: P. Billingsley, Convergence of probability measures " . Bull. Amer. Math. Soc . 77 (1): 25–27.
doi :
10.1090/s0002-9904-1971-12602-2 .
External links
International National Academics Other