Tall, dark, and classically handsome in a familiar male-model-turned-actor kind of way (think Billy Zane), stage and screen performer Eion Bailey has come a long way since his role as a teen outcast whose new friendship yields tragic consequences in View Askey historian Vincent Pereira's affecting 1997 teen drama A Better Place. Though a subsequent series of fleeting appearances in such high-profile releases as Fight Club and Almost Famous offered audiences a passing glimpse of the up-and-coming star's true onscreen talent, it wasn't until his Golden Satellite-nominated performance in the made-for-cable drama And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself that Hollywood truly began to sit up and take notice.
Born in California and raised by his pilot father in the Santa Ynez Valley, the young drama hopeful spent much of his spare time taking flying lessons from his father and playing baseball with friends. Eventually finding his footing on the high-school stage, Bailey continued to hone his skills at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts following graduation. His undeniably heartfelt role in A Better Place offered Bailey an unusually complex role for such a young actor with little screen experience, and in the years that followed, the emerging actor would move to the small screen with appearances in such popular series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek. Supporting performances in Fight Club and Almost Famous followed suite shortly thereafter, and after once again stepping into the lead for the little-seen indie Seven and a Match, Bailey joined the talented ensemble cast of HBO's acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers. Rumors that Bailey was one of the few contenders being considered to answer the call of the "bat signal" in the planned updating of the Batman franchise soon began to circulate, and though that responsibility eventually went to Christian Bale, Bailey earned positive critical acclaim for his portrayal of a filmmaker sent to cover the exploits of the eponymous character in HBO's And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself. With top-billed roles in Mindhunters, Sexual Life, and Glory Days set to follow in 2004, Bailey was poised to become a familiar face to filmgoers.
