Bill Nunn
American actor (1953–2016)

William Goldwyn Nunn III (October 20, 1953 – September 24, 2016) was an American actor. He was known for his collaborations with director Spike Lee, notably as Radio Raheem in Do the Right Thing (1989). He also portrayed Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–07), and co-starred in the sitcoms The Job (2001–02) and Sirens (2014–15).
Early life
Bill Nunn III was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Frances Nunn and William G. Nunn, Jr., a journalist and editor at the Pittsburgh Courier and a National Football League scout. His paternal grandfather was the first African American football player at George Westinghouse High School. While ball boys for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Bill Nunn and current Steelers president Art Rooney II stole "Mean" Joe Greene's car during training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. "Joe Greene showed up in a beautiful green Lincoln Continental, and me and Bill Nunn, Jr. were ball boys. Somehow Bill got the keys one night and we decided to take it for a ride. We only told Joe that story about 10 years ago.
The public source identifies “Bill Nunn” as american actor (1953–2016). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bill, Nunn and American.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q279834. VIAF identifies the subject as 106983393. The Library of Congress control number is no2004061934. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 2016, 1989 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bill Nunn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.