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William Jacoby (actor)

American actor (born 1969)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ458963
Source-derived summary

William Jayne (born April 10, 1969), known professionally as Billy Jayne and previously Billy Jacoby, is an American actor, known for his roles in the teen comedy film Just One of the Guys (1985) and in the teen sitcom Parker Lewis Can't Lose (1990–1993). His siblings, Robert Jayne, Susan Jayne, Laura Jacoby, and his half-brother Scott Jacoby are also actors.

Early life

Jayne was born in Flushing, Queens, New York City, on April 10, 1969. He is of Jewish descent. At the age of three, he was visiting his older half-brother Scott Jacoby on the set of That Certain Summer, for which Scott won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. The director needed someone to play Jacoby in flashbacks, and Jayne was selected and began his career.

Although Jayne's birth name was not Jacoby, when he started his career his mother thought it would be best if he used Jacoby, the last name of his already established half-brother. At the age of 17, Billy Jacoby changed his professional name to Billy Jayne to coincide with his birth name.

Career

Jayne was a child actor from the early to late 1980s, starring in numerous guest appearances on TV shows such as Trapper John, M.D., The Golden Girls as Blanche's 14-year-old rebellious grandson David, The A-Team, and 21 Jump Street. He is also known for the role of Buddy, the brother of Terry, in Just One of the Guys from 1985.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Jacoby (actor)” is american actor (born 1969). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Jacoby and actor, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1969, 1985, 1990, 1993—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1969-04-10. For this dossier, William, Jacoby and actor is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american actor (born 1969)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q458963. VIAF identifies the subject as 21784852. The Library of Congress control number is no99087131. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1969, 1985, 1990 and 1993.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Jacoby (actor)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Jacoby (actor) primary sources, William Jacoby (actor) archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Jacoby (actor)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Jacoby (actor)” 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.