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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Bill Allen (actor)

American actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ4907889 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Lawrence Allen (born November 7, 1962) is an American actor.

Allen was born in Wichita, Kansas. He became famous for his role in the 1986 film Rad as BMX racer Cru Jones. Among other roles, William appeared as Roger Sloate in the 1987 Family Ties television episode "Matchmaker". Bill has toured extensively for the band The Pipefitters with his harmonica, alongside actor Lou Diamond Phillips.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Bill Allen (actor)” as american actor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bill, Allen and actor.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1962, 1986, 1987—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Bill, Allen and actor providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bill Allen (actor)”, the useful work is to connect “american actor” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4907889. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1986 and 1987.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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 “Bill Allen (actor)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bill Allen (actor) primary sources, Bill Allen (actor) archive and Bill 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 “Bill Allen (actor)”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bill Allen (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.