Bill Pullman Reveals An Accident Left Him In A Coma As A Child

You may think you don’t know the name Bill Pullman but you will soon realize that you know exactly who he is. He was only President Whitmore in Independence Day. And he was only Lone Starr in Spaceballs. And he is only killing it as Harry Ambrose on The Sinner. See? You know exactly who Bill is. But one thing you may not know about Bill are his experiences growing up, and the 64-year-old recently opened up about his life growing up, especially recalling a time he ended up in a coma.

The actor sat down with The Guardian to reveal he once suffered quite the accident when he was young. “I lost my sense of smell when I was young,” Bill said, adding, “I fell from a high place, was in a coma and came out unable to smell. I’ve tried different things to get it back, but it’s not really possible. I think it actually inspired me with the fruit [Bill did fruit farming]: the taste of tree-ripened fruit is so pungent. It heightened my sense of taste, probably.” Now you know that poor Bill can’t smell. Although this bit of information might come in handy during your monthly trivia night.

Although Bill was probably in a high place to begin with because his parents had a lot of children to look after. “I was the sixth of seven children, so I think they lost track,” Bill revealed. “I was given a lot of freedom, and I appreciate that.” Bill eventually did come out of his coma and pursued acting, saying, “Acting has helped me understand myself more. That’s one reason I sought out the theatre, because it was a journey towards health. I was shy. Somehow, in acting, you can order the world.”

Bill later added, “Nobody really aspired to being an actor when I was growing up. There was no sense of: ‘Let’s be famous.’ All this liturgy of self-promotion and dream actualization wasn’t really part of it.”

Bill is showing no signs of stopping as he’s carved out quite the career for himself. The Equalizer actor has two films set to come out in 2019, and he remains all about hard work, saying, “Working hard comes from having enthusiasm, and that’s like a gift from the gods. If you have enthusiasm it’s a gift – and then the working hard is really easy, because you want to do it.”

I think it’s only right that we leave you all with this Oscar winning performance…