Bill Burr Reveals Hollywood’s Contempt for Gingers

“The greatest thing that ever happened to me is I went bald for my acting career,” Bill Burr recently told NPR. 

Seeing that Burr is no burly action star like The Rock or Vin Diesel, a conspicuous lack of hair doesn’t seem like it would be an advantage in Tinseltown. But Burr assures us it’s better than at least one alternative. “Back in the day, when I actually had hair … Hollywood, they talk about racism and sexism and it goes beyond that,” Burr explained. Based on his experience, though, there’s no group more ostracized in show business than gingers. 

“Like, they even like divide up redheads,” he insisted. “There were rules about redheads. I was in the ‘redhead drawer.’ I was in the Opie, Ron Howard, Howdy Doody drawer, and I didn’t get the gun. I didn’t win the fight. I didn’t get the girl. I was a mugging victim. I was just there for the cool guy. I used to do a joke in my act like, I’m not the hero of the action movie; I was the nerd in the van.”

To the contemporary eye, Billy Burr does look a little odd sporting a full head of rusty locks when he appeared in ‘90s sitcom Townies, but is that just because he’s now more famous as a chrome-domed comic?

Sure, Burr gave off working-class Archie vibes in his early comedy, but he doesn’t seem like too much of a nerd. Is this the look of a guy who’d lose a fight?

A deep dive into Burr’s IMDb doesn’t necessarily support Burr’s assertion that he only got acting jobs once he started shaving his skull. He still had the suggestion of hair when he played a bully’s dad opposite Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in 2015’s Daddy’s Home, even landing a powerful punch to Wahlberg’s chiseled mug. To be fair, what’s left of Burr’s hair was pretty dark in Daddy’s Home, which might have been why the Hollywood elite allowed him to be a badass.

His red hair also got cast opposite Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in the hit comedy The Heat…

And Burr got to play a cop opposite Tina Fey and Steve Carrell in 2010’s Date Night. So were his crimson roots really to blame? For a guy who never studied acting and worked in warehouses after college, Burr seems like he was doing all right!

Could it be that Burr simply landed more prestigious acting gigs, like his current Broadway role in Glengarry Glen Ross, because he matured as a performer when his stand-up career took off? Or is Burr right about a ginger conspiracy in Hollywood, a deep-state confederacy working to ensure David Caruso never works again? 

It’s impossible to prove either way, but give Burr this — you’ve never seen an action movie starring Carrot Top.