William McNamara has come a long way from the cocaine-snorting, booze-swilling rich kid who created a sensation among the few who saw The Beat (1988). It was his first major film role and the success went to his head. This coupled with his drug use and erratic behavior could have destroyed his budding career, but handsome and talented McNamara continued to find steady work. Since giving up drugs and alcohol in 1991, his career has taken flight and those who know him are impressed with his gentle, polite manner. His was a peripatetic childhood, due in part to his mother's multiple marriages. His father was a Texas real estate magnate whose hobby was driving race cars and his grandfather was politician Robert McNamara. His interior designer mother was granted custody of McNamara after the divorce. She took him to Dallas for a time, and then Los Angeles where McNamara met many movie stars who inspired him to become an actor. They next moved to New York and it is there that McNamara started getting into trouble, first skipping school, then getting expelled from three private schools. His drug use began while he was working as a production assistant during the summers in Los Angeles. At age 17, his parents threw him out and for a time he was homeless. He did make it to Columbia University where he studied acting and started working in a few television commercials. A summer stint with the Williamstown Theater resulted in his appearing in The Beat. Prior to that, McNamara acted in two foreign efforts, Dario Argento's Opera and the European miniseries Secret of the Sahara (both 1987). After appearing in Peter Bogdonavich's Texasville (1990), McNamara turned to television movies, notably Wildflower (1991), which starred Patricia Arquette, and The House on Maple Drive (1992), with Jim Carrey in a rare dramatic role. He returned to feature films in 1992 with Aspen Extreme and since then McNamara has been getting larger roles in better quality films. His role in Copy Cat (1995) is particularly notable.