Billy Nolan

**William Nolan**, best known as **Billy Nolan** is a supporting antagonist of Stephen King’s first horror novel, Carrie.

He is the boyfriend of Chris Hargensen. They both humiliate Carrie White and later together with Chris tried to murder Carrie and therefore became a victim of her telekinetic powers when she killed him and Chris in self-defence.

## Novel

Billy Nolan is Chris Hargensen's boyfriend and the leader of a dangerous gang in Chamberlain, Maine. He did not seem to really care anything about Chris and acted more as though she were his enemy rather than his girlfriend. He is the leader of a group of bullies though it is not confirmed how many friends in total number of his gang are with only two being identified by name.

Billy was one of the conspirators who helped in setting up the prom night prank against fellow classmate, Carrie White with whom Chris had harbored a bitter grudge after losing her prom privileges. Chris had approached Billy and "convinced" him to help her get even with Carrie so he and several other friends and perhaps some fellow gang members raided a pig farm one night and mercilessly butchered 2 pigs in cold blood for their blood. Billy then broke into the Ewen High School gymnasium and poured the pig's blood into 2 buckets which he then placed high upon a rafter and tied with a rope. When prom night arrived Chris and Billy waited for Carrie and her date, Tommy Ross to arrive onstage and be crowned then they pulled the rope drenching the pair with the blood. For a while this scheme worked without a hitch with the addition that one of the buckets fell onto Tommy's head probably even killing him a few minutes later and cracking his skull. After a while however Carrie ran from outside the gym crying and sobbing over his death. The next moment faculty and students were dying left and right and no one could figure out what was going on. Of course Billy and Chris weren't bothering themselves with figuring out the mystery for right after Chris pulled the rope both made their way back to a local bar to an upstairs room where Billy was rearing to have sex in celebration of submitting Carrie to "the ultimate humiliation". But he got no farther than undoing Chris's blouse. Later Billy's fellow classmate, Jackie Talbot banged on the door to the room where Chris and Billy were sleeping and told them that most of the town was set on fire and that Carrie caused it all. Billy and Chris hurriedly put their clothes on and left the roadhouse not before Billy saying that if the police found out about what happened at school he was going to California. Although he guessed that he would take Chris if he went but it was revealed that he honestly would not. So as he and Chris left the bar he said "This place sucks, anyway". The pair got into Billy's car engine stared high beam blaring Chris let out a scream that seemed to send mental signals to Billy and that's when they saw the battered Carrie right in front of the car.

Wasting no time Billy put the car into full throttle towards Carrie. Before the car could make contact Carrie mentally took control of it away from Billy and sent it hurdling right into the roadhouse killing them both in vengeance.

## 1976 Film

    John Travolta played as the apathetic Billy Nolan in the 1976 film. He is the boyfriend of Chris Hargensen. He is prepared to do everything for her and she uses it to her advantage to convince him to do an evil prank on Carrie White.

He obliges and goes for that with Chris and his friends to a farm and slaughters a pig whose blood was then used for the corresponding evil prank against Carrie. He then puts the blood on a bucket and places it over the rafter where the prom queen is elected the night before knowing that Carrie would be elected through a manipulated election that Chris would arrange. At the prom they both are hidden. Billy has second thoughts about doing this but relents to Chris' insistence. After having arranged the election of Carrie and Tommy Ross, Chris later lets the bucket fall as planned on Carrie after having manipulated the elections through Norma Watson and their common friends and manages to throw the pig's blood on Carrie with success while also knocking Tommy out on the way maybe even killing him in the process. After that they both go away happily and later observe the results of their prank from an outside window with the purpose of seeing the aftermath. However they soon witness how Carrie kills everyone inside the prom in revenge including their friends and Miss Collins and look shocked and horrified.

Feeling that they have failed with their plan Billy and especially Chris vow revenge for what has happened and try to run over Carrie when they meet her on her way home in the hopes of finishing what they had started. Chris drives the car during this event because of Billy being drunk. Carrie however senses their presence and destroys their car with them inside.

## Trivia

* In the 2002 and 2013 remake Billy is much darker than in John Travolta's portrayal.

* In the novel Billy is very evil and dark.

* He seems to love Chris Hargensen but later on shows his darker side to her by saying that he will kill her if she tells anybody about the prank because of the legal consequences of committing criminal assault.

* Since the novel is canon he began Stephen King's line of Greaser-type bullies in his novels.

* Earlier that same year Robert Lawson was one himself but was accurately recreated in the film version of his story. This makes Billy the second overall.

* He mostly served as the secondary antagonist for the majority of the novel and films while Chris served as the main antagonist.