Dacre Montgomery: the actor who plays Billy Hargrove in Stranger Things
Actors · Dacre Montgomery · Billy Hargrove
Dacre Montgomery played Billy Hargrove for two seasons: the Californian bully who terrorizes Max in season 2, and the Mind Flayer's host who sacrifices himself at Starcourt in season 3. Two seasons, and one of the most discussed deaths in the show. Portrait of an Australian actor who made Billy more than a villain.
The essentials
- Born: November 22, 1994, Perth, Australia
- Role: Billy Hargrove, seasons 2 and 3 (+ appearance in Season 4)
- Before: the Red Ranger from Power Rangers (2017)
- Elsewhere: The Broken Hearts Gallery, Went Up the Hill, a poetry podcast
Contents
Dacre Montgomery: the audition that went around the world
Dacre Montgomery grows up in Perth, Australia, son of a father working in film, and trains at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In 2017, he is the Red Ranger in the Power Rangers reboot. The same year, he sends an audition tape for season 2: in his underwear, dancing to Come and Get Your Love, before playing a scene of icy threat. The Duffers released it later, and it became legendary.
Billy Hargrove, a newcomer from California with his stepsister Max, is written as a human antagonist, the first in the show: no powers, only a Camaro, a lock of hair, and a violence inherited from his father.
The Billy T-shirt, Hawkins pool period.
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Billy, the bully then the host
In season 2, Billy is the most dangerous high schooler in Hawkins: he persecutes Max, provokes Steve, and his relationship with his father reveals where his anger comes from. In season 3, a lifeguard at the municipal pool, he is the first inhabitant possessed by the Mind Flayer, and his body serves to build the flesh monster. Dacre Montgomery plays both versions: the tyrant, and the man prisoner of himself, who cries when Eleven reminds him of a memory of his mother on a beach.
Billy's death, run through by the monster as he steps in front of Eleven, on July 4, 1985, is the show's redemption moment, and one of its most cited scenes.
The Season 4 returnBilly comes back in Season 4 in the form Vecna gives Max's terrors: a Billy with white eyes, who blames her for his death. Dacre Montgomery shot those scenes in secret, and his name did not appear in the credits before air.
Billy, season by season
| Season | What Billy lives through |
|---|---|
| 2 | Arrives in Hawkins, persecutes Max, fights Steve, is drugged by Max |
| 3 | Possessed by the Mind Flayer, kidnaps Heather, sacrifices himself at Starcourt |
| 4 | Appears in Max's visions, at the grave and in Vecna's mind |
Two full seasons and an appearance: that is enough for Billy to have remained one of the most discussed characters in the show, between those who never forgave season 2 and those who only saw season 3.
After Hawkins: cinema and poetry
| Year | Project | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Power Rangers | Jason, the red Ranger |
| 2017 | A Few Less Men | Bobby |
| 2020 | The Broken Hearts Gallery | Nick |
| 2022 | Elvis (Baz Luhrmann) | Steve Binder, the director of the comeback |
| 2024 | Went Up the Hill | Jack, opposite Vicky Krieps |
Dacre Montgomery also writes poetry: his podcast DKMH, launched in 2019, mixes read texts and music, and led to a collection. He has acted in Elvis, by his compatriot Baz Luhrmann, and holds the lead of Went Up the Hill, a New Zealand drama presented in Toronto in 2024.
Markers
| Year | Step |
|---|---|
| 1994 | Birth in Perth |
| 2017 | Power Rangers; audition in briefs for season 2 |
| 2017 | Season 2: Billy arrives in Hawkins |
| 2019 | Season 3: the sacrifice; launch of the DKMH podcast |
| 2022 | Season 4: appearance in Max's visions; Elvis |
| 2024 | Went Up the Hill |
The Billy figure, lock of hair included.
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What you know less about him
Dacre Montgomery was born in Perth to a New Zealand father and a Canadian mother, both in the Australian film industry. He started acting at nine, but has said he was a “lost child”: bullied at school for his weight and his taste for theater, anxious very early, failed in his high-school drama exams, fired from a job at eighteen. His senior classmates had nonetheless voted him “most likely to become a Hollywood star.”
A 2015 graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, he followed Power Rangers and the show the same year. For season 4, he filmed his scenes remotely from Australia, lockdown requiring it, directed by Shawn Levy over video conference.
After the show: the choice of auteur cinema
After season 3, Dacre Montgomery took a pause to, in his words, “reinvent” his career the other way: refuse the commercial direction and look for auteur cinema. Went Up the Hill, in 2024, with Vicky Krieps, was born of that choice. In 2025, Gus Van Sant hired him opposite Bill Skarsgård in Dead Man's Wire after seeing, precisely, his viral audition tape for the show.
He described a physically punishing shoot, real cable and real handcuffs, bruises on his neck and arms, “so the performance would be believable.” He is also preparing his first film as a director, The Engagement Party, in which he acts. The red Ranger of 2017 is a long way off.
Five Billy scenes to rewatch
-
The Camaro, 1984
Billy gets out of the car in front of the high school to Scorpions: the most rock entrance in the show.
-
At the Byers', 1984
The fight with Steve, and Max's syringe in the neck.
-
The pool, 1985
The lifeguard under the gaze of the mothers of Hawkins, before the steel mill.
-
The sauna, 1985
Locked in, burning, he begs then attacks: two men in a single body.
-
Starcourt, 1985
Eleven talks to him about the beach and his mother; he turns on the monster and dies holding it.
The California beach: what the show says about Billy
The memory Eleven finds in Billy's mind, in the sixth episode of Season 3, is the key to the character. A beach in California, a wave too big, a child surfing under his mother's eyes. It is the last memory from before: before the mother left, before the father's violence, before anger became his only language. Eleven gives it back to him at Starcourt, and it is that memory that lets him stand up to the monster.
Dacre Montgomery has defended that reading: Billy is not redeemed by his death, he is returned to himself for a minute. Season 4 extends the idea with Max's letter on his grave, and the last season closes the thread without reopening it: Billy remains the first human antagonist of the show, and the only one it has given an exit.
The Camaro keychain, for your own keys.
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TakeawayBorn in 1994 in Perth, revealed by Power Rangers. Billy Hargrove, the Season 2 bully and the sacrificed host of Season 3. His danced audition became cult. Since: Elvis, Went Up the Hill, and a poetry podcast.
Frequently asked questions
Who plays Billy in Stranger Things?
Dacre Montgomery, Australian actor born in 1994 in Perth, in seasons 2 and 3, with an appearance in season 4.
Does Billy die?
Yes, at the end of season 3, at Starcourt, by stepping between Eleven and the flesh monster.
Does Dacre Montgomery come back in season 4?
Yes, briefly, in the visions Vecna inflicts on Max, notably at Billy's grave.
In which films does Dacre Montgomery act?
Power Rangers, The Broken Hearts Gallery, Elvis, Went Up the Hill.
How did Dacre Montgomery film season 4?
Remotely, from Australia, during the lockdowns, directed by Shawn Levy by videoconference.
What is Dead Man's Wire?
A Gus Van Sant film released in 2025, with Bill Skarsgård, where Dacre Montgomery was hired after the director saw his audition tape for the show.