Billy Nolan

"I told you not to call me that!"

- Billy Nolan after Chris Hargensen insulted him.

William "Billy" Nolan is the tertiary antagonist in Carrie who alongside his girlfriend Chris Hargensen hurt and humiliated Carrie White and later became another victim of her telekinetic powers. He was potrayed by John Travolta in the 1976 film.

Novel
William "Billy" Nolan was 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 friend.

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 Billy and several other friends raided a pig farm one night and mercilessly butchered two pigs. Billy then broke into the Ewan High School gymnasium and poured the pigs' blood into two buckets, which he then placed high upon a rafter and tied with a rope. When prom night arrived, Chris would wait for Carrie and her date to arrive onstage and be crowned, and then pull the rope, drenching the pair with the blood.

This scheme worked without a hitch. But after a while, Carrie ran from inside the gym, crying. 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 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 on fire, and Carrie caused it all. Billy and Chris quickly put their clothes on and left the roadhouse, not before Billy states that if the police found out about what happened at school, he would leave for California. Although he put into question whether he would take Chris if he went, it was revealed that he honestly would not.

The pair got into Billy's car, engine started, 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 it into full throttle towards her. Before the car could make contact, Carrie mentally took control of it away from Billy and sent it hurdling right into the roadhouse from whence he and Chris come, killing them both.

1976 Film
John Travolta began his motion picture career by playing as the careless Billy Nolan in this movie. No mention was made of him having a gang. Unlike the novel, where Billy saw and treated Chris more like a nemesis, this Billy was dismissive and more "into" their relationship.

During the scene where he and Chris were driving around, he made jokes about Chris being scared that he was going to cause an accident. Chris, however, had a way for calling Billy stupid or "dumb shit." Billy did not take well to being called either. He would usually smack her for this remark, even showing occasional relief and enjoyment from it, meanwhile Chris also seemed to enjoy him smacking her.

Chris managed to "convince" Billy to help her exact revenge on someone named "Carrie White" Billy had no idea what Chris was talking about, but decided to help her anyway. He, Chris, Freddie DeLois, and Kenny Garson raided a pig farm to butcher a pig or two. Then Billy and Chris hurried over to the Bates High gymnasium and poured the blood into a bucket, which was then hoisted up to one of the overhead rafters. When the time came, someone would pull a rope attached to the bucket and drench Carrie with the blood when she would come onto the stage to be crowned prom queen.

The plan worked, but then something happened that neither Billy or Chris expected: Carrie snapped and uses her hidden telekinetic powers to dish out some revenge of her own, resulting in the death of nearly everybody. In this version, Billy and Chris are there to witness the mayhem and hell that ensues when Carrie begins her revenge, but are safe outside the gym as it happens.

Carrie's revenge did not end until later as she was walking home. Billy and Chris drove up behind her in Billy's car (in this version, it is Chris at the wheel), intending to run her over and cap their scheme. Carrie being who she is felt the car coming up behind her at high speed, and mentally veered the car into a clearing, tossing Billy and Chris with it. It then exploded a minute later.

2002 Remake
Actor Jesse Cadotte portrayed Billy in the 2002 made-for-television remake of Carrie. Compared to his other appearances, Billy seems to be more of a cruel sadist in this film, wearas he appeared more of a crude (yet still sadistic) bully in the novel and a typical jock in the 1976 film. While he originally seemed at least relatable earlier, in this film he appears to be - like many other characters in Carrie - borderline insane. While originally treating his gang like friends, he instead treats them, including his closest friends, as a bully would treat his victims. In the re make he appears as the final antagonist because he pressures Chris into pulling the prank and tries to run over Carrie.

Mostly following the novel, he and Chris celebrate when, before they can begin, Billy's friend rushes in telling them about the news. Billy is not fully aware of the fact that Carrie is doing it, but knows that it is his and Chris's prank that caused it. When he attempts to run over Carrie, he and Chris are sent crashing into a tree, which the car then raps around.