“A Christmas Story” star Peter Billingsley and Vince Vaughn have been best friends for 35 years — a bond that began when the two were young actors.
Their relationship was front and center in 2024, when Billingsley delivered a heartfelt speech at Vaughn’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, marking a full-circle moment for the longtime friends.
Billingsley, 54, told the crowd that Vaughn’s star had been “shining brightly” since the day they met.
“I first met Vince as a fellow actor on an after-school special 35 years ago,” he said, referencing their 1990 CBS School Break Special. “Even in a small project like that one, Vince’s dedication to making it great was on full display.”
The ‘A Christmas Story’ Star Honored Vaughn & Opened Up About Their Relationship
Billingsley explained that their chemistry began off-set, long before either would headline major Hollywood projects. Vaughn, now 55, suggested they spend time together to build a genuine connection for the roles they were playing.
“We hung out at Jerry’s Deli. We had a lot of pastrami sandwiches,” Billingsley said. “We bowled a lot of games at the old Rock’n’Bowl and walked these very streets in the late 1980s looking at the stars on the Walk of Fame and talking about our own dreams in Hollywood.”
Those early conversations, he added, “paid off big time.”
“Not only are we still very close and our careers have flourished, but that after-school special is still 98% fresh,” he joked. “What happened from that moment forward was not only the beginning of many collaborations, but a lifelong friendship that put me in the unique position of having a front-row seat to his incredible career.”
Billingsley said Vaughn was always “the funniest and most charismatic guy in the room,” and that the industry eventually “caught up” to what everyone around him already knew.
Billingsley & Vaughn Continue to Work Together After All These Years
Billingsley also opened up about their friendship while promoting the second season of their podcast, “A Cinematic Christmas Journey,” which premiered in 2022. He said meeting Vaughn at 18 shaped the rest of his life.
“There’s no one funnier, no one better, no one with a greater sense of story than him,” Billingsley told People. “Everyone asks me if he’s really like he is in his movies — this super likable, cool guy. And I’m like, ‘He’s even better.’”
Their company, Wild West Picture Show Productions, has produced several of Vaughn’s biggest films, including “The Break-Up,” “Couples Retreat,” and “Four Christmases.” Billingsley has also directed Vaughn in “Couples Retreat” and “Term Life.”
The “A Christmas Story” star added that Vaughn was the one who came up with the idea for their Christmas-themed podcast. “He said, ‘You’d be great at doing Christmas films.’ And he was right,” Billingsley shared.
