Age: 36
male
Billy Howle was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, to a schoolteacher mother and a father who teaches at Kent University, the second of four sons. His older brother, Sam, is a graphic designer. Despite his parents' academic backgrounds, Billy has said that he was not interested in further education, and worked instead at the local Stephen Joseph theater, in community-based projects involving dance and acting. After a year at drama school, he enrolled at the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2013. Having appeared at Bristol in 'The Little Mermaid,' his next stage appearance was in New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, opposite Lesley Manville in Richard Eyre's production of Henrik Ibsen's 'Ghosts' and a year later was reunited with Bristol Old Vic, the director, and Ms. Manville in a scorching production of 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' alongside Jeremy Irons - another Bristol Old Vic alumnus - Hadley Fraser, and Jessica Regan, more than holding his own with his older, more experienced co-stars. After a couple of small roles in television drama, Billy's first substantial lead came in the youth-oriented murder mystery Glue (2014) in 2014, opening the first scene in memorable style as he rolled nude down stacks of grain in a barn. In 2016, he was in another murder mystery, The Witness for the Prosecution (2016), as the defendant accused of killing his wealthy benefactress, by which time he had filmed his first forays into cinema: On Chesil Beach (2017) and Anton Chekhov's The Seagull (2018), both with Saoirse Ronan, and The Sense of an Ending (2017).
Before they became legends, they were just five. Long before the world knew the name The Expendables, Barney Ross led a small team of elite mercenaries on covert missions for the CIA in the darkest corners of the Cold War. Alongside the brilliant combat medic Doc, the ruthless tactician Conrad Stonebanks, the unstoppable Hammer, and the fearless Woodsman, they become the deadliest unit ever assembled. Bound by loyalty and forged in battle, the team earns a reputation for accomplishing impossible missions where governments refuse to act. But as the lines between justice and profit begin to blur, Stonebanks is seduced by the power and fortune of the international arms trade, turning brothers-in-arms into bitter enemies. Forced to choose between his oldest friend and everything the team stands for, Barney must lead one final mission that will forever change the Expendables. In a betrayal that leaves the original team shattered, legends are born, loyalties are broken, and the ghosts of the past begin to haunt Barney Ross for the rest of his life. Every legend has an origin. Every family has its first betrayal.
