Zane was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Thalia and William George Zane, Sr., both of whom were amateur actors and founders of a school for medical technicians.Both of his parents are of Greek descent, and his family's original surname, "Zanikopolous", was anglicized to "Zane" by his parents.He has an older sister, Lisa Zane, who is an actress.
Zane's first two screen roles were in the science fiction fllms Back to the Future in 1985 and Critters in 1986. Zane also appeared in an episode of Matlock entitled "The Nurse". In 1989 he reprised his henchman role in Back to the Future II. Earlier that same year, Zane gained international recognition with the role of villain Hughie Warriner in the thriller Dead Calm, alongside Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill. He also starred in the NBC film, The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989).
Billy Zane singing on Charmed
Zane's first starring role was in a 1990 independent film, the low budget science fiction thriller Megaville. In 1990, he also co-starred in the film Memphis Belle, a film version of a 1944 documentary about a World War II bomber plane, as the bombardier. Zane also forayed into television work, and in 1991 he appeared as John Justice Wheeler in several episodes of David Lynch's hit TV-show Twin Peaks. In 1993, he played the Shakespearean actor "Mr. Fabian" in Tombstone, and took a starring role in Sniper.
In 1996, Zane played the eponymous classic comic book hero in the big budget action film The Phantom, based on Lee Falk's comic. The Phantom being his favorite comic, Zane pumped iron for over a year and a half to fill the character's tight spandex costume properly, and studied samples of the comic carefully in his attempt to copy the character's body language.
Zane was instrumental in getting the critically acclaimed film The Believer made, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2001.In it, he portrayed neo-Nazi Curtis Zampf, and starred opposite Ryan Gosling. The same year, he also had a cameo as himself in the popular comedy Zoolander.
Zane married actress Lisa Collins in 1989. The couple divorced in 1995. He was also engaged for a time to Chilean actress Leonor Varela, his costar in the 1999 television film Cleopatra. Zane was engaged to marry British model turned actress Kelly Brook, whom he met when starring with her in the movie Survival Island, also known as Three.They split in April 2008, got back together again shortly thereafter, then ended the relationship in August 2008. He has been dating Croatian model Jasmina Hdagha since July 2009. Their daughter was born in early 2011.
