TRUE STORY: A towering West Texas cowboy becomes John Wayne’s stunt double and closest friend, only to be drafted into the Korean War where his unmatched marksmanship turns him into a legendary sniper. When he returns home shattered and unwanted by Hollywood, he drifts across America as a haunted hobo, searching for peace in a country that no longer knows what to do with him.

SYNOPSIS:

“Fame gave him a home. War took it away.”

WHITE HOT – The Bill Bailey Chronicles is an epic American drama following Bill Bailey, a 6’6” West Texas cowboy whose raw authenticity lands him an unlikely career in Hollywood as John Wayne’s stunt double. After Wayne is injured on set, Bill steps in—and into Wayne’s life—forming a deep, unspoken friendship that offers Bill his first real sense of belonging.

At the height of his rising career, Bill is drafted into the Korean War. Despite Wayne’s desperate attempts to intervene, Bill is sent into combat where his extraordinary size and shooting ability transform him into one of the most lethal snipers of the war. His reputation grows, his kill count rises, and his humanity erodes.

Returning home a changed man, Bill finds no place for himself in postwar Hollywood. The industry that once celebrated his physicality now sees him as a reminder of a war it wants to forget. Broken and alienated, Bill walks away from fame and begins a long, lonely drift across America—living as a hobo and hitchhiker, encountering compassion, cruelty, and reflections of his own trauma.

As Bill battles his Korean War demons, his journey becomes a quiet reckoning with masculinity, myth, and the cost of survival. In the end, Bill must choose whether to remain lost—or finally forgive himself in a world that never did.