Who Plays Vince Leone on ‘Fire Country’? This Isn't Billy Burke's First Time Playing a Firefighter

Billy Burke's character on the hit CBS action show "Fire Country," as Battalion Chief Vince Leone, isn't his first time playing a firefighter. 

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In fact, it's his third. 

After playing a firefighter in the drama "Ladder 49" (2004) and a fire chief on Fox's "9-1-1: Lone Star," he was a shoo-in for the role of the straight-laced and determined battalion chief on "Fire Country."

The series features a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection crew stationed up in the wildfire-prone areas of Northern California. 

The show follows protagonist and convict Bode Donovan (Max Thieriot), who is working as a volunteer CalFire firefighter to try to reduce his prison sentence. Despite their strained and complicated relationship, he's assigned to the crew led by his father, Vince Leone (Burke). 

The scorching CBS action series exploded onto the television rating lists with its first season, becoming a hit almost immediately. And now, after a long wait, the second season is finally arriving as of Feb. 16. 

When "Fire Country" debuted in October 2022, the fiery series drew more than 8 million viewers per episode. It was then greenlit for a second season - even before the initial installment's finale. 

And after a surprising Season 1 finale, the fates of nearly all the show's leading characters are up in the air. That includes the father-son relationship between Bode and Vince, who had just started to reconnect before the finale threatened to rip their progress apart.  

Though Burke's portrayal as a firefighter is unsurprisingly convincing, he's probably best known for playing Charlie Swan, the father of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), in the "Twilight" franchise. But he's appeared in dozens of projects over the years. 

Here's everything we know about Burke and his two-decade career in Hollywood:

Does Billy Burke Really Sing?

Burke didn't actually dream as a kid of being a movie and television star. Instead, he wanted to be a rock star.

Burke started singing and playing music when he was just 9 years old. At 17, the budding musician moved to downtown Seattle to pursue his musical passions there. At the time, the city was earning a reputation as the "music capital of the world," with bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam coming into the limelight. 

"We actually shared a rehearsal space with what became Alice in Chains," he told the Seattle Times in 2022. "So those guys were all buds. And they were super cool. But when I saw what was happening [in the music scene], I was pretty sure that we were probably not going to get much attention in that atmosphere."

After graduating from Western Washington University, Burke decided to try his luck with the music scene in Los Angeles. He had lined up a demo deal with a major record label but said "it didn't quite pan out." 

So, Burke turned to the only other thing he says he knew he was good at — acting. 

What Else Has Billy Burke Played In?

His debut on the silver screen was a small role on the popular science fiction series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Burke told TV Line he only appeared in a scene or two but that the makeup for the part took nearly half the day. 

"The show felt to me almost pseudo-Shakespearian, and I am a bit of a naturalist, so it was a challenge for me," the actor said. "Not only that, I remember the makeup being probably five hours applying, and five hours taking it off."

Burke then collected a string of mostly what he called "bad guy with facial hair" roles as guests on various television shows such as "All-American Girl" and "Party of Five."

After five years in the acting world, he landed his first studio picture role in the spoof "Jane Austen's Mafia!" (1998). 

"It was just that silly, fall-down, slap-in-the-face, really great comedy that I never get the chance to do anymore, actually," Burke said. "But it was good times."

Thanks to his deadpan comedic sensibilities, that role helped open the door to securing his first lead, playing the title role in the cult classic mockumentary "Dill Scallion" (1999).

Only a year later, Burke also grabbed the lead in the acclaimed ABC drama "Wonderland" (2000) as Dr. Abe Matthews, though its life on television was short-lived. 

"It was huge off the bat," Burke said on the "Story & Craft Podcast with Marc Preston" in 2023. "It's a show that would probably still hold up today. It was really ahead of its time."

The actor started to rack up a steady stream of notable television performances. That included small roles on "Gilmore Girls" and "Monk," and he even earned a decent character arc on one season of the action show "24."

Then, his focus moved to film for a few years. Burke was cast as a flawed cop in the hit thriller "Fracture" (2007) alongside Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. Then Academy Award-winning director Robert Benton invited him to join the cast of "Feast of Love" (2007) with Morgan Freeman. Finally, the next year, Burke was cast as a match for Diane Lane in "Untraceable" (2008). 

"I'm either the bad boyfriend with a gun or the guy chasing him," Burke said to the Seattle Times. "I could never venture a guess on how I am perceived by the Hollywood peeps. I take the opportunities where I can get them. My trajectory has been sort of all over the place, kind of back and forth, which is good because I don't seemingly have a pigeonhole."

Billy Burke's Biggest Role

Burke says he doesn't often get stopped in public or recognized by fans. But when he does, it's almost always for playing the father of Kristen Stewart's character in the hit vampire franchise "Twilight."

He had never heard of the explosively popular young adult book series when he met with the first film's director about the part. 

"I just thought it was a really nice love story," Burke told Collider in 2010. "I didn't really pay attention to the whole vampire aspect, actually. It was a really nice love story, and a really great relationship between a father and his daughter. I didn't really have a clue that the movie would have that much success."

Though Burke didn't have a large part in the films, he says he felt his character offered some humor to the franchise's serious plots.

"I was happy to find those moments because I think the stories, the films and the characters deserve it," he told Collider. "There's so much intense shit going on that it deserves a little chuckle, here and there."

Burke says he had never experienced fans camping out before premieres or trying to sneak onto film sets before "Twilight." But after five hit films, he didn't mind the global success of the franchise

"It was nothing but bliss, because I've done a lot of movies that no one has seen," he said to Young Hollywood in 2012.

Does Billy Burke Have Any Kids?

While filming the "Twilight" movies, Burke had a daughter with his wife at the time, actress Pollyanna Rose. The pair married in June 2008 and, only 10 days later, Rose gave birth to their daughter, Bluesy LaRue Burke.

The actor told MTV in 2010 that he never intended to be a parent and would need "all the help I can get." But he's clearly doing a great job raising the now-13-year-old, who took after her father's passion for music.

"She's becoming a pretty decent drummer," Burke said to Marc Preston. "She plays a little bit of guitar and she sings. But she has yet to find where her voice really lives yet. So I'm hoping that once that happens, she comes out and explodes with something."

Two years after his daughter was born, Burke also released his first album — a life's dream. He says Redeemed, which dropped in June 2010, was a collection of songs he spent writing over the prior 19 years. 

"I'm well aware that, when people hear that an actor is fancying himself a musician and making a record, people roll their eyes, but I really believe this is a different scenario," he said to Collider. "The sound is very darkly melodic with a lot of rich, ironic lyrics. It's the kind of stuff that you would put on the jukebox at your favorite bar."

Since then, the actor dropped another album in 2018 called The Underkill. 

"I wanted to make a rock album that paid some tribute to the stuff that I grew up with," he said to Marc Preston. "So I put that one out and now, I'm doing one that is inspired by a lot of the country influenced stuff that I've always appreciated."

What is Billy Burke Doing Now?

More recently, Burke grabbed some notable television roles in highly praised series. 

First, he was cast in the lead role as Miles Matheson in the NBC science fiction series "Revolution." The show's fans adored its riveting and emotional take on a post-apocalyptic world. But it was canceled after one season. 

"We felt like we were kind of just getting started on 'Revolution,' and when we got notified of the cancellation, it was really abrupt for everyone," he told TV Line. "At least one more season would've given us a chance to tie up all the loose ends, or give the show and all the characters a sendoff that they deserved."

Then, Burke earned a role in the award-winning limited Netflix series "Maid."

"Everybody in the entire story is broken and flawed, and I think people see that in themselves," the actor told Hot Corn in 2022. "When it was all said and done, I was very proud of the project."

These days, Burke is flexing his decades of acting experience as Vince Leone in "Fire Country."

He told Stuff that he was immediately attracted to the character because he carries a lot of baggage. 

"I knew that (the role) had the great seeds to go a lot of places and that is really what I look forward to as opposed to the emergency and the action and stuff like that," Burke said. "These are the types of gigs that I think everybody wants. It's lightning in a bottle."

The actor told the Seattle Times that he tries to bring nuance and complexities to the role. 

"He's the lovable dad, except he's the lovable dad whose bad side you don't want to be on and who is really passionate about what he does and the service he provides for the people," Burke said.

The series has also allowed Burke to combine his two true loves: acting and music. He got to show off his musical abilities in the show's Season 1 finale when his character sang one of Burke's original songs, "Burn," at a bar with his character's brother. 

Burke says the "Fire Country" writers penned a script where his character sang, knowing about his musical abilities. But they didn't have a specific song in mind and asked Burke if he had any original songs that could fit. Turns out, Burke had written a fire-inspired song while shooting the show's pilot and sent it to the producers. 

"I was completely shocked that the reaction was so positive all the way across the board, and they didn't want to change a f****g thing about it," he told TV Insider. "I mean, it is 100 percent how I wrote it from the get-go. So I was very pleased about that and very pleased that the show wanted to license one of my songs. Thirty years of writing songs, and that's the first time one's been licensed for any TV show or movie. So that was great for me."

Tune in to the premiere of the second season on Feb. 16.

READ MORE: 'Fire Country': Where is the Action-Packed Firefighter Drama Filmed?