Billy Name

Billy Name
Billy Name in 2007
Born	William George Linich. (1940-02-22)February 22, 1940 Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S.
Died	July 18, 2016(2016-07-18) (aged 76)
Nationality	American
Known for	photographer, filmmaker, lighting designer, archivist

William George Linich (February 22, 1940 – July 18, 2016), known professionally as Billy Name, was an American photographer, filmmaker, and lighting designer. He was the archivist of the Factory from 1964 to 1970. His brief romance and subsequent friendship with Andy Warhol led to substantial collaboration on Warhol's work, including his films, paintings, and sculptures. Linich became Billy Name among the clique known as the Warhol Superstars. He was responsible for "silverizing" Warhol's New York studio, the Factory, where he lived until 1970. His photographs of the scene at the Factory and of Warhol himself are important documents of the pop art era.

In 2001, the United States Postal Service used one of Billy Name's portraits of Warhol when it issued a commemorative stamp of the artist. Name also collaborated with Shepard Fairey with his photograph of Nico, singer with the Velvet Underground and part of the social circle of Warhol's Factory. He photographed the covers for the Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat and their eponymous third album as well as the photographs in the gatefold sleeve for The Velvet Underground and Nico (in collaboration with fellow Warhol associate Nat Finkelstein).

The origin of Linich's assumption of his theatrical surname was explained this way: "He acquired his superstar identity. While he was filling in an official form, his pen hovered… Name… Billy… He wrote. He had become Billy Name."

Prior to his association with Warhol, Name had worked in theatrical lighting design. Name began his career as a lighting designer in the theater in 1960, while working as a waiter at Serendipity 3, the mid-town dessert establishment. His first apprenticeship was with Nick Cernovich, part of the Black Mountain College contingency in New York in the 1950s, who had won an Obie Award for best lighting. "It was the end of the period of the romantic avant-garde bohemia, when artists kept younger artists and a male artist would always have a young man around." Under the tutelage of Cernovich, he co-designed the lighting for the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in 1960. Name later designed lighting at Judson Memorial Church, New York Poets Theater and the Living Theater, illuminating the likes of dancers Lucinda Childs, Yvonne Rainer, Merce Cunningham and Fred Herko.