According to his surviving brother, Timothy O'Byran, Billy was most proud of his work on the Mary Pickford classic "Sparrows" (1926) and "Our These Our Children?" (1931).
He was half Comanche on his father's side, and half Cherokee on his mother's.
He served as a member of the Army Air Corps during World War II. For the remainder of his life he continued working in aviation in the Glendale and Long Beach, California. Among other things, he was a flight instructor.