William Louis Payne (January 13, 1873 – August 14, 1953) was an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras, as well as legitimate theater.

Born in Pennsylvania, Payne's acting life began in the first decade of the 1900s, when he appeared in the Broadway play, Her Majesty, the Girl Queen of Nordenmark, which ran at the Manhattan Theatre in 1900.

[5][6] In 1940, three years after Carter's death, Warner Bros. produced a biopic on her life, Lady with Red Hair, on which Payne serves as a technical advisor.

The final film in which Payne appeared was 1951's epic Quo Vadis, starring Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr, in which he played one of Jesus' 12 apostles.

[8] Payne died on August 14, 1953, at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California.