Billy Stranger Things Explained: Death, Dacre Montgomery & More

Few characters have walked into a hit show and split the audience quite like Billy Hargrove. He arrived in Stranger Things season 2 as Max Mayfield’s terrifying stepbrother, then became the Mind Flayer’s host in season 3 before dying at Starcourt Mall – on screen, his story ended in 1985; off screen, the actor behind him took a very different turn.

Character: Billy Hargrove ·
Portrayed by: Dacre Montgomery ·
Featured seasons: Seasons 2-3 (2017-2019) ·
Character age: 17-18 ·
Actor’s spouse: Liv Pollock

Ten rows, one pattern: the fictional character dies young and the actor’s real life keeps moving — which is exactly why the two keep getting merged in search results.

What’s happened to Billy in Stranger Things?

Billy Hargrove is introduced in season 2 as Max Mayfield’s older stepbrother (The Independent, UK news outlet), and the same profile describes him as abusive, volatile, and antagonistic toward Max and others (The Independent, UK news outlet). He is not a misunderstood outsider: he is the season’s human threat before the Upside Down’s monsters take over.

In season 3, Billy becomes the Mind Flayer’s host. He spends the season as the monster stalking Hawkins, and the show is explicit that his father, Neil, is the source of that violence. At the Starcourt Mall battle, the possession breaks for one moment: Billy resists the Mind Flayer’s control and protects Eleven and the other characters (Bustle, entertainment outlet). It costs him his life — the Mind Flayer kills him in season 3, episode 8, “The Battle of Starcourt” (Business Insider, news analysis). Some summaries describe the death as a stabbing; Business Insider (news analysis) cautions that the scene is more accurately read as the Mind Flayer killing Billy after he intervenes. Before he dies, Billy apologizes to Max (Martin Cid Magazine, celebrity profile).

Season 4 does not revive him. Montgomery appears in season 4 through memories, visions, and flashback material (Bustle, entertainment outlet), which makes some viewers wonder if Billy is back. He is not. What is back is the weight Max carries.

Why did Max cry when Billy died?

• Complicated grief: Billy tormented her for two seasons, but he was still her stepbrother.
• His final apology reframes their shared history in his last seconds.
• Season 4 confirms the wound never closed: Billy’s death remains psychologically significant to Max in season 4 (Bustle, entertainment outlet).

Her crying in the finale is not simple sadness. It mixes relief, guilt, and loss — she lost someone who hurt her, and the show never lets her feel clean about it.

The pattern: the series gives Max the grief it never gave Billy a life. The apology doesn’t undo the abuse; it just makes the mourning more complicated.

The pattern: Billy’s arc is closed, but Dacre Montgomery’s real-life story continues.

Who is Dacre Montgomery’s spouse?

Dacre Montgomery’s spouse is Liv Pollock — the answer that brings most readers here — but the path from Billy Hargrove to that wedding is worth unpacking. Montgomery is Australian, born in Perth, Western Australia, on 22 November 1994 (Martin Cid Magazine, celebrity biography), and he trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts before the show. Canada Scope (career profile) calls Stranger Things his breakout role.

His audition tape was widely discussed as an important factor in securing the part, according to Martin Cid Magazine’s profile of the actor.

What is Billy Stranger Things’ real name?

• Billy Hargrove is a fictional role; the actor’s real name is Dacre Montgomery.
• Montgomery played Billy principally in seasons 2 and 3 (IMDb, industry database), not the show’s full run.

How old is Dacre Montgomery?

• Born 22 November 1994 (Martin Cid Magazine, celebrity biography)
• That makes him 31 in early 2026, turning 32 in November
• For contrast: Billy is 17 when he appears in season 2 and 18 when he dies

Montgomery’s post-audition path includes Jason Scott, the Red Ranger, in the 2017 Power Rangers film (Wikipedia, crowd-sourced reference) and a turn as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (Wikipedia, crowd-sourced reference). Then the Hollywood engine slowed. A Martin Cid Magazine biography (celebrity biography) notes Montgomery stepped back from the Hollywood circuit for nearly four years.

Montgomery is married to Liv Pollock (Martin Cid Magazine, celebrity profile), the name that keeps appearing in related searches for the actor. It is a small irony: Billy’s death was so affecting that fans wanted proof the actor’s own life got a happier ending.

The distinction between character and actor is the article’s central theme.

Why did Max move to Hawkins?

Max Mayfield does not choose Hawkins. She ends up there because her mother, Susan, marries Billy’s father, Neil Hargrove. That single marriage makes Max and Billy step-siblings — they share a household, not blood.

Are Billy and Max full siblings?

• No — Max is Susan’s daughter, and Billy is Neil’s son.
• Their surnames are the giveaway: Mayfield versus Hargrove.

How old would Max Mayfield be today?

• The show never states Max’s exact birthdate.
• She is around 13 in season 2 (set in 1984) and around 15 in season 4 (set in 1986).
• Fan timelines that place her birth around 1971 would put her at about 55 in a 2026 projection.

Max is frozen in the 1980s on screen, but fans keep projecting her into the present — which is exactly where speculation starts to blur into fan fiction.

Why did Billy hate Lucas?

Billy’s hostility toward Lucas Sinclair is specific, and the show presents it as doubly motivated. On one level, Billy is a racist bully who targets Lucas because Lucas is close to Max — a closeness Billy reads as defiance. On another level, his aggression is part of a wider pattern of control and abuse; he treats Max as property, not as family.

Who has a crush on Max Mayfield?

• Lucas — his interest in Max is one of the show’s season 2 subplots.
• By the end of season 2, Max returns that interest.

Is Max attracted to Steve?

• No — Steve and Max never have a romantic storyline in the show.
• Steve’s role by season 3 is babysitter, not boyfriend.

The read: Billy’s “protection” of Max is possession, and the show never gives it a heroic reframe. His racism is inherited from Neil, but the series never lets it become an excuse.

Does Max Mayfield have autism?

The honest answer: the show has not confirmed it. Max’s guardedness, bluntness, and trauma responses read as neurodivergent to many viewers, and those fan theories are thoughtful. But canon gives no diagnosis, and no main character in Stranger Things has ever been labeled autistic on screen.

Is Jonathan autistic in Stranger Things?

• Not confirmed — fan readings of Jonathan’s sensitivity and social discomfort are interpretation, not canon.

Is Max Mayfield in a wheelchair?

• No — Max is hospitalized in a coma after Vecna’s attack in season 4.
• No canon scene shows her using a wheelchair; the coma is the only state the show leaves her in.

Why this matters: mixing theory with canon changes how fans understand disability and neurodivergence. The show has not committed to either label, and that silence is not a diagnosis.

What Billy’s story leaves behind

Billy Hargrove is a villain the show quietly turned into a tragedy. He dies resisting the Mind Flayer, apologizes to Max, and then becomes her guilt in season 4 — while Dacre Montgomery married Liv Pollock, stepped back from Hollywood, and kept living. For fans waiting on season 5, the choice is clear: treat Max’s coma as the open question it is, or you will keep mistaking a flashback for a resurrection.

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