Fairborn grad who took on ‘giant’ is portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in new Oscar contender

Robert Bilott, a partner at the law firm Taft Stettinius and Hollister in Cincinnati, is the subject of the recently released Todd Haynes film "Dark Waters."

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Ruffalo plays Bilott, a 1983 Fairborn High School graduate, in the movie shot in Cincinnati and Hamilton.

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Bilott risks his career and family to “uncover a dark secret hidden by one of the world’s largest corporations and to bring justice to a community dangerously exposed for decades to deadly chemicals,” the film’s description says.

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Numerous people with connections to Dayton and Wright State University played a role in the film based on the 2016  New York Times Magazine article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare" by Nathaniel Rich.

The film also starring Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins and William Jackson Harper

is receiving Oscar buzz.

Bilott is the author of the 2019 book "Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (Simon and Schuster, $28).

He has received several honors in his career and was inducted into the Fairborn City School’s Hall of Honor in 2018.

"He was inducted before the movie and the book. That was just based on his work and what he had done, which is extraordinary," said Pamela Gayheart, Fairborn schools director of public relations.

While in high school, Bilott, the son of Raymond and Emily Bilott of Dayton, received the Award of Distinction and was a member of the National Honor Society, Quill & Scroll, art club, French club, soccer team, track team, yearbook staff, brass choir and symphonic, pep and marching band, according to the school district.

He received a bachelor’s degree from New College and his juris doctorate from The Ohio State College of Law in 1990.

Bilott’s father was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but the family often visited his mother’s relatives in Parkersburg, W. Va.

Robert Bilott's crusade against Dupont started after West Virginia cattle farmer Wilbur Tennant lost 150 animals to gruesome deaths and asked Bilott to represent him.

Bilott and his wife, Sarah, now reside in Crescent Springs, Ky.

His sister and brother-in-law, Beth and Terry Lieberman, live in Xenia.

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The father of three sons is now key to his law firm’s environmental, litigation and product liability and personal injury teams, according to its website.

Bilott's bio says he handles matters involving "hazardous, solid, medical and infectious wastes, emerging and unregulated chemicals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), such as PFOA and PFOS, air and water pollution and permitting, medical monitoring, brownfield redevelopment, landfill regulation and permitting, wastewater treatment, and chemical risk assessment, regulation and testing."