Billy Dee Williams
He is best known for portraying Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise and has also appeared in critically acclaimed and popular titles such as Mahogany (1975), Scott Joplin (1977), and Nighthawks (1981), as Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) and The Lego Batman Movie (2017), The Last Angry Man (1959), Carter's Army, The Out-of-Towners (1969), The Final Comedown and Lady Sings the Blues (both 1972), Hit!Williams’ film debut was in The Last Angry Man (1959), but he came to national attention in the television movie Brian's Song (1971), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Actor.In the 1980s, he was cast as Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), becoming the first black actor with a major role in the Star Wars franchise.Later work included voice acting in the series Titan Maximum (2009), and appearing on the reality show Dancing with the Stars (2014).[7][4][8] In March 1945, he made his Broadway debut at age seven portraying a page in The Firebrand of Florence, Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin’s operetta starring Lotte Lenya.[13][1][12] He was nominated at eighteen or nineteen years old for a Guggenheim Fellowship grant—for "creative ability in the arts," and won a Hallgarten Prize in the mid-1950s.[1] He continued to struggle as an actor for ten years working as an extra, doing small and large theatre, and "slowly breaking into television and film".[3] He became one of America's most well-known black film actors of the 1970s, after starring in a string of critically acclaimed and popular movies, many of them in the "blaxploitation" genre.Williams portrayed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.[19] In 1977, he played the eponymous lead role in Scott Joplin, biopic of musician's life, featuring many of his ragtime pieces in the soundtrack, including an epic piano duel in the early opening scenes.Williams was cast as Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), becoming the first African-American actor with a role in the Star Wars series.Williams returned to Broadway in the August Wilson play Fences, as a replacement for James Earl Jones in the role of Troy Maxson in 1988.In 1993, Williams made a guest appearance on the spin-off to The Cosby Show, A Different World, as Langston Paige, a grumpy landlord, in a backdoor pilot for his own series.[citation needed] Williams made a special guest appearance on the hit sketch comedy show In Living Color in 1990.In February 2006, Williams guest starred as himself in the season 5 episode "Her Story II" of Scrubs, where he plays the godfather of Julie (Mandy Moore).[28] Williams was a cast member of Diary of a Single Mom, a web-based original series directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Townsend.In July 2010, Williams appeared in the animated series The Boondocks, where he voiced a fictionalized version of himself in the episode "The Story of Lando Freeman".[citation needed] In February 2011, Williams appeared as a guest star on USA Network's White Collar as Ford, an old friend of Neal Caffrey's landlady June, played by Diahann Carroll.[14] He returned to New York to star in August Wilson's play Fences, replacing James Earl Jones in the lead for four months starting in February 1988.[8] His 1993 self-portrait is at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington D.C.) with a description that he "specializes in acrylic paintings combining traditional brushwork with an airbrushing technique"; he also works in oils.[6][43][44] Williams painted a series of impressionistic portraits of the Tuskegee Airmen, the "African-American pilots whose real-life exploits changed the course of American military history.[35] From a description, circa late 1990s, at one of the galleries that carries his work, "Billy's paintings are usually acrylic on canvas, applied with brush and airbrush."[47] He got permission from Star Wars creator George Lucas to sell lithographs of a montage of Williams' iconic character from the franchise, Lando Calrissian.[48][49] In his online gallery biography, he states, "[an] interest in Eastern philosophy characterizes his images, first to record the physical reality, and then to uncover through the application of light, color and perspective.He cites Edward Hopper, M. C. Escher—the Dutch Master, Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka, Thomas Hart Benton, and the exciting, vibrant forms of African art as some of his strongest influences."[8][44] Williams' work is included at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.It's a great exercise because you really start discovering who you are and what you are without a lot of assistance … and the moment you come up with something interesting it's a success that’s really based on your own personal, private sensibility.it included the first-ever vocal recording of "A Taste of Honey", a song by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow later covered by The Beatles on their 1963 debut album Please Please Me.Thirty years later, in the early 1990s, he sang on a “celebrity-packed charity single," "Voices That Care,” to honor U.S. troop of Operation Desert Storm, the 1990–1991 Gulf War, and supporting the International Red Cross.
GalaxyConNew York CityHigh School of Music & ArtNational Academy of Fine Arts and DesignHarlem Actors WorkshopLando CalrissianStar WarsGale SayersBrian's SongMarlene ClarkStar Wars franchiseMahoganyScott JoplinNighthawksHarvey DentBatmanThe Lego Batman MovieThe Last Angry ManCarter's ArmyThe Out-of-TownersThe Final ComedownLady Sings the BluesFear CityTerror in the AislesAlien IntruderThe VisitHarlemBroadway theatreThe Firebrand of FlorenceThe High School of Music & ArtHallgarten PrizeThe Empire Strikes BackGideon's CrossingDynastyGeneral HospitalMarla GibbsThe JeffersonsThe HughleysTitan Maximumreality showDancing with the StarsNAACP Image AwardsBlack Filmmaker's Hall of FameHollywood Walk of Fameelevator operatorLyceum TheatreMontserratAfrican-AmericancaretakerNative AmericanCentral Park North–110th Street stationCentral ParkNegro league playersCuban baseball leagueThe Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor KingsKurt WeillIra GershwinLotte LenyaBooker T. Washington Junior High SchoolLaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Artsvisual artsFame (1980)its derivative television seriesNational Academy of DesignGuggenheim FellowshipA Taste of HoneyStanislavsky MethodconscioussubconsciousPaul MannSidney Poitieractor agentOff-BroadwayJoan PlowrightThe Cool WorldPaul Munihallucinogenic drughippie movementChicago BearsBrian PiccoloJames CaanPrimetime Emmy AwardsMotownBerry GordyblaxploitationBillie HolidayMotown ProductionsAcademy AwardDiana Rosssex symbolThe New York TimesClark GableRobert Greenwaldcivil rightsMartin Luther King Jr.eponymous lead roleragtimeReturn of the JediSylvester StalloneAugust WilsonFencesJames Earl Jones1989's BatmanBatman ReturnsJoel SchumacherBatman ForeverTommy Lee JonesColt 45malt liquormarijuanaJoseph Schlitz Brewing CompanyBrady LloydDiahann CarrollThe Cosby ShowA Different Worldbackdoor pilotMartinMartin LawrenceIn Living ColorThat '70s ShowEric FormanDonna PinciottiExposéJimmy Kimmel Live!ScrubsMandy Moore