/"What do we have here?: Portraits of a life./" The conversation took place on February 26, 2024.
Billy Dee Williams remembers his remarkable life spanning nearly eight decades – an acclaimed actor who played the roles he wanted, from Brian's Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe – without being controlled by racism and pigeonholing. prevalent in the predominantly all-white industry in which he triumphed.
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Billy Dee Williams was born and raised in Harlem in 1937. He studied painting, first at the High School of Music and Art with fellow student Diahann Carroll, then at the National Academy of Fine Art, before embarking on the theater with Herbert Berghof. , Stella Adler and Sidney Poitier. He has appeared in forty films, seven Broadway plays, and has directed over forty television shows and made-for-TV movies combined.
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In What Have We Here: Portraits of a Life, Williams writes that he landed the career role of a lifetime in 1971, opposite James Caan in Brian's Song, the television movie which was watched by an audience of over fifty millions of people. Williams calls it "the kind of interracial love story America needed."
And when, as the first black character in the Star Wars universe, he became a true pop culture icon by playing Lando Calrissian in George Lucas' The Empire Strikes Back ("What I presented on screen, the people didn't expect to see). It's a role he reprized in the final film of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, and the recent sequel, The Rise of Skywalker.
This renowned actor recounts, in his own words, everything that sustained him and carried him through a life of dreams and adventures.
Sam Rubin is the entertainment anchor for the KTLA Morning News. He is a multiple Emmy winner; received the Golden Mike Award for Best Entertainment Reporter; received a lifetime achievement award from the Southern California Broadcasters Association; and was named Best Entertainment Journalist by the Los Angeles Press Club.
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