What have we here: portraits of a life

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Williams, Billy Dee, 1937-

Williams, Billy Dee

Cary Regional
Duraleigh Road Community
Express Library Fayetteville St.
Fuquay-Varina Community
Green Road Community
Leesville Community
Morrisville Community
Northeast Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional
Southgate Community
Wake Forest Community

Biography

Cary Regional - Biography
Duraleigh Road - Biography
Express - Fayetteville St. - Biography
Fuquay-Varina Community - Biography
Green Road Community - Biography
Leesville Community - Biography
Morrisville Community - Biography
Northeast Regional - Biography
Oberlin Regional - Biography
Remote Storage - Biography
Southeast Regional - Biography
Southgate Community - Biography
Wake Forest Community - Biography

"Film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades-a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry in which he triumphed. Billy Dee Williams was born in Harlem in 1937 and grew up in a household of love and sophistication. As a young boy, he made his stage debut working with Lotte Lenya in an Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill production where Williams ended up feeding Lenya her lines. He studied painting, first at the High School of Music and Art, with fellow student Diahann Carroll, and then at the National Academy of Fine Art, before setting out to pursue acting with Herbert Berghoff, Stella Adler, and Sidney Poitier. His first film role was in The Last Angry Man, the great Paul Muni's final film. It was Muni who gave Billy the advice that sent him soaring as an actor, 'You can play any character you want to play no matter who you are, no matter the way you look or the color of your skin.' And Williams writes, 'I wanted to be anyone I wanted to be.' On Broadway, he acted in The Cool World in an all-Black cast that included James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, and in the original hit Broadway production of A Taste of Honey with Angela Lansbury and a young Joan Plowright. In 1971, he landed the role of a lifetime: co-starring alongside James Caan in Brian's Song, the made-for-television movie that was watched by an audience of more than fifty million people. Williams says it was "the kind of interracial love story America needed." His rich and varied career included working with producer Berry Gordy on the Billie Holiday biopic, Lady Sings the Blues, a star vehicle for Diana Ross, then at the height of her superstardom. He also starred in the 1977 film Scott Joplin and appeared in Tim Burton's Batman and more recently the television series, And Just Like That. He became a true pop culture icon when, as the first Black character in the Star Wars universe, he played Lando Calrissian in George Lucas's The Empire Strikes Back ('What I presented on the screen people didn't expect to see'). It was a role he reprised in the final film of the original trilogy, The Return of the Jedi, and in the recent sequel The Rise of Skywalker. A legendary actor, in his own words, on all that has sustained and carried him through a lifetime of dreams and adventure"--

Book

Books

9987a25e-3cff-1331-38c4-043e7ea8acf7

9780593318607

BK

2025-09-21T09:18:02.128Z

-1

Non Fiction

Non Fiction

B WILLIAMS

Wake County Public Libraries

Cary Regional
Duraleigh Road Community
Express Library Fayetteville St.
Fuquay-Varina Community
Green Road Community
Leesville Community
Morrisville Community
Northeast Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional
Southgate Community
Wake Forest Community

9780593318607

2024

Alfred A. Knopf

grouped_work

African American actors -- Biography
Williams, Billy Dee, -- 1937-

What have we here : portraits of a life

What have we here : portraits of a life / Billy Dee Williams

What have we here

portraits of a life

African American actors
Williams, Billy Dee