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Billy Dee Williams

Billy Dee Williams has built a screen career around an unusual combination of ease, warmth and mystery. Born in New York City on April 6, 1937, he grew up in Harlem in a family that encouraged painting, music and theatre. He made his Broadway debut at seven in the operetta The Firebrand of Florence, although his first serious ambition was to become a painter. Williams studied visual arts at New York’s High School of Music & Art and received a scholarship to the National Academy of Design. Acting initially helped pay for paints and canvases before gradually becoming his primary pursuit. After years of theatre, television and smaller parts, Williams found a major breakthrough playing football star Gale Sayers opposite James Caan in the 1971 television film Brian’s Song. Both actors received Primetime Emmy nominations, and Williams later described the role as one of his proudest. He followed it with Lady Sings the Blues, playing Louis McKay opposite Diana Ross, and reunited with Ross for Mahogany. These films established the poised, romantic screen presence that became an important part of his appeal without defining the full range of his work. His best-known role arrived with Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back. Williams brought charm and contradiction to a character who could not be reduced to simple heroism or villainy, becoming the first African-American actor to play a role in the Star Wars series. He returned in Return of the Jedi and, decades later, The Rise of Skywalker, while also voicing Lando in animation, audio drama and video games. Williams’s career has continued across film, television, theatre and voice acting. He played a police officer alongside Sylvester Stallone in Nighthawks, Harvey Dent in Batman, and Troy Maxson in a Broadway production of August Wilson’s Fences. He eventually revisited Harvey Dent from a different angle by voicing Two-Face in The Lego Batman Movie. Alongside acting, Williams has remained a painter and has also worked as a writer, singer and recording artist—a range that reflects the creative life he imagined long before Hollywood knew his name.