Billy Dee Williams

William December "Billy Dee" Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor, artist, and singer. Williams is best known for his role as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars film franchise, first appearing in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Williams has also appeared in critically acclaimed films like Brian\'s Song (1971), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Mahogany (1975), Nighthawks (1981), and Batman (1989), in which he portrayed Harvey Dent. In August 2018 it was finally announced that Williams would return as Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Episode IX after his character\'s absence from previous episodes became conspicuous.\n', ' Williams was born in New York City, the son of Loretta Anne (1915–2016),[citation needed] a West Indian-born elevator operator from Montserrat, and William December Williams, Sr. (1910–2008), an African-American caretaker from Texas. He has a twin sister, Loretta, and grew up in Harlem, where he was raised by his maternal grandmother while his parents worked at several jobs. Williams graduated from The High School of Music & Art (later merged with the High School of Performing Arts to become the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art) in Manhattan, where he was a classmate of Diahann Carroll, who would later play the wife of his character Brady Lloyd on the 1980s prime-time soap opera Dynasty.\n', ' Williams first appeared on Broadway in 1945 in The Firebrand of Florence. He returned to Broadway as an adult in 1960 in the adaptation of The Cool Word. He appeared in A Taste of Honey in 1961. A 1976 Broadway production, I Have a Dream, was directed by Robert Greenwald and starred Williams as Martin Luther King Jr. His most recent Broadway appearance was in August Wilson\'s Fences, as a replacement for James Earl Jones in the role of Troy Maxson in 1988. \n', '