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Billy Dee Williams

2024 TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL HONOREE

Charismatic and charming, the talented Billy Dee Williams was hailed as “the Black Clark Gable” when he romanced Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Mahogany (1975). In his almost 80-year career, he has established himself as very much his own man, an actor whose good looks are matched by his prodigious talent. The Harlem-born actor got his first professional credit at seven with a small role in the Kurt Weill operetta The Firebrand of Florence. After school, he started seeking out acting jobs, making his film debut opposite Paul Muni in The Last Angry Man (1959) and scoring a major hit in the Broadway company of A Taste of Honey. He landed an Emmy® nomination as football player Gale Sayers in the acclaimed TV movie Brian’s Song (1971). At the same time, he beat out Paul Winfield to play Billie Holiday’s husband in Lady Sings the Blues (1972). That film’s success established him as a major leading man, followed by The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) and his most iconic role, Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and its sequels. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Williams focused on TV work, playing Diahann Carroll’s love interest on Dynasty and Berry Gordy in The Jacksons: An American Dream. In 2006, the NAACP voted him a Lifetime Achievement Award for his many contributions to the arts.

SPECIAL GUEST: Billy Dee Williams

EVENTS: THE BINGO LONG TRAVELING ALL-STARS & MOTOR KINGS, LADY SINGS THE BLUES, A CONVERSATION WITH BILLY DEE WILLIAMS, BILLY DEE WILLIAMS BOOK SIGNING