February 13, 2024
On Sale Now
The Life of a Legend
Film luminary Billy Dee Williams recalls his remarkable life—a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, from Brian’s Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe—unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry in which he triumphed.
Starting with his birth in Harlem in 1937, What Have We Here details Billy's experiences through his young adulthood, to his first film role in Paul Muni's The Last Angry Man. 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."
He writes of landing the role of a lifetime in Brian's Song and describes his experinces as the first Black character in the Star Wars universe, where he became a true pop culture icon, playing Lando Calrissian in George Lucas’s The Empire Strikes Back.
A legendary actor, in his own words, on all that has sustained and carried him through a lifetime of dreams and adventure.
EVENTS
Join Billy Dee Williams for a conversation about his new memoir What Have We Here?, which recounts his journey from Harlem to a galaxy far, far away — and beyond. Tickets available now.
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