Once celebrated as “the Black Clark Gable,” Billy Dee Williams has built a career lasting more than sixty years, appearing in over a hundred television and film productions.
Although most people instantly recognize him as the smooth, unforgettable Lando Calrissian from the Star Wars franchise, the journey that led him there was far more complicated than the fame and glamour that followed.
Away from the spotlight, Williams wrestled with personal pain and controversies that came close to derailing both his life and his career.
His rise to fame
Billy Dee Williams was born in New York City and spent his childhood in Harlem.
He first stepped onto a Broadway stage at only seven years old, but his real breakthrough didn’t come until 1971 with the television film Brian’s Song, which earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Actor.
Brian’s Song tells the real-life story of Brian Piccolo, played by James Caan, a Chicago Bears running back who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The heart of the film is Piccolo’s deep and unexpected friendship with fellow player Gale Sayers, portrayed by Williams. The two men, who differed in personality and race, became the NFL’s first interracial roommates. The movie follows their friendship through Piccolo’s illness and his passing in 1970. It became such a sensation on ABC that Columbia Pictures later released it in theaters as well.
“That entire experience was rooted in pure affection. From the moment James Caan and I met, there was an instant connection, and working with Buzz Kulik, our director, became something remarkable, beautiful, and truly meaningful,” Williams explained.
Why he stepped into Star Wars
Brian’s Song, along with several other projects, helped open doors for his career. Then in the early 1980s, he was cast as Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
“At that time, there were all these incredible young filmmakers reshaping cinema, people like Spielberg, Coppola, and Scorsese. So when I was invited to be part of a Star Wars film, I didn’t hesitate. I leaped at the chance to work with George Lucas,” Williams told The Guardian.
With that role, he became the first Black actor to portray a major character in the Star Wars universe.
But while the fame elevated him, the attention also exposed a complicated personal world filled with affection, disappointment, and controversy.
Love arrived early for him
In his memoir, What Have We Here? Portraits of a Life, the now 88-year-old actor opened up about decades of romances, sharing the emotional peaks and valleys that ran alongside his Hollywood achievements.
He admitted openly that infidelity had been a factor in all three of his marriages, and that even becoming a father wasn’t enough to keep him grounded.
Williams’ introduction to love happened early and in an unusual way. He lost his virginity at just seventeen to a woman in her mid-thirties, a “bored housewife” who lived in the same Harlem apartment building.
“I was at an age where all I understood was that I was having sex. I didn’t comprehend the how or the why, only that it was happening. And it kept happening,” he wrote.
Billy Dee Williams married model Audrey Sellers in 1959. They welcomed a son named Corey, but the relationship fell apart and ended in divorce a few years later.
Looking back on that period, he admitted, “there was a time when I was really despondent, broke, depressed, and my first marriage was falling apart.”
One thing that further complicated the marriage was that Williams had started seeing Yvonne Taylor, a woman he had admired since childhood.
“There was an instant spark… I knew I was about to jeopardize whatever stability and order I had left in my life and, beyond that, my sanity,” he confessed.
Their relationship exposed him to a world of sexual exploration, including threesomes and group encounters, although Williams maintains that he personally preferred intimacy with “one person at a time.”
Working with Diana Ross
The next chapters of Billy’s life included two additional marriages, an open partnership with Teruko Nakagami, and decades filled with romances marked by desire, conflict, and unexpected moments of happiness.
Despite the turmoil, fatherhood was a steady part of his life. He welcomed his daughter Hanako with Teruko and watched his son Corey grow into adulthood, juggling parental responsibilities alongside the temptations and pressures that came with fame.
Williams’ private world continued to fascinate the public, especially during his collaborations with legendary performer Diana Ross.
He remembered feeling an “immediate electricity” while filming Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, though he firmly denied any romantic relationship between them:
“As fun as it is to imagine, nothing ever happened between us.”
Legal issues
In the mid-1990s, Williams found himself in headlines for very unpleasant reasons, and it was distressing for both him and his fans.
In 1996, he was arrested after allegedly assaulting his live-in girlfriend. He was charged with misdemeanor spousal battery and dissuading a witness. Williams posted fifty thousand dollars bail and later agreed to a plea arrangement that required him to attend fifty-two counseling sessions. The woman involved later claimed the situation was her fault and expressed hope that the charges would be dismissed. Williams has always insisted he never slapped or harmed any woman.
Another media storm hit in 2019 when Williams spoke about embracing his feminine side during an interview, referring to himself with both masculine and feminine pronouns. The press speculated he might be gender fluid, but he later explained he had been referring to the concepts of anima and animus — the feminine aspect of men and masculine aspect of women — in Jungian psychology.
How he wants to die
In more recent years, Williams has also earned praise as a gifted painter, with his artwork displayed in well-known museums and galleries across the country.
His paintings explore a wide range of subjects including music, philosophy, psychology, love, inner landscapes, and historical themes. He most often works in oil on canvas.
Though recent photos show the 88-year-old actor walking with a cane, he still appears to be in good spirits. He has been reflecting on mortality for quite some time, and back in 2001 he said:
“Either I want to drop dead with a paintbrush in my hand or I want to drop dead doing a soliloquy onstage. I love acting. I really do. I take my acting very seriously, but I also think it’s fun. To do what children do and actually get paid for it is a joy. I’m very lucky.”
The truth behind his nickname
And what about that famous moniker, “the Black Clark Gable”?
In a conversation with The Guardian last year, Williams explained:
“I remember going to the supermarket after Lady Sings the Blues came out, and someone ran up to me and said, ‘I have to tell you something. You are the Black Clark Gable.’ I said: fine. People saw me as this glamorous figure, so that’s what they called me.”
Even though he broke significant racial barriers when he stepped into the Star Wars universe, Billy Dee Williams has never viewed himself as an activist for racial justice.
“I don’t spend time thinking about those things,” the 86-year-old actor and painter said over the phone. “I let others think about that. I’ve lived a very eclectic life. I see myself as the whole spectrum of colors, and when you’re a painter, you understand that perspective even more.”
From the stages of Harlem to the endless reaches of a galaxy far, far away, Williams has experienced it all, carrying style, emotional depth, and that signature charm everywhere he went.
Thank you, Billy Dee Williams, for the art, the stories, and for showing us that true elegance never disappears — it simply transforms.