Once dubbed “the Black Clark Gable,” Billy Dee Williams boasts a career that spans more than six decades and over 100 film and TV roles.
While he’s best remembered as the suave Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars saga, his path to stardom was far from all lights and applause.
Behind the cameras, Williams faced personal struggles and scandals that threatened to upend his life and career…
His big break
Billy Dee Williams was born in New York City and grew up in Harlem.
He began performing on Broadway at just seven years old, but it wasn’t until the 1971 television movie Brian’s Song that he captured national attention, earning an Emmy nomination for Best Actor.
Brian’s Song tells the true story of Brian Piccolo (played by James Caan), a Chicago Bears football player who was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The film focuses on his unlikely but deep friendship with teammate Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams). Despite their different personalities and racial backgrounds, they became the first interracial roommates in NFL history. The movie follows their bond all the way to Piccolo’s death in 1970. The film was such a hit on ABC that Columbia Pictures even released it in theaters afterward.
“That whole experience was an act of love. When James Caan and I met each other there was an immediate chemistry and then working with Buzz Kulik, the director, turned into a wonderful, beautiful and very special experience,” Williams said.
Why he joined Star Wars
Brian’s Song, along with a few others, helped pave the way for his career. In the 1980s, he landed the role of Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
“At that time there were all of these wonderful young film-makers that were changing the face of cinema like Spielberg and Coppola and Scorsese. When I was asked to participate in the Star Wars movie, I jumped at the opportunity of working with George Lucas,” Williams told The Guardian.
He became the first Black actor to play a major character in the Star Wars universe.
Yet behind the fame, the spotlight has also illuminated a turbulent personal life —full of love, heartbreak, and scandal.
First taste of love came early
In his memoir, What Have We Here? Portraits of a Life, the 88-year-old actor pulled back the curtain on decades of relationships, revealing the highs and lows that paralleled his Hollywood success.
He candidly admitted that infidelity played a role in all three of his marriages, and that even fatherhood couldn’t anchor him completely.
Williams’ first taste of love came early — and unconventional. He lost his virginity at just 17 to a woman in her mid-30s, a “bored housewife” living in his Harlem building.
“I was at that age where all I knew was that I was having sex. I didn’t know how or why, only that it was happening. And it kept happening,” he wrote.
Billy Dee Williams first tied the knot with model Audrey Sellers in 1959, they had a son (Corey) but the marriage ended in divorce a few years later.
Reflecting on that difficult time, he admitted, “there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed, my first marriage was on the rocks.”
Another factor that affected his first marriage was that Williams had begun seeing Yvonne Taylor, a childhood crush.
“There was an instant attraction… I knew I was about to risk whatever sense of calm and order there was in my life and, more than that, my sanity,” he admitted.
Their relationship opened the door to a world of sexual experimentation, including threesomes and orgies, though Williams insists he preferred romance “one at a time.”
Working with Diana Ross
Billy’s next chapters included two more marriages, an open relationship with Teruko Nakagami, and decades of love affairs, punctuated by passion, conflict, and unexpected joy.
Even amid the chaos, fatherhood remained a constant: he welcomed daughter Hanako with Teruko and watched as his son Corey grew into adulthood, navigating parenthood while balancing the allure and pressures of stardom.
Williams’ personal life was never without intrigue, especially during his work with iconic figures like Diana Ross.
He recalls an “immediate electricity” while filming Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, yet he firmly denies any romantic involvement:
“As interesting as it is to imagine, we never did.”
Legal issues
In the mid-’90s, Williams made headlines for all the wrong reasons, and it was far from an enjoyable read — for him or his fans.
In 1996, the Hollywood star was arrested following an alleged assault on his live-in girlfriend, resulting in misdemeanor charges of spousal battery and dissuading a witness. He posted $50,000 bail and later entered a plea deal, agreeing to complete 52 counseling sessions.
The woman involved later said the incident was her fault and hoped the case would be dropped. Williams has maintained that he never slapped or abused any women.
Another headline-making moment came in 2019, when Williams discussed his feminine side in an interview, using both masculine and feminine pronouns for himself. Media speculated he might be gender fluid, but he clarified he was talking about anima and animus — the feminine side of men and masculine side of women, according to Jungian psychology.
How he wants to die
In recent years, Williams has also gained recognition as a talented painter, with his works featured in some of the nation’s most prestigious museums and galleries.
His artwork delves into a variety of themes, including music, philosophy, psychology, love, interior landscapes, and history, with oil on canvas being his preferred medium.
Even though recent photos show the 88-year-old actor using a cane to get around, Williams seems to be in good spirits, despite having reflected on mortality for quite some time.
Back in 2001, he shared:
”Either I want to drop dead with a paint brush in my hand or I want to drop dead doing a soliloquy on the stage, I love acting. I love it. I take my acting very seriously, but I also find it fun. To do what children do and get paid for it is a lot of fun. I’m very fortunate.”
The truth about his nickname
And what about that famous nickname — “the Black Clark Gable”?
In an interview with The Guardian last year, Williams explained:
“I remember going to the supermarket after I did Lady Sings the Blues and somebody ran up to me and said, ‘I gotta tell you something. You are the Black Clark Gable.’ I said: fine. I was being called the Black Clark Gable by people who saw me as this kind of fancy figure.”
Even though he broke the color barrier in Star Wars, Billy Dee Williams has never seen himself as a racial justice crusader.
“I don’t think about all that stuff,” the 86-year-old actor and painter said over the phone. “I’ll let everybody else think about it. I’ve led a very eclectic life. I see myself as the full spectrum of colors and, when you’re a painter, you learn a lot more about that perspective.”
From Harlem’s stages to a galaxy far, far away, Williams has done it all, with style, depth, and that unmistakable charm.
Thank you, Billy Dee Williams, for the stories, the artistry, and for reminding us that true elegance never fades — it only evolves!
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