What Have we Here? : : Portraits of a Life
Book - 2024 Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Musicians & Entertainers / Williams, Billy Dee, 791.43 Wi 2 On Shelf No requests on this item
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Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Musicians & Entertainers / Williams, Billy Dee, 791.43 Wi
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Traverwood Branch
Location & Checkout Length | Call Number | Checkout Length | Item Status |
---|---|---|---|
Malletts Adult Books, NEW Winter 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Musicians & Entertainers / Williams, Billy Dee | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Traverwood Adult Books, NEW Winter 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Musicians & Entertainers / Williams, Billy Dee | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Downtown 1st Floor, NEW Winter 4-week checkout |
791.43 Wi | 4-week checkout | Due 05-16-2024 |
Pittsfield Adult Books, NEW Winter 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Musicians & Entertainers / Williams, Billy Dee | 4-week checkout | Due 05-17-2024 |
Westgate Adult Books, NEW Winter 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Nonfiction / Biography / Musicians & Entertainers / Williams, Billy Dee | 4-week checkout | Due 05-12-2024 |
Includes index.
"Film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades-a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all-white industry in which he triumphed. Billy Dee Williams was born in Harlem in 1937 and grew up in a household of love and sophistication. As a young boy, he made his stage debut working with Lotte Lenya in an Ira Gershwin/Kurt Weill production where Williams ended up feeding Lenya her lines. He studied painting, first at the High School of Music and Art, with fellow student Diahann Carroll, and then at the National Academy of Fine Art, before setting out to pursue acting with Herbert Berghoff, Stella Adler, and Sidney Poitier. His first film role was in The Last Angry Man, the great Paul Muni's final film. 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." On Broadway, he acted in The Cool World in an all-Black cast that included James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, and in the original hit Broadway production of A Taste of Honey with Angela Lansbury and a young Joan Plowright. In 1971, he landed the role of a lifetime: co-starring alongside James Caan in Brian's Song, the made-for-television movie that was watched by an audience of more than fifty million people. Williams says it was "the kind of interracial love story America needed." His rich and varied career included working with producer Berry Gordy on the Billie Holiday biopic, Lady Sings the Blues, a star vehicle for Diana Ross, then at the height of her superstardom. He also starred in the 1977 film Scott Joplin and appeared in Tim Burton's Batman and more recently the television series, And Just Like That. He became a true pop culture icon when, as the first Black character in the Star Wars universe, he played Lando Calrissian in George Lucas's The Empire Strikes Back ("What I presented on the screen people didn't expect to see"). It was a role he reprised in the final film of the original trilogy, The Return of the Jedi, and in the recent sequel The Rise of Skywalker. A legendary actor, in his own words, on all that has sustained and carried him through a lifetime of dreams and adventure"-- Provided by publisher.
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PUBLISHED
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2024.
Year Published: 2024
Description: 277 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780593318607
SUBJECTS
Williams, Billy Dee, -- 1937-
African American actors -- Biography.
Autobiographies.