Lovingly known as the “black Clark Gable”, the wonderful Billy Dee Williams is an American actor, singer, author, brand spokesman and artist best known for his scene-stealing role in the Star Wars franchise as Han Solo’s friend, the roguish Lando Calrissian. With a stage and screen career spanning over 70 years, New Yorker Williams made his Broadway stage debut aged seven. But being a true performing arts renaissance man, his first love is art and as a youngster, after winning a painting scholarship, he studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design. To fund his art supplies he returned to acting, making his film debut in 1957. But it was when he starred in the TV movie Brian’s Song in 1971 that he shot to national attention, with his powerful performance winning an Emmy nomination for Best Actor.

Williams has appeared in over 70 movies throughout his illustrious career, and was the first African-American actor to get a major role in the Star Wars blockbusters, later being presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985. His work has earned him numerous awards and honours over the years including three NAACP Image Awards, and the NAACP Lifetime Achievement award.

Williams regards his paintings as ‘abstract reality’ and has his work displayed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City and at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.