Billy Dee Williams
My mother's side of the family, they're from Montserrat in the Leeward Islands.Collection: Family
It was a time after 'Lady Sings the Blues' and 'Mahogany' and all those romantic movies: I became this romantic figure on the street in a very special way.Collection: Romantic
Failure's not a bad thing. It builds character. It makes you stronger.Collection: Failure
As for Colt 45, I am very proud of my endorsement of the product, and it still 'Works every time.'
Actually, I believe in everything, including astrology and tarot cards. All of it is just another way for people to try and tighten the link to the spirits in our universe. I believe it exists for all people.
I am an artist no matter what I do. I live for creativity. I think everyone should. It is the antithesis of being destructive.
I tell my son Corey that the greatest teacher is the teacher who says, 'Don't follow me; follow yourself. Because within you there is that kingdom, that life, that force.'
I loved Marlon Brando: my favorite actor.
I don't know why everybody thinks I'm smooth. I think I'm just a pretty silly person, really.
It's in our nature. We need to explore and find out what's going on outside of who we are.
The world moves fast, but change isn't always a good thing when you got it right the first time around.
Originally I planned on starting a teapot collection. I really like them.
For myself, if I'm trying to obtain a certain longevity in my career, to establish myself as a certain kind of star, I don't want that black exploitation image.
I don't want to sound too carried away, but from what I've seen, 'Bingo Long' is going to be a big one. A classic.
I was in the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design, on a scholarship. I was - still am - an artist. They were looking for an actor for 'Take a Giant Step,' and a producer liked my look and asked if I could act. I said, 'Yep!' Then I got into acting more or less just to make money for paints and canvases.
Right before 'Brian's Song' there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed; my first marriage was on the rocks. The role of Gale Sayers had been cast with Lou Gossett, and then he hurt himself playing basketball. I was called in to read for the role. I was their last choice, and I knew it.
Acting, I started when I was six and a half years-old, on Broadway with Kurt Weill.
Jazz is very much a part of my life. I work with the Thelonious Monk Institute and do the artwork for their program every year.
Oh, I paint all the time.
I tend to approach characters not based on ethnicity but on some unique individual qualities, and I've set my whole life that way. I don't want any sort of limitations imposed on my work. If you truly want to be a creative person, you can't limit yourself.
I don't want to find myself ever locked into what people think I should think or do. In my art, and acting, I have a universal vision of things, an international vision. Bigger and broader and beyond. 'Bigger than life' is always on my mind.
I love the Mexican muralists - like Rivera, Orozco - and the music of Walter Benton. They gave you a sense that reality was much more than life.
Sometimes a true original doesn't need to change a thing.
No matter where I go, in this country or outside of this country, there are young people, and I'm always surprised that young people know about me and Colt 45.
I think a lot of black filmmakers have done very well.
You are always going to have people criticizing, in one way or another, for their own personal reason.
There's always been a lot of misunderstanding about Lando's character. I used to pick up my daughter from elementary school and get into arguments with little children who would accuse me of betraying Han Solo.
I'm always looking for good things to do.
If anything, I've seen myself as the full spectrum of colors, and to be faced with not being able to do something just because I'm of a particular race has been something that I've always found very difficult - even today.
I go, and I do my work, and I try to do the best I can, and I collect my money, and I go home, and then I go on to the next thing. That's my attitude.
I did something that no brown-skinned man in the movie industry ever did. I made a brown-skinned man look very romantic - a matinee idol. If you think about it, what I introduced is historical because it had never happened before, and it hasn't happened since - not on that level.
I want people to see my heart, what I feel - not as one of America's best black actors but as one of the best actors.
The only thing that said 'Lando Calrissian' was ethnic was his looks.
I think I'm a good father. As a parent, you have the responsibility to create a foundation for your children so that they can meet all the challenges.
I take very good care of myself, and I've still got a lot of things I need and want to do - and I am still cute. Retiring seems like such a remote thing to me. The whole idea of it.
Power is a very peculiar thing. It's like the ego. The ego's only there to keep you above water. Once we realize something good about ourselves, we have a tendency to abuse the gift.
I think of film when I paint. Even the luminosity that I always keep working for is really about film. But my idea is not to paint paintings that will decorate somebody's house.
My idea is to paint paintings so that when you walk into a room, I'm pulling you in, or that makes you suddenly stop and wonder: 'What is this? There is something groovy, something else going on here.' Also, I want to give you what is obvious and what is not obvious to the eye.
I always admired my father because he was a man that never put on any airs, you know. And I always tried to be that kind of person.
I think I've been very fortunate, considering the obstacles that I had to deal with, you know, just being - by virtue of being a brown, lovely, brown-skinned man. But on the other hand, I've been able to make a good living, and I've been able to take care of my family, which is most important to me.
I don't know. You know, when I'm not acting, I'm not an actor. I'm just a person. That's how I go through life. I'd rather not - you know, like a lot of actors, you know, they spend their whole 24 hours a day being an actor.
Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with.Collection: Love
Failures not a bad thing. It builds character. It makes you stronger.Collection: Character
I drink, you drink. Hell, if marijuana was legal, I'd appear in a commercial for that too.Collection: Marijuana