What Have We Here?: Portraits of a Life - NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER8226A film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades8212a heralded actor whos played the roles he wanted, from Brian8217s Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe8212unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly allwhite industry in which he triumphed 8220Effortlessly charming [Williams] writes with clarity and intimacy, revealing the person behind the persona 8221 8212Maya S Cade, The New York Times Book Review8220The story of a legend, written by the legend himself Impressive, inspiring, entertaining and endearing 8221 8212J J AbramsBilly 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 Muni8217s final film It was Muni who gave Billy the advice that sent him soaring as an actor, 8220You 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 8221 And Williams writes, 8220I wanted to be anyone I wanted to be 8221He writes of landing the role of a lifetime: costarring alongside James Caan in Brian8217s Song, the madefortelevision movie that was watched by an audience of more than fifty million people Williams says it was 8220the kind of interracial love story America needed 8221And when, as the first Black character in the Star Wars universe, he became a true pop culture icon, playing Lando Calrissian in George Lucas8217s The Empire Strikes Back (8220What I presented on the screen people didn8217t expect to see8221) 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