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Lando Calrissian is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He also appears frequently in the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books and video games, including a series of novels in which he is the primary protagonist.

Appearances[link]

[edit] Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Lando Calrissian first appears in The Empire Strikes Back as the administrator of Cloud City, concerned primarily with keeping the Empire out of his affairs. One day, Darth Vader arrives and threatens Calrissian to take over the city unless he gives his old friend Han Solo over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Unwilling to leave the city in the hands of the Empire, Calrissian reluctantly betrays Han, but his conscience gets the better of him when Vader goes back on his word and takes Princess Leia Organa and Chewbacca as prisoners. In the ensuing evacuation of Cloud City, he helps Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO escape. He then assists Leia in rescuing the maimed Luke Skywalker from the underside of Cloud City. Afterwards, he joins the Rebel Alliance and promises Leia he will find Han.

[edit] Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

In Return of the Jedi, Calrissian goes undercover to help Luke Skywalker rescue Solo from Jabba the Hutt. During a heated battle with Jabba's henchmen, Han saves Calrissian from being devoured by a Sarlaac; in return, Calrissian helps Han and his friends destroy Jabba's barge. For his heroics, he is made a general in the Rebel Alliance. He then takes the pilot chair in the Millennium Falcon and leads the attack on the second Death Star. He leads the Rebels to victory by destroying the gigantic battle station and, with it, the Empire.

Expanded Universe[link]

[edit] Pre-Empire Strikes Back

Calrissian's life prior to The Empire Strikes Back is chronicled in The Adventures of Lando Calrissian series of novels. Early in his career, Lando is a prodigious gambler and wins the Millennium Falcon in a game of sabacc. He also wins a strange star-shaped droid named Vuffi Raa, who would be his friend and ally on many occasions. After acquiring the Falcon, and under the tutelage of his friend Han Solo, Calrissian begins to develop his skills as a pilot.

In Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, he is conned by the Sorcerer of Tund, Rokur Gepta, into hunting down the titular object in the Rafa system. When he arrives, he finds it totally covered in sand and plastic pyramids, and inhabited by a dull and slow-witted society, the Toka. Lando eventually finds the mindharp, but the human governor of Rafa IV activates it. Majestically, the pyramids crumble and the Toka are revealed as the Sharu, an ancient civilization that had drained their intelligence away for safety. Once the Sharu are resurrected, they drive out all the humans. Lando is forced to return to Rokur empty-handed.

In Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka, Lando tries to save a space-borne species called the Oswaft. During the mission, strange spherical droids appear and take Vuffi Raa away, for he is actually a scout for this strange culture. Then, he enters the sabacc championships, and loses to Han Solo. Han makes off with the Millennium Falcon.

In Rebel Dawn, Calrissian helps Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Solo's old flame Bria Tharen (then a Commander in the Rebel Alliance) in a raid against the Hutt-controlled slave world of Ylesia. During the raid which promises generous rewards to Han and his compatriots, Tharen's Red Hand Squadron double crosses Lando and the rest of Han's friends. In the ensuing chaos, Han is branded an accomplice and a traitor. Back on Nar Shaddaa (then Solo's home) word soon spreads, and Calrissian punches him out. The two do not see each other again until The Empire Strikes Back, set three years later.

Later, he wins the mining facility of Cloud City from its current ruler, Baron Raynor. He becomes a responsible leader, keeping his operations out of the eyes of the Galactic Empire. These events are chronicled in the comic book story "Lady Luck," written by Rich Handley and Darko Macan, and its sequel, "Lando Calrissian: Idiot's Array," by Rich Handley.

[edit] Pre-Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars comic book series released by Marvel Comics featured Calrissian as a prominent character following The Empire Strikes Back. In the comic series, he has a crime lord arch nemesis named Drebble, and Calrissian will frequently make use of his foil's name as a cover identity so that any animosity he generates while using the alias will be brought against the real Drebble, not Calrissian himself. Drebble features in the comic story "Lady Luck," in which he receives a first name, Barpotomous. Calrissian's use of Drebble's name backfires when the alliance hears how much trouble "Drebble" has been causing the Empire, and orders Calrissian to find and decorate him.^[1]

[edit] Post-Return of the Jedi

Following the events of Return of the Jedi, he builds a mining complex on the Nkllon called Nomad City. The city consists of an old Dreadnaught carried across the landscape on the night side of the planet.

Nomad City is destroyed during Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic, portrayed in The Thrawn Trilogy. When Emperor Palpatine reappears in Dark Empire and begins his own campaign against the New Republic, Calrissian rejoins the Republic's military at his previous rank. After Palpatine is finally destroyed in Empire's End, Calrissian leaves the military. When Kessel is abandoned following Admiral Daala's attack on the planet in Darksaber, Calrissian takes over the planet, converts its prison into a mining complex, and mines spice from the planet for a number of years.

During The Corellian Trilogy, Calrissian goes on a galaxy-wide hunt for a rich wife. The businessman, reasoning that marriage is partly a financial relationship, meets Tendra Risant, whom he marries. With his inlaws' money and his entrepreneurial abilities, he opens a mining facility on the planet of Dubrillion on the Outer Rim. On the side, he unofficially runs an asteroid training facility for smuggler pilots.

In Vector Prime, Calrissian asks Solo and Chewie to help him with a business transaction on the planet of Sernpidal. During this trip, Chewbacca meets his demise, saving Solo's son Anakin from the moon the Yuuzhan Vong sends crashing onto the planet. Solo, Anakin, and the thousands of people they saved head to Dubrillion, where the first major clash between the biological Vong and the mechanical New Republic occurs. Calrissian's ground defenses, as well as his newly-created shielding technologies, help save Dubrillion from the initial assault. When the Vong retreat, the Skywalker family launch a desperate attack with the Star Destroyer Rejuvenator and its task force. Calrissian serves as gunner for Solo on the Falcon, but the Rejuvenator and most of her complement of ships are destroyed.

In Dark Tide: Onslaught, Calrissian helps the Solos organize an escape route for Skywalker's Jedi Academy. He poses as a citizen of the besieged world Talfaglia in order to deliver 17 Jedi "hostages" to the Yuuzhan Vong; this is actually a strike team, which attempts to destroy the cloning facilities on the worldship orbiting Myrkr. He also creates Yuuzhan Vong Hunter Droids, two of which prove crucial in the assault on Myrkr to destroy the voxyn queen, and dozens more are used in assaults on Vong strongholds throughout the war.

In Star By Star, Calrissian's efforts are crucial in delaying the Vong victory in a battle on Coruscant. Instead of using mines to attack the Vong piecemeal, he lets them into the minefield, then turns them on the approaching enemy. Over one thousand of the Vong are destroyed or damaged. He also rescues the kidnapped Ben Skywalker from the clutches of the treacherous Senator Viqi Shesh.

In Enemy Lines: Rebel Dream, Calrissian leads the ground troops to a quick victory, then volunteers to lead a small task force to destroy Vong ambushes of convoys and find out how they tracked said convoys. These efforts are wholly successful, with large Vong capital ships destroyed with minimal effort, time, fuel, and munitions.

Finally, when the newly located Galactic Senate on Mon Calamari sets out to vote for a new Chief of State, Calrissian and Talon Karrde provide "incentives" such as silence, money, and blackmail to convince a group of corrupt senators to vote for Cal Omas, who supports the Jedi. When Omas is elected, Calrissian, Karrde, and Star Destroyer owner Booster Terrik lead the Smuggler's Alliance, with Han Solo commanding, to victory over a massive Yuuzhan Vong force in the rout at Ebaq 9.

Calrissian eventually retires to private life after proving crucial in the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar and creating a new Holonet to replace the one the Vong destroyed.

In the seventh novel of the Legacy of the Force series, Fury, Calrissian announces to Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo that he and Tendra are having a child.

Reception[link]

Lando Calrissian was chosen as the 11th top Star Wars character by IGN and^[2] the character was chosen as the 12th top Star Wars hero by Jesse Schedeen.^[3] Schedeen also said that Calrissian was one of the characters he would most like seeing in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.^[4]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars Databank
• Lando Calrissian on Wookieepedia: a Star Wars Wiki

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Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams in 2011.
Born	William December Williams, Jr. (1937-04-06) April 6, 1937 (age 75) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Actor, artist, singer, writer
Years active	1959–present

William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.

Early life[link]

Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta Anne, a West Indian-born elevator operator from Montserrat, and William December Williams, Sr., an African-American caretaker from Texas.^[1][2] He has a twin sister, Loretta, and grew up in Harlem, where he was raised by his maternal grandmother while his parents worked at several jobs. Williams graduated from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in Manhattan, where he was a classmate of Diahann Carroll, who coincidentally played the wife of his character Brady Lloyd on the 1980s prime-time soap Dynasty.

Acting career[link]

Stage[link]

He first appeared on Broadway in 1945 in The Firebrand of Florence.^[3] He returned to Broadway as an adult in 1960 in the play version of The Cool Word. He appeared in A Taste of Honey in 1961. A 1976 Broadway production, I Have a Dream, was directed by Robert Greenwald and starred Williams as Martin Luther King, Jr.^[4] His most recent Broadway appearance was in August Wilson's Fences, as a replacement for James Earl Jones in the role of Troy Maxson in 1988.^[5]

Film[link]

He made his film debut in 1959 in the Academy Award nominated The Last Angry Man, opposite Paul Muni, in which he portrayed a delinquent young man. He rose to stardom after starring in the critically lauded blockbuster biographical TV movie, Brian's Song (1971), in which he played Chicago Bears star football player Gale Sayers, who stood by his friend Brian Piccolo (played by James Caan), during his struggle with terminal cancer. Both Williams and Caan were nominated for Emmy Awards for best actor for their performances.^[6]

After this breakthrough, Williams became America's leading^{[citation needed]} black film actor in the 1970s after starring in a string of critically acclaimed and popular movies, many of them in the Blaxploitation genre. In 1972, starred as Billie Holiday's husband Louis McKay in Motown Productions' Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues. The film was a box office blockbuster, becoming one of the highest grossing films of the year and received five Academy Award nominations. Diana Ross starred in Lady Sings the Blues opposite Williams; Motown paired the two of them again three years later in the successful follow-up project Mahogany.

The early 1980s brought Williams the role of Lando Calrissian, which he played in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Calrissian's charm proved to be popular with audiences and Williams now had a substantial fanbase within the science fiction genre as well. He reprised this role when he lent his voice for the character in the 2002 video game Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, as well as the audio dramatization of Dark Empire, the National Public Radio adaptation of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and two productions for the Star Wars: Battlefront series: Star Wars: Battlefront II and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron. (However, the appearance in Battlefront II was archive footage and it is unknown whether it was him or another actor in the role of Calrissian in Elite Squadron however he appears through Archive footage for that games full-motion sequences). Between his appearances in the Star Wars films, he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone as a cop in the critically acclaimed film Nighthawks. He co-starred in 1989's Batman as district attorney Harvey Dent, a role that was planned to develop into Dent's alter-ego, the villain Two-Face, in sequels (including a pay or play contract that would have guaranteed Williams the chance to play Two-Face). Unfortunately for Williams, that never came to pass; he was set to reprise the role in a more villainous light in the sequel, Batman Returns, but his character was deleted and replaced with original villain Max Shreck. When Joel Schumacher stepped in to direct Batman Forever, where Two-Face was to be a secondary villain, Schumacher decided to pay Williams' penalty fee to hire Tommy Lee Jones for the part.^[7]

Television[link]

Williams's television work included a recurring guest-starring role on the short-lived show Gideon's Crossing. He has had a brief cameo in the TV show Scrubs Season 5, where he plays the godfather of Julie (Mandy Moore). Turk hugs him, calling him "Lando," even though he prefers to be called Billy D. He is also well known for his appearance in advertisements for Colt 45 (a brand of malt liquor) in the 1980s and early 1990s, for which he received much criticism. Williams responded indifferently to the criticism of his appearances in the liquor commercials. When questioned about his appearances, he allegedly replied by saying, "I drink, you drink. Hell, if marijuana was legal, I'd appear in a commercial for it."^[8]

Williams was paired with actress Marla Gibbs on three different TV shows: The Jeffersons (Gibbs's character, Florence, had a crush on Williams and challenged him on everything because she thought he was an impostor); 227 (her character, Mary, pretending to be royalty, met Williams at a banquet); and The Hughleys (Gibbs and Williams portrayed Darryl's parents).

In 1992, he portrayed Berry Gordy in The Jacksons: An American Dream.

In 1993, Williams had a guest appearance on the spin off to The Cosby Show, A Different World as Langston Paige, a grumpy landlord.

Williams made a special guest appearance on the hit sketch comedy show, In Living Color, in 1990. He portrayed Pastor Dan in an episode of That '70s Show. In this episode entitled "Baby Don't You Do It" (2004), his character is obsessed with Star Wars, and uses this to help counsel Eric Forman (himself a major Star Wars fan) and Donna Pinciotti about their premarital relationship.

Williams made a cameo appearance as himself on the TV series Lost in the episode "Exposé". He also appears regularly on short clips on the Jimmy Kimmel Live as a semi-parody of himself.

He is portrayed - although he does not do the voice for his own character - in the 2007 Family Guy episode Road to Rupert as representing the 'cool side of the pillow' ^[9]

He played Toussaint Dubois for General Hospital: Night Shift in 2007 and 2008. Williams reprised his role as Toussaint on General Hospital itself beginning in June 2009.

Also in 2009 he took on the role of the voice of Admiral Bitchface the head of the military on the planet Titan in the Adult Swim animated series Titan Maximum.

In July 2010, Williams appeared in the animated series The Boondocks, where he voiced a fictionalized version of himself in the episode "The Story of Lando Freeman".

In February 2011, Williams appeared as a guest star on USA Network's White Collar as Ford, an old friend of Neal Caffrey's landlady June, played by Diahann Carroll.

Other ventures[link]

Music[link]

In 1961, Williams ventured into the music industry when he recorded a jazz LP produced by Prestige Records entitled Let's Misbehave, on which he sang several swing standards. The album, which was a commercial success at the time, made Williams eligible for an appearance in the legendary Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983).

Video games[link]

Williams voiced Lando Calrissian in the video game Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars Battlefront as well as the spin-off Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (however, the Battlefront appearances were archive footage and his voice-appearance in Elite Squadron is left uncredited or unknown). He also played a live-action character, GDI Director Redmond Boyle, in the game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, which was released in March 2007. This made him the second former Star Wars actor to appear in a Command & Conquer game, with the first being James Earl Jones as GDI General James Solomon in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun.

Internet[link]

In 2008, Williams reprised his role as Lando Calrissian to appear in a video on FunnyOrDie.com in a mock political ad defending himself for leader of the Star Wars galaxy against vicious attack ads from Emperor Palpatine. The video is titled "Vote for Lando Calrissian! w/ BILLY DEE WILLIAMS"^[10] Billy Dee is currently a cast member of Diary of a Single Mom, a web based original series directed by award-winning filmmaker Robert Townsend. The series debuted on PIC.tv in 2009.^[11]

Art[link]

Even before he began acting, Williams attended the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design in New York. In the late 1980s, he resumed painting. Some of his work can be seen at his online gallery BDW World Art. He has had solo exhibitions in various galleries around the U.S., and his work hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian Institution, and The Schomburg Museum. The covers of the Thelonious Monk Competition programs since 1990 are by him. He was also on the Martin Lawerence show.

Personal life[link]

Marriages and family[link]

Williams has been married three times:

First to Audrey Sellers, with whom he had a son Corey (b. 1960). They were divorced some years later, after which he apparently became quite depressed. ".... there was a period when I was very despondent, broke, depressed, my first marriage was on the rocks."^[12]

Williams was briefly married to actress Marlene Clark in the late 1960s, and divorced in 1971.

He married Teruko Nakagami on December 27, 1972. She brought a daughter, Miyako (b. 1962), from her previous marriage to musician Wayne Shorter. They have a daughter Hanako (b. 1973). They filed for divorce in 1993,^[13] but were reported to have reconciled in 1997.^[14][15]

Legal problems[link]

Williams was arrested on January 30, 1996 after allegedly beating his live-in girlfriend, whom the Police did not identify.^[16] He was freed from custody the following day after posting a $50,000 bail.^[17] Williams stated through his attorney that he expected to be fully exonerated of the charges.^[18] The Los Angeles city attorney's office filed misdemeanor charges of spousal battery and dissuading a witness against Williams.^[19] The woman, identified only as 'Patricia', later stated the incident was her fault and that she hoped the police would drop the case.^[20] In a plea bargain agreement to dismiss the charges, Williams was ordered to undergo 52 counselling sessions.^[21]

Filmography[link]

Video game work[link]

• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (As Lando Calrissian)^{[citation needed]}
• Star Wars Battlefront II (Archive Footage) (As Lando Calrissian)
• Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (Possibly Archive Footage) (As Lando Calrissian)
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (As GDI Director Redmond Boyle) For his performance as Boyle, Williams himself ranked Game Informer's eighth biggest dork of 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Books[link]

• PSI/Net (1999), ISBN 978-0-312-86766-9
• JUST/In Time (2001), ISBN 978-0-8125-7240-7
• Twilight: A Novel (2002), ISBN 978-0-312-87909-9

Further reading[link]

• Nishikawa, Kinohi. "Billy Dee Williams." The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. Ed. Hans Ostrom and J. David Macey, Jr. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 1742-43.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Billy Dee Williams

• Billy Dee Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Dee Williams at the Internet Broadway Database
• Billy Dee Williams at Internet Off-Broadway Database