Ottawa Comiccon 2016 – Billy Dee Williams

He may move a little slower these days, but Billy Dee Williams hasn’t lost one bit of the swagger and quick wit that made him a star. He took the stage at Ottawa Comiccon for a Q&A with fans and entertained us all with tales from his long and successful career.

Billy Dee has been in the business for over 50 years, starring in TV and film. Of course, we all know him as the roguish Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but did you know that he is an accomplished artist. He has paintings in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC and The Schomburg Museum in New York.

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE BILLY DEE WILLIAMS PANEL

Ottawa Comiccon doesn’t allow any recordings of their panels, but we were able to capture some great moments and quotes from Billy Dee. Here are a few of the best:

• When asked what he thought happened with Lando Calrissian, Billy Dee replied “He’s having a good time… He might not be as active with the ladies any more, but he’s still gambling and trying to put things together…. He’s pretty active”
• Has Billy Dee ever had a bad time on set? “Not really – I can’t think of any bad times on set. I’m an easy person to work with… My feeling is – you go to work, you get paid and you go home.”
• Billy was asked if he had seen Stars Wars: A New Hope before he went to do The Empire Strikes Back and if it blew him away.  He said yes but “It was the movie he made (referring to George Lucas) THX-1138 that really blew me away. I enjoyed the Star Wars movies and all those interesting characters, especially the bar scene. It was really quite different form anything that was being shown on screen at that time, but it was really THX-1138 that turned me on.”
• Another fan asked if there was a particular scene in Empire or Jedi that he enjoyed filming more than others and he simply replied “Well, what have we here?” in his best Lando voice.