A handsome, suave often mustachioed leading man, Billy Dee Williams briefly inherited the mantle from Sidney Poitier as the leading black actor in films. Because of his strong masculine presence and innate poise, he was often touted as the 'black Clark Gable', especially after his co-starring role in "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972), opposite Diana Ross.

Born William December Williams Jr in Harlem, he began his career as a child, thanks in part to his mother, an elevator operator at Broadway's Lyceum Theater. When she discovered that a production of "The Firebrand of Florence" starring Lotte Lenya