Want to know the best Billy Dee Williams movies? How about the worst Billy Dee Williams movies? Curious about Billy Dee Williams box office grosses or which Billy Dee Williams movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Billy Dee Williams movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Billy Dee Williams (1937-) is an American actor, artist, and singer. Williams is best known for his role as Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars film franchise, first appearing in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Williams has also appeared in critically acclaimed films like Brian’s Song (1971), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Mahogany (1975), Nighthawks (1981), and Batman (1989). His IMDb page shows over 145 acting credits since 1952. This page will rank Billy Dee Williams movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles and movies that were not released in North American and a handful of his movies that we could not find box office on, were not included in the rankings.
Billy Dee Williams Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Billy Dee Williams Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Billy Dee Williams movies by his co-stars
- Sort Billy Dee Williams movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Billy Dee Williams movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Billy Dee Williams movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Billy Dee Williams movie received.
- Sort Billy Dee Williams movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Best IMDb Trivia on Billy Dee Williams
1. William December Williams was born in New York City in 1937.
2. Billy Dee Williams was an accomplished art student even before his acting career began. Has had professional gallery showings where his oil canvases have sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
3. Billy Dee Williams originally auditioned for the role of Han Solo in 1976. He was cast as Lando Calrissian in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back.
4. Billy Dee Williams was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1984.
5. Billy Dee Williams accepted the role of D.A. Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) with the knowledge and expectation that Dent would eventually become Two-Face; he reportedly had a clause put into his contract reserving the role for him in any sequels, which Warner Bros. had to buy out so they could cast Tommy Lee Jones.
Check out Billy Dee Williams’ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Emmy®, Tony® and Golden Globe® are also registered trademarks.
I have seen 4 Billy Dee William movies.
The Out-of-Towners is my only favourite.
I have also seen:
Batman
Lady Sings the Blues – great film, but a real downer
The Last Angry Man
Last week TCM had a night of Motown Pictures and I recorded Mahogany. It is waiting for me.
Hey Flora. Thanks for sharing your movie thoughts on Billy Dee Williams. Tally count:Cogerson 10, Steve 6, Bob 5 and Flora 4. I have seen The Out of Towners…but do not remember his brief role in that one. I am betting it was like Stallone’s appearance in one of the early Woody Allen movies. I have also seen Batman. I hope you enjoy watching Mahogany….seen parts of that movie….but not from beginning to end. Good stuff as always.
Amazing that Billy Dee [who has 2 more Star Wars films at post-production stage] has now been acting in movies for 60 years, since I was just 18! As the first table above faithfully reflects his debut film was The Last Angry Man which starred Paul Muni, whose last film it was. Muni was one of Hollywood’s great prestige actors and was the idol of Marlon Brando who claimed that Paul was “The greatest actor I have ever seen”. Brando and Muni co-starred on the stage in 1946’s A Flag is Born, four years prior to Marlon debuting in movies.
Actually Billy Dee made his overall acting debut aged 8 on Broadway in 1945 in the Firebrand of Florence when I was aged just 4, so his accumulated acting career has lasted an unbelievable 74 years to date!
I have seen 5 of Billy Dee’s movies and my favorite among them is Nighthawks, one of the few films in which Stallone gave a performance that I could admire. Rutger Hauer whose Hollywood film debut it was joined Sly and Billy Dee in providing fine entertainment for my money.
Billy Dee’s contribution to entertainment has been diverse: on top of his movie career his other ventures include music, video games, stage productions, and a staggering 66 television productions/TV movies all of one kind or another between 1966 and 2017. So without doubt he is an entertainment “work horse” who has in my opinion more than earned his Cogerson page. He has a current reported net worth of $9 million. “Voted Up!”
CIRCULAR DAN! Stallone acted with Billy Dee, who appeared with Muni, who co-starred on stage with Brando, whose Streetcar Stanley, Sly wished to emulate, but was talked our of doing so by author Tennessee Williams.
In my previous post I mentioned that Billy had two Star Wars projects in post-production. That maybe seemed unusual since it is not the rule that two additions to a big franchise are waiting in the can at the same time, though it can happen. 1978’s Superman and 1981’s Superman 2 were shot simultaneously for economy of costs.
Brando was in both but they eventually cut his footage out of the 1981 sequel to avoid paying him another massive ‘Gimme More’ type % of the profits; though as Christmas is just around the corner Bruce might like to warm up for getting into the Xmas spirit by allowing The Great Mumbler Superman 2’s grosses.
Anyhow the situation as I understand it is as follows regarding Billy’s Star Wars post production projects:
20 Dec 2019 release: The Rise of Skywalker [movie- includes archives Carrie Fisher footage]
Release Date TBA: Detours [TV series. I think they use Billy’s voice from back in 2012]
I apologize if I got guys like The Work Horse and Steve all worked up for nothing; certainly there has never been enough of those Star Wars feature films made!
Thanks for the clarification on the two Billy Dee Williams Star Wars appearances. I agree….this has happened before…and will continue to happen in the future. As for Carrie Fisher….I am hoping they do not “Peter Cushing” her role…..he looked so weird in Star Wars 7. Pretty sure Steve will be alright….lol.
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for the thoughts on Billy Dee Williams.
2. Tally count….Cogerson 10, Steve 6, Bob 5 and Flora 4…..victory for me…doing the happy dance.
3. It is pretty amazing that Williams can connect us to the golden age of method actors…with Muni being the idol of the great Brando…who is idol of some many others…from other actors to lots of fans.
4. Good trivia about Billy’s Broadway debut at 8….I did not see that when I was looking up trivia for him.
5. I liked Nighthawks as well…..but Williams was easily the third wheel in that one…as Stallone and Hauer took all the attention.
6. Thanks for the Vote up…..and for the Circular Dan comment.
Good stuff as always.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for the feedback. I agree\ with you about 3rd wheel, but Billy still interesting to watch.
Lando Calrissian gets a UMR page, nice.
I’ve seen just 6 of the 26 films on the list, less than I thought. Favorites are – The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Batman, The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie and Nighthawks.
Did not realise his career went all the way back to 1959, wow.
I’ve watched bits of Brian’s Song on youtube. I’ve read much over the years about the ability it has to make grown men cry. The only time I sobbed at the cinema was when the Starship Enterprise exploded in Star Trek III, why why why? [bursts into tears] 😉
Looking forward to seeing Billy Dee reprise his iconic Star Wars role this Xmas.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve…..why did you have to bring up the Enterprise exploding in Star Trek III….now I can not type because my eyes are tearing up so much…lol. Then again…it seems like the Enterprise blows up in all the Star Trek movies these days.
Ok….on to Billy Dee. I have seen 10 of his movies….though I barely remember his role in Fanboys. I am right there with you on your favorites. His voice roles in the LEGO movies are pretty brief….but they are fun movies….and his two on the best LEGO movies.
Yep…he has been appearing in movies for 60 years……Star Wars 9 will be made exactly 60 years after The Last Angry Man. He connects Paul Muni who won his Oscar over 80 years ago with young pups like Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley.
As for Brian’s Song….a good movie….but I do not imagine a movie about American football would get you too wound up….but…James Caan’s death scene and Billy Dee’s speech to the locker room are pretty emotional. Good stuff as always.
Solid acting career enjoyed his early movie lady singing the blues, Bingo Long and also he played a great role as Gale Sayers in Brian’s Song. And who can forget those Colt 45 commercial.
Hey George. Thanks for the feedback on Mr. Billy Dee Williams. If you look back on his career….Bingo Long pretty much represented the end of his leading man roles. After that movie his next movie was The Empire Strikes Back, which was followed by Return of the Jedi….both supporting roles…and covered almost ten years. Since then his movies have mainly been low budget quickly forgotten roles. Luckily…as he reached his 80s….he seems to be have a slight comeback. Two LEGO voice roles and his return to the Star Wars movie will certainly put him back in the spotlight. Good stuff.
“Sidney Poitier was the first romantic black superstar whose popularity didn’t hinge on ethnic parts. No one has come along to fill the void, but Billy Dee Williams seems to be a likely candidate. He finally got his first big break in the hugely successful The Empire Strikes Back. Recently seen in Return of the Jedi, Williams’ future is limitless if talent, charisma and charm are prerequisites.” -1983
Rating The Movie Stars Billy Dee Williams 4 Star Performances
1972’s The Lady Sings The Blues
1976’s Bingo Long’s Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings
1980’s The Empire Strikes Back
Not thinking Billy Dee Williams reached the heights Joel predicted…but he has had a pretty solid career….and returns to the Star Wars world in this Christmas’ new Star Wars movie. I have seen 10 of the movies listed in the above table…including his entire Top 5.