Short answers, pulled from the story.
Billy Dee Williams played Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise, first appearing in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. He reprised the role in Return of the Jedi in 1983 and again in The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, one of the longest intervals between an actor's onscreen portrayals of the same character in American film history.
Billy Dee Williams made his Broadway debut in March 1945 at age seven, portraying a page in The Firebrand of Florence, Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's operetta starring Lotte Lenya. His mother, who worked at the theatre, volunteered him for the part.
In Brian's Song (1971), Williams played Chicago Bears star Gale Sayers, who stood by his terminally ill teammate Brian Piccolo, played by James Caan. Both actors received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for best actor, and Williams called it the role of which he was most proud.
Yes, Billy Dee Williams is a painter who originally pursued art before acting. He won a Hallgarten Prize in the mid-1950s and a scholarship to the National Academy of Fine Arts and Design. By 2019 he had produced around 300 paintings, and his 1993 self-portrait is held at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
Billy Dee Williams and Diana Ross starred together in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), the Academy Award-nominated Billie Holiday biopic, where Williams played Holiday's husband Louis McKay. Motown paired them again in Mahogany (1975).
Williams played Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) under a one-picture deal, with the character intended to become Two-Face in sequels. His character was cut from Batman Returns, and when Joel Schumacher took over Batman Forever, he cast Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. Williams eventually voiced Two-Face in The Lego Batman Movie in 2017.