Star Wars has a lot of great characters, but few are as cool as Lando Calrissian. An entrepreneur, a hustler, a gambler, and a flirt, Lando is a guy who seizes opportunities and is a hero when it counts. Billy Dee Williams first played Lando in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, becoming the first Black actor to have a main role in the franchise.

Williams, who just celebrated his 88th birthday, is still an important fixture in the Star Wars fandom. He was born William December Williams Jr. on April 6, 1937, in New York City. Early in life, Williams and his twin sister were exposed to art and culture through theater, painting, and his mom’s attempts to break into opera and movies. Williams graduated from the LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts in 1955 where he focused on visual art. He had a scholarship to the National Academy of Fine Arts and Designs and made his Broadway debut in A Taste of Honey and The Cool World in 1960.

His onscreen career began in 1959’s The Last Angry Man, followed by TV appearances on The Defenders, The Doctors and the Nurses, Guiding Light, and Another World. Williams was in The Out of Towners, episodes of Mod Squad and Mission: Impossible, and he played real life football player Gale Sayers in Brian’s Song. Then, he starred in Mahogany, Scott Joplin, and The Hostage Taker before starring in The Empire Strikes Back.

Williams’ next role was in Nighthawks, then he played Lando again in Return of the Jedi, he was in a few episodes of Dynasty, Number One with a Bullet, and The Return of Desperado TV movie. In 1989, he played Harvey Dent in Batman, and a few years later, he played Berry Gordy in The Jacksons: An American Dream. He was in the North & South miniseries, The Ladies Man, and starred in the series 18 Wheels of Justice.

He was in Undercover Brother, Fanboys, he had a recurring role in Diary of a Single Mom, and guest starred in NCIS. Williams voiced Two-Face in The Lego Batman Movie, did an episode of And Just Like That…, and most recently he voiced Landolorian in LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy.

Williams voiced Lando in the Star Wars: Dark Empire video, Star Wars video games, the Star Tours experiences, The Lego Movie, and Star Wars: Rebels. He played himself in episodes of Martin, Scrubs, Key and Peele, and Modern Family, and voiced himself in The Boondocks and Scooby-Doo and Guess Who.

Throughout his career, Williams has also been a painter. His self-portrait is at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, he painted a series of portraits of the Tuskegee Airmen, and he illustrated lithographs of Lando Calrissian. Williams also tried his hand at music with a jazz album in 1961, and in the early 1990s, he sang on the celebrity charity single, “Voices that Care.”