Hopefully, that will change :)
Anywho, on this Memorial Day, I've decided to write about someone who, according to Hollywood, might as well be dead: the sexy, incomparable, Billy Dee Williams.
Question:
As Louis McKay in the Oscar Nominated "Lady Sings the Blues"
to this coonerific bull?
As some homeless ninja in some chitlin' circuit mess.
Now, For all of my (white) brethren who don't know what the "Chtilin Circuit" is, it was once the only medium by which black playwrights could get most of their work in front of audiences. Now? Oh now, Tyler Perry's plays are actually the BEST of what the circuit has to offer. (The only time you'll ever hear "Tyler Perry" and "best" in the same sentence, excepting those times I say "Tyler Perry does the BEST job of making our people look like effin' coons.")
Back to Billy Dee. You may not remember now that his star has fallen so, but Billy Dee was THE man. Dynasty, every Motown Movie ever made, The Jacksons TV movie, that mean old man on A Different World...he was friggin Lando Calrissian, for goodness' sakes! Yeah, Star Wars, b*tches.
That means desperate middle aged white women loved him, all black women taught their daughters to marry men just like him, gave Michael Jackson a beat, and firmly secured the top spot as the favorite black man of every conference-crazed costumed nerd that ever lived.
But now he's playing homeless men in plays about silly people. And he doesn't even star. WTF?
Billy Dee has of course fallen victim to the fate of most black actors: they get love few and far between while they're hot, and even if their star rises, there is typically an expiration date on their career that hits a good 20 years before their white counterparts. Sir Michael Caine gets knighted and still plays great, Oscar-worthy parts and he's 198. Helen Mirren is 77+89 years old and she still gets to play "sexy bad-ass with gun." And Sean Connery? Sean Connery could get it win pretty much get any role he wants. I'm watching him right now in Just Cause (on Netflix, negroes...of course) in which he stars with the great Laurence Fishburne (ignore his daughter.) Something tells me Sean Connery will continue to work long past his equally talented counterpart.
But just because black actors get no love doesn't mean they have no talent, as I'm sure believers in the meritocracy would argue (like those dangerously silly idiots who actually believe anti-white bias is now greater than anti-black bias). Sure, we have a few bankable stars around whom they'll build a movie: Will Smith...Beyonce on certain days...Denzel...then Will Smith again. Then we have some recognizable stars with whole heaps of talent but who usually get the "And" roles. Think about it: Jennifer Aniston, That kind of funny guy from SNL, and Jamie Foxx; a whole bunch of white people, and Queen Latifah. Viola Davis plays everybody's favorite prostitute's BEST friend, and she STILL gets near bottom billing in 'Eat, Pray, Love.' She damn near steals the show (and the Oscar) in 'Doubt'--away from Meryl Streep, which is no small feat, and yet she only gets best friend, 4th billing status? Something is very wrong with this picture.
Black Hollywood is teeming with talented Black woodchucks, but the spend the prime of their careers playing the sassy best friend, funny sidekick, wise waitress or cameo criminal. Then, as they age, they get "wise granny in Tyler Perry movie" and "wise granny in Tyler Perry movie." Put Angela Basset in another "What's Love..." scale movie, do it EVERY DAY, and then I'll stop complaining.
So Hollywood, and all you Hollywoodchucks, take note: put a little Billy Dee in something. Throw him a bone. He's still got it! He may have put on a few pounds, but the hair still slicks and the smile still sparkles. And he still has that growwwwwwwwwwwwl that'll make ya mama salivate.
You are missed, Billy Dee.
Rise, Black Actors! Rise!
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