Actor Billy Dee Williams, who played Lando Calrissian in the original Star Wars trilogy, has embraced gay-related rumors about himself, adding, “My daughter was very happy to think that I was gender fluid!”
“I’ve been called a ‘Closet Queen,’ but I don’t pay much attention to any of that,” Williams told Page Six of the gay rumors that he says could have put his career at risk in the 1970s.
Notably, the actor recently released a memoir, titled, “What Have We Here?,” which talks about his career that has spanned seven decades, as well as the celebrities he met during his time in the industry, such as Marlon Brando, James Baldwin, Laurence Olivier, and Angela Lansbury.
In his memoir, Williams says he was always comfortable being around members of the LGBTQ community, and that he has even attended secret gay parties in the basement of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
“It all seemed very normal to me,” the Harlem native said. “I was around it all of my life, so I never really gave it much thought.”
Williams also reminisces in his book about a recent conversation he had with his daughter in which they discussed prominent psychiatrist Carl Jung’s “anima and animus” theory, referring to what is believed to be the feminine part of a man’s personality, as well as the masculine part of a woman’s personality.
“I told my daughter about it,” the Lady Sings the Blues actor said. “I was talking about why men should get more in touch with the female side of themselves and then my daughter told me — the first time I ever heard the phrase — gender fluid.”
“My daughter was very happy to think that I was gender fluid!” Williams exclaimed.
The actor also touched upon the current conversation that’s going on in the public sphere regarding “gender,” saying that he finds it all “really amusing, to say the least.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
