Month: April 2007

Dear Editor,

Few things are finer than reading the paper on a Sunday morning, cup of joe in hand, gnawing on a toasted bagel, and reading the letters to the editor in the sports section. Actually, nevermind–I get aggravated and concerned about the ultimate fate of humanity when I read some of these letters, a fact which gives me great anxiety and spoils my morning. Here are two such letters which my reading of led to a 6% decrease in my mental capacity:

The Sabres better get Ryan Miller straightened out or they will not get too far in the playoffs.

He lets too many easy shots get by him. Against Atlanta there was no one in front of him for about 15 feet and he let two goals in.

I still have no faith in him. Good luck.

Ed Kopias
Buffalo

And I’ve lost faith in humanity, Ed; thanks for that. Go ogle over Dominik Hasek and his stellar stats in Detroit; I’ll stick with a 40-win goaltender backstopping the team with the best record in the NHL.

Time marches on in this exciting hockey season. Despite injuries, Buffalo keeps on winning. Everything is going well except for one annoying question. Why is it that Daniel Briere and Chris Drury are still being ignored as far as next season is concerned?

Martin Biron and Jiri Novotny are gone, and the locker room is not disrupted, as Darcy Regier predicted.

My advice to Tom Golisano is to call Larry Quinn and Regier into his office and fire these two clowns. Sign Lindy Ruff to a 10-year contract and then get a higher echelon that knows how to run a hockey franchise, and watch the Sabres prosper.

Joe Mullen
Cheektowaga

Joe, I’d like to sign you to a 10-year contract with a state psychiatric facility. I’ll even throw in a leather recliner and a 42″ plasma TV, on which you can watch the Sabres’ playoff run–a 100+-point team constructed by none other than Darcy Regier.

Billy Dee!

Lando CalrissianWelcome to the all-new BillyDeeWilliams.com, the site dedicated to being the definitive resource for all things Billy Dee!

Billy Dee Williams (born William December Williams Jr. on April 6, 1937 in New York City) is an American actor who for a period in the 1970s rivaled Sidney Poitier as the most popular African-American actor in American film. Williams graduated from Manhattan’s School of Performing Arts.

His first big break was in the acclaimed television movie, Brian’s Song in which he played Gale Sayers. His next hit came in 1972 when he played Billie Holliday’s husband Louis McKay in Motown Productions’ Holliday biopic Lady Sings the Blues. Diana Ross starred in Lady Sings the Blues opposite Williams; Motown paired the two of them again three years later in Mahogany.

Arguably, his most famous role is Lando Calrissian, which he played in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Williams had originally auditioned for the role of Han Solo during the casting of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. He later reprised this role, when he lent his voice for the character in the 2002 video game Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, as well as the audio dramatization of Dark Empire.

Williams appeared in numerous other films, most recently lending his voice to Oedipus (2004). One of his most notable roles was in 1989’s Batman as district attorney Harvey Dent. Williams originally took the role believing that it would land him in a sequel playing the supervillain Two-Face, but the studio did not use him when the time came for the third installment, Batman Forever. Instead, the part of Harvey Dent/Two-Face went to Tommy Lee Jones.

William’s television work included a recurring guest-starring role on the short-lived show Gideon’s Crossing. He has had a brief cameo in the hit TV show Scrubs season 5, where he plays the godfather of Julie. He is also well-known for his appearance in advertisements for Colt 45, a low-cost brand of malt liquor, for which he received much criticism. Williams responded indifferently to the criticism of his appearances in the liquor commercials. When questioned about his appearances he was quoted as saying, “I drink, you drink. Hell, if marijuana was legal, I’d appear in a commercial for it.”

Colt .45

He also plays a live action character, GDI Director Redmond Boyle, in the video game Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, making him the second former Star Wars actor to appear in a Command and Conquer game.

Billy Dee Williams also portrayed Pastor Dan in an episode of “That 70’s Show.” In this episode entitled “Baby Don’t You Do It”(2004) his character is obsessed with “Star Wars”, and uses this to help counsel Eric and Donna about their premarital relationship.

Williams made a cameo appearance as himself on the TV series Lost in the episode “Exposé”.

Filmography

* The Last Angry Man (1959)
* Black Brigade (1970)
* The Out-of-Towners (1970)
* Brian’s Song (1971)
* The Final Comedown (1972)
* Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
* Hit! (1973)
* The Take (1974)
* Mahogany (1975)
* The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
* Scott Joplin (1977) as Scott Joplin
* Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as Lando Calrissian
* Nighthawks (1981)
* Chiefs (1983) (TV miniseries)
* Marvin and Tige (1983)
* Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) as Lando Calrissian
* Fear City (1984)
* Number One with a Bullet (1987)
* Deadly Illusion (1987)
* Batman (1989) as Harvey Dent
* Secret Agent OO Soul (1990)
* Driving Me Crazy (1991)
* Giant Steps (1992)
* Martin (TV series) (1992)
* Alien Intruder (1993)
* Steel Sharks (1996)
* The Prince (1996)
* Moving Target (1996)
* Mask of Death (1996)
* The Contract (1998)
* Woo (1998) (cameo)
* The Visit (2000)
* The Ladies Man (2000)
* 18 Wheels of Justice (2000) (TV series)
* Very Heavy Love (2001)
* Good Neighbor (2001)
* The Last Place on Earth (2002)
* Undercover Brother (2002)
* Oedipus (2004) (short subject) (voice)
* That 70’s Show (2004) (TV Series) (one time appearance) as Pastor Dan
* Scrubs (2004) (cameo)
* Hood of Horror (2006)
* Constellation (2007)
* Lost as Himself