Even at 70, Billy Dee still a leading man
Kam Williams
William December Williams Jr. — better known by his nickname, Billy Dee — was born on April 6, 1937 in Harlem, N.Y., where he was raised by his parents, William, Sr., a janitor, and Loretta, an elevator operator. The young man exhibited considerable promise both as an artist and as an actor early in life, and attended the prestigious Music and Art High School in Manhattan.
The famously handsome thespian’s big break came in 1971 in the acclaimed television movie “Brian’s Song,” where he played Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers opposite James Caan. He immediately followed up that impressive performance with another as Billie Holiday’s husband in “Lady Sings the Blues,” which co-starred Diana Ross. The two would appear together again years later in “Mahogany.” Full story
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Satirical cartoonist Bendib a madman on a ‘Mission’
Kam Williams
“‘Mission Accomplished’ is about point of view. The cartoons invert the U.S. media reality … by focusing on disputes and debates in human terms. For the typical American, this book’s point of view is a world turned upside down. The modern-day princes and potentates, the wealthy investors and powerful politicians, are stripped of their pretensions and placed in context of their effects on vast numbers of individual human beings.
Bendib’s cartoons scramble a deck that has been stacked by the demagogues and crusaders who feel they must diminish the humanity of others to exalt their own. No wonder he can lay claim to being ‘America’s most censored political cartoonist.’” Full story
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