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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
The Lee Matthews Podcast more What You Hear

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Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. He's
had such a long and illustrious career on

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stage and film, I'm just wondering
if he could fit it all in one

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memoir. Billy D Williams joining us
now with the debut of his only memoir,

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his first memoir, What have We
here? Greetings Billy D Williams.

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Yeah, I oh, great to
have you along. Let's go back to

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the beginning of Billy you were I
mean, how did a little boy born

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in the midst of the Depression in
Harlem, New York get into acting?

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Well, my mommy, mommy was
a beautiful young woman who had great aspirations

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and dreams of being a movie star. And she was studied OFT for for

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many years, but she was working
at the Liceum Theater UH as a an

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elevator operator and also a secretary.
She became a secretary because she studied UH

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to be a secretary. But they
were Max Gordon and UH and uh uh

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oh, my brain's not working.
But anyway, the the UH producers,

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these producers and and UH managers of
Broadway managers had an office at the Lyceum

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Theater and they were doing a production
of Kurt Vile Kurt File production. Kurk

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Viild was people who don't know who
he is, and I'm showing an awful

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lot of people don't know who he
is. But he was. He wrote

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with Grip brick Free Penny Opera and
anyway he was. They were doing a

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musical uh that was uh, written
by h. Courtville and his wife,

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Lenya, was playing the one of
the central characters in the play, and

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he needed a little boy to play
the She played the Duchess. It was

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all of the story was about ben
Venudo Celini, who was like a great

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Renaissance sculptor who was a swashbuckling kind
of characters. And the character that Lenya

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was playing was the Duchess, and
they needed a little page boy to be

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a page boy to the duchess.
And my mommy me had me, and

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so they had me come and uh
and uh she took me to to audition

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and I uh. They had me
walk across state one time, walked plus

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stayed two times and they said,
thankability, we don't need you to walk

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across the stage anymore. And I
decided that I wanted to do it.

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The third time I got became obviously
at that strange, little wonderful moment,

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I had become smitten by the whole
idea of being on stage. Anyway,

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I started crying, and uh and
I always say I cried. I cried

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my way into so time. So
that's not it all. And this in

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the book, well I imagine it
is. And for those who don't know

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Lottie Lenya, I think everybody realizes
her as Rosa kleb and from Russia with

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love, but I don't think they
realized just how much of a stage veteran

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she was. Oh yeah, well, you know, they all came from

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Germany, you know, and they
left Germany during those years when hip hop

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came along, and uh, either
I guess they all either went to England

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or they came here to the United
States of court Vile and Lenya. I

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ended up here because this play was
right just right after that, Yeah,

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Bull de Bostle. Yeah, and
then Three Penny Opera was what where they

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got their their worldwide renown, I
imagine, right, yeah. Yeah.

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Billy D. Williams, his his
memoir is what Have We Here? Portraits

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of a Life? It is out
now. And then, Billy, your

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career prospered with your first film,
The Last Angry Man. All right,

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yes, with Muni. Paul Muni, great Paul Muni, one of the

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greatest actors this country's ever produced.
He became a mentor to you, did

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he not? Yeah? You know
Reuni? Uh, Well, that was

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my very first movie, and working
with I mean it was fortuitous to be.

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When I think of my career and
how it evolved and the kind of

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people who found myself surrounded by,
I feel like I was really truly given

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a gift and always wondered, although
I think I understand why I was specifically

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given the gift of working with these
people because I had I'm I would consider

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myself a relatively open person, and
I've led an eclectic life, which also

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contributes to the being an open person. I had the opportunity to talk to

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people and to relate to people that
who had very who had very evolved ideas

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about how to approach the art of
acting, the art of paintings and things

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of that nature. So really working
with Beauty was used to have great talks

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about if you're an actor, you
can play any role you want to play.

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You know, you know, don't
get yourself. You're admired into this

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whole world of of you know,
one thing or the other. But if

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you are capable, you can do
anything you want to do. And that

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point of view was something that is
resonated and and I've lived with all of

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my life in terms of how I
put for a character. I mean,

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when I played Orlando in Orlando,
when I heard when I heard the name,

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and even with Olivier when I used
to talk to Olivier, but when

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I heard the name cal Risian,
I thought, wow, that's in our

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median name. Yeah, you know, and I thought, wow, no,

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let me see what I can do
with that. And then of course

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when I got the cap that was
Aero Flynn's time. So the combination of

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the two, you know, it
was. I took those two ideas and

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try to make something bigger than life, beyond just the question of everybody sitting

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around arguing about you know, racial
and things of that nature. I mean,

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I kind of get bored with all
that kind of stuff. I think

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that your energy should be used for
waste. If you want to disagree with

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things, you know, find ways
to combat it, find ways to work

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around it through it, and you
certainly did too, especially at a time

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when theater and film were starting to
experiment and open their eyes to newer and

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different things to do it. You
never let your career get bogged down in

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that, Billy D Williams. The
name of the memoir is what have We

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Here? Portraits of a Life.
It is out now everywhere you get books,

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and thank you for bringing it to
us and joining us today, Billy

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D Williams. Well, I have
a great day. Thanks for listening to

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Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee
Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to

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The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five
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