Han Solo. Luke Skywalker. Princess Leia. Darth Vader. When people think of Star Wars characters, these are usually the first to come to mind. Yet, they can never hope to reach the pinnacle of cool that is Lando Calrissian.

Many people would argue that he is a secondary character, a supporting role, if you would. Many of these people also run around obsessing over characters that are in the film for all of two seconds. Cough cough Boba Fett cough cough. Just kidding, I love Boba as much as the next man. But all kidding aside, what's not to like about Lando? He has everything a character should offer.

Remember his first appearance, where we see him threaten Han in a joking matter, or his "Hellooo what have we here?" to Leia? That's smooth. Lando smooth.

Some would say he is a betrayer, but what choice did he have? Risk losing the lives and livelihood of Bespin citizens or "cooperate" with Vader?

But in the end, he did the right thing. He helped his friends escape and rescued Han. But then he went the extra mile and became a Rebel general, and got to fly the Falcon and blow up the Death Star. His narrow escape from the exploding station and susbsequent "Yeeeehaaa!" have only been ripped off in every movie since then. But that's how cool he is.

I've always been a fan of Lando, and back in eigth grade (quite a while ago) I talked my teacher into something. It was Black History Month, and while the other kids did reports on Dr. King and Michael Jordan, I did mine on Lando Calrissian. Oh yeah....I'm cool and suave just like him.....convincing a teacher to do a history report on a fictional character.

So here's to Billy Dee Williams for bringing to life a great character, Lando Calrissian.