cont,
 BLACK DEATH
 BLAXPLOITATION

Q:  You played some of your most despicable villains in  Blaxploitation films where you were usually exterminated by the black superhero.  The villains in these movies were almost exclusively  white, the casts were predominately black.  They were made in the Black Power '70's.  As a white actor, did you ever feel any racial tension?
Bill:  No, not at all.  I was killed in Hammer and Boss Nigger by Fred Williamson.  We had a great time with our fights.  We went down to Arizona to film Boss with R.G. Armstrong.  He had a lot of urban, black kids on the set.  They were falling off their horses like Neville Brand did in Laredo -- only they weren't drunk, of course.  Fred and I had a great fight scene in that, more than one

Q:  Was that prop stuff they were throwing on you?
Bill:  Oh no.  They were throwing pans, bottles, bricks, mattresses.  Hell, they were throwing refrigerators.  It was all real.  [Pause]  Well, so I guess there was a little bit of racial tension.  Not from the other actors.  But those guys on the roof were just extras.  I think they only got about $20 a day.  They were really trying to hit the white actors.  That part of the scene was real.  [A clip showing the white actors in the street]  Look at me.  I was so mad, man.  That son of a bitch was trying to hit me there.
Q:  They were trying to hit one of the stars?
Bill:  They didn't care.

Bill:  [pointing to one of the stunt men falling off a roof]  That's Terry Leonard there.  He broke his back in that scene.  He came back though.  Tough guy.

Bill:  Rockne Tarkington was really a nice guy.
Q:  Doesn't look as tough as Fred Williamson though.
Bill:  Oh, he was a big guy.  He weighed more than I did.  And a muscular guy, a basketball player.  Weighed about 250, about 6'5".  He was good in that fight scene.
Q:  Good at fighting or good at not getting hurt?
Bill:  Well, there's always a few times you get each other, but nothing like Amber.  He said that our fight  scene was more fun than anything he'd ever done

Bill:  [Reacting to clip in which he's biting Tarkington's ear.]  There, I'm doing a Mike Tyson.  That's probably where he got the idea.

Q:  Don't you hate it that you are always the one getting beaten up?
Bill:  Only in the last scene.  I usually get to beat up enough people before the end to make it even out.
Q:  In this one you even beat up your girlfriend.
Bill:  Yeah, I loved that. [gloating]
Q:  But she was a tiny little girl.
Bill:  But she'd been messing with him [indicating Tarkington's character].  I had to hit her.

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A little Rich Man, Poor Man aside:

Q:  Some of us who missed it the first time around, just found a copy of Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, the series that followed the mini-series.  In the last episode, Falconetti and Jordache kill each other in an alley.  A very bleak ending.  We've heard you say that some people were really upset that you killed Nick Nolte in the original mini-series.
Bill:  Oh yeah.  Someone shot at me.  A woman tried to attack me with a  bottle.  Some people just lose touch with reality or just don't have enough going on in their own lives..
Q:  So how did people take it when you killed Peter Strauss in the second go-around?
Bill:   Well, since he killed me too, they couldn't blame me for it.  But that ending was criticized a lot.  It was very controversial.  Actually we filmed the ending two ways.  When Peter Strauss decided not to come back, they ran the one where we both died.  I guess they decided there wouldn't be a strong enough hero if he left.
Q:  Well, certainly no one strong enough to stand up to Falconetti.