Hello, my name's Justin LeClew and I'm here today with Will the Hammer Sloan.

Oh no, you're taking Fred the Hammer Williamson's name, Will. Have you no shame?

Hey, listen, he's not the only person who's known for hammering

their opponents on the football field, you know? When you're talking about black exploitation,

I think one of the top names is Fred Williamson, especially one who was the most prolific

out of all the big major actors during that wave of film. And one of the only ones who's still working to this day pretty much, you know, I remember

it was in 2015, Fred Williamson came to Toronto for an event called the Toronto Black

Film Festival. And he was accepting an award. It was called something like the Pioneer Award,

or maybe it was the first annual

Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, you know, something

like that. And I remember when he, when he accepted the award, he said something like, I'm very

honored. I'm very happy to be getting this award from a Canadian institution, especially

considering I haven't got one from an

American institution, you know, with a certain edge to his voice, which is interesting. And I think

he's got a point, you know, because he is a pioneer. And more than just that, though, he's a guy

who had incredible longevity in his career. Maybe after 1975, there's a limit to how many of his

movies were great, but nevertheless, he not just starred in, but continued directing and

producing his own movies all around the world on the strength of his name during times when,

I mean, virtually no other black stars had that

kind of set up. And he mostly did it on his own, though. We'll talk about it, but he did start

working in kind of mid-budget studio productions. And eventually when that dried up, he went on

his own path, directed and produced his own films.

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