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12/10/1972 Drama, Music 2h 24m
69
User score

Diana Ross is Billie Holiday. Diana Ross sings Billie Holiday. And a superstar is born.

Overview

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday, beginning with her traumatic youth. The story depicts her early attempts at a singing career and her eventual rise to stardom, as well as her difficult relationship with Louis McKay, her boyfriend and manager. Casting a shadow over even Holiday's brightest moments is the vocalist's severe drug addiction, which threatens to end both her career and her life.

  1. Sidney J. Furie

    Director

Top billed cast

  1. Diana Ross

    Billie Holiday

  2. Billy Dee Williams

    Louis McKay

  3. Richard Pryor

    Piano Man

  4. James T. Callahan

    Reg Hanley

  5. Paul Hampton

    Harry

  6. Sid Melton

    Jerry

  7. Virginia Capers

    Mama Holiday

  8. Yvonne Fair

    Yvonne

  9. Isabel Sanford

    The Madame

  10. View more

Full Cast & Crew

Reviews

A review by CinemaSerf
Written by CinemaSerf on 2025-07-05
I’ve never really be an huge fan of Diana Ross’s voice, but there’s no getting away from her personable and visceral performance here as the flawed jazz musician Billie Holliday. With Motown’s Berry Gordy at the helm it was always going to lead on the music and it does that effectively too for the most part whilst giving us the basic bones of her turbulent battle with narcotics. We start in that position so often inhabited by aspirational young black Americans, a poverty stricken environment where sex was all too often the way young women made a living, before she gets that lucky break...read the rest
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Status
Released

Original Language
French

Budget
$2,000,000.00

Revenue
$19,726,490.00

Keywords