Posted on 08/11/2003 5:57:15 AM PDT by presidio9
Gregory Hines, who died Saturday of cancer, got a Tony nomination in '81 for 'Sophisticated Ladies.' He won in '92 for 'Jelly's Last Jam.'
Hines, performing at the New York City Tap Festival in 2001 ...
... played a tap dance star in 'The Cotton Club' in 1984.
Breathtaking tap dancer Gregory Hines, who dazzled on Broadway and in films and television while always insisting he was "just a hoofer at heart," died Saturday of cancer. He was 57. His death at his Los Angeles home stunned the tap-dancing world and many of those close to him.
"Nobody knew he was sick," his longtime representative Allen Eichhorn said yesterday. "People are horrified. We all thought he was just busy, as he usually was, with his projects."
LeRoi Myers, 83, one of the last old-time tap dancers, called the news of Hines' death "shocking. . . . [But] it was typical. He didn't want anyone fussing over him."
New Yorkers had expected Hines in town last month for the annual Tap City festival but he said he was busy with a film.
There were few areas of entertainment in which Hines was not busy, from emceeing the 2002 Tony Awards with Bernadette Peters to singing with Luther Vandross. As an all-around entertainer, he was often compared with Sammy Davis Jr.
Praise from director
"He was the last of a kind of immaculate performer - singer, dancer, actor and personality," said George C. Wolfe, who directed him in "Jelly's Last Jam" on Broadway. "He knew how to command."
"His heart and soul went into everything he did," said Peters. "He had amazing creativity." Born in Brooklyn on Valentine's Day 1946, Hines was dancing on stage at age 4. When he was 8, he played two weeks at the Apollo with his brother and father.
He did stunning work for the 1984 film "The Cotton Club," though most of his dances were cut, and he won a Tony for "Jelly's Last Jam" (1992) after being nominated for "Comin' Uptown" (1979) and "Sophisticated Ladies" (1981).
Had sitcom in '70s
His movie credits included "White Nights" (1985) with Mikhail Baryshnikov, and on TV he had his own sitcom, "The Gregory Hines Show" (1997), and a recurring role on NBC's "Will and Grace." He won several Emmy nominations, including for the Bill Robinson movie "Bojangles" on Showtime (1999).
His decade-long struggle to film "Bojangles" reflected his passion for tap. "The story of his [Robinson's] life has to be told," Hines said. "The rest of us all walk a trail he blazed."
Hines linked old-time hoofers like his idol Harold Nicholas to newcomers like Savion Glover, a protege. The two became close, and Hines would joke that in competitions, "Sometimes I have to let the kid win."
A well-spoken, self-effacing man with a warm manner and eyes that could flit from mischievous to basset-hound- sad, Hines had a complex, on-and-off relationship with his former dancing partner and brother, Maurice.
At Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem, where he often ate, Tykeysha Keitt, 32, of Queens recalled seeing him at the Apollo.
"If you can dance alongside Sammy Davis Jr., you're wonderful," she said. "I'm devastated."
Hines is survived by his fiancee, Negrita Jayde, his father Maurice Sr., his brother, his daughter Daria, his son Zach and his stepdaughter Jessica.
Private services will be held in Los Angeles. A public memorial is expected later.
Stage
"Jelly's Last Jam," 1992
"Sophisticated Ladies," 1981
"Comin' Uptown," 1979
"Eubie!" 1978
"The Girl in Pink Tights," 1954 Film
"Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her," 2001
"The Preacher's Wife," 1996
"Waiting to Exhale," 1995
"Renaissance Man," 1994
"A Rage in Harlem," 1991
"Tap," 1989
"Running Scared," 1986
"White Nights," 1985
"The Cotton Club," 1984
"History of the World: Part I," 1981 TV
"Lost at Home," 2003
"Bojangles," 2001
"Little Bill," 1999
"Will & Grace," 1998
"The Gregory Hines Show," 1997
"Gregory Hines: Tap Dance in America," 1989
"Motown Returns to the Apollo," 1985
"I Love Liberty," 1982
RIP Gregory, you will be missed.
Thanks, Mr. Hines.
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