Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gregory Oliver Hines |
Gregory Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was a Tony Award-winning American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer.
Born Gregory Oliver Hines in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. Together with their father the three were known as "The Hines Kids" and later as "The Hines Brothers" only to have the name change again in 1963 to "Hines, Hines and Dad".
Hines appeared in such movies as The Cotton Club, White Nights, Running Scared, and Tap. On television, he starred in his own series in 1997 called The Gregory Hines Show, as well as in the recurring role of Ben Doucette on Will & Grace.
Hines made his Broadway debut with his brother in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954. He earned Tony Award nominations for Eubie!, Comin' Uptown and Sophisticated Ladies, and won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for the revue Jelly's Last Jam and a Theatre World Award for Eubie!.
In 1990, Hines visited with his idol, Sammy Davis, Jr., as the great entertainer lay dying of throat cancer, unable to speak. After Davis died, a choked-up Hines spoke at Davis's funeral of how Sammy had made a gesture to him, "as if passing a basketball … and I caught it." Hines spoke of the honor that Sammy thought that Hines could carry on from where he left off.[1]
Hines died of liver cancer in Los Angeles, California. He was engaged to bodybuilder Negrita Jayde at the time of his death.
Filmography
- History of the World: Part I (1981)
- Wolfen (1981)
- Deal of the Century (1983)
- The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) (Cameo)
- The Cotton Club (1984)
- White Nights (1985)
- Puss in Boots (1985 Faerie Tale Theatre episode)
- Running Scared (1986)
- Off Limits (1988)
- Tap (1989)
- Eve of Destruction (film) (1991)
- A Rage in Harlem (1991)
- Kangaroo Court (1994) (short subject)
- Renaissance Man (1994)
- Dead Air (1994)
- Waiting to Exhale (1995)
- Good Luck (1996)
- Mad Dog Time (1996)
- The Preacher's Wife (1996)
- Subway Stories: Tales From the Underground (1997)
- The Tic Code (1999)
- Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000)
- Once in the Life (2000)
- Walter and Henry (2001)
- Bojangles (2001)
- Venice: Lost and Found (2002) (documentary)
- The Root (2003)
- Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photography of Milt Hinton (2004) (documentary)
References
For The Record: Gregory Hines by Richard C. Lynch, published in ShowMusic: The Musical Theatre Magazine, 1994
References
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002138/ http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,63,00.html http://www.eonline.com/celebrities/profile/index.jsp?uuid=25173c14-abe6-4658-9d58-4ebd668d2e17
External links
- Gregory Hines at IMDb
- Blog of Death obituary
- "Tapping into history." Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice. August, 2003.
- TonyAwards.com Interview with Gregory Hines