Gregory Hines

Date of Death: August 09, 2003 (57)

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BIO

Gregory Hines was a jazz tap dancer, singer, actor, musician and choreographer as well as an avid improviser of tap steps, tap sounds, and tap rhythms alike. His improvisation was like that of a drummer, doing a solo and coming up with rhythms. He also improvised the phrasing of a number of tap steps, mainly based on sound produced.

Hines made his Broadway debut with his brother in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954. He earned Tony Award nominations for Eubie! (1979), Comin' Uptown (1980), and Sophisticated Ladies (1981), and won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Jelly's Last Jam (1992) and the Theatre World Award for Eubie!. Hines co-hosted the Tony Awards ceremony in 1995 and 2002.

In 1981, Hines made his movie debut in Mel Brooks's History of the World, Part I. He had a large role in The Cotton Club (1984), where he and his brother Maurice (in Maurice's sole film credit) played a 1930s tap-dancing duo reminiscent of the Nicholas Brothers.

Hines co-starred with Mikhail Baryshnikov in the 1985 film White Nights, and co-starred with Billy Crystal in the 1986 buddy cop film Running Scared. He starred in the 1989 film Tap opposite Sammy Davis Jr. (in Davis's last screen performance). He appeared alongside Whitney Houston and Loretta Devine in the highly successful 1995 film Waiting to Exhale and opposite Houston, Denzel Washington and Courtney B. Vance the following year in The Preacher's Wife. On television, he starred in his own sitcom in 1997, The Gregory Hines Show, which ran for one season on CBS, and had a recurring role of Ben Doucette on Will & Grace.

Hines died of liver cancer on August 9, 2003.

Photos

Alexandria Lowery and Gregory Hines

Date:

07/06/2012

From: Photo Flash: First Look at Lake Worth's HAIRSPRAY, Opening 7/6

STAGE CREDITS

Jelly's Last Jam

[Broadway]

Original Broadway Production, 1992

Jelly Roll Morton

Twelfth Night or What You Will

[Off-Broadway]

1989

Feste

Sophisticated Ladies

[US Tour]

National Tour, 1982

Featured Performer

Sophisticated Ladies

[Broadway]

Original Broadway Production, 1981

Performer

Featured Performer

Black Broadway

[Off-Broadway]

Off-Broadway Production, 1980

Performer

Comin' Uptown

[Broadway]

Original Broadway Production, 1979

Scrooge

Eubie!

[Broadway]

Original Broadway Production, 1978

Performer

The Girl in Pink Tights

[Broadway]

Original Broadway Production, 1954

Shoe Shine Boy

Productions

Jelly's Last Jam

[Broadway, 1992]

Choreographer

Blues in the Night

[Off-Broadway, 1980]

Choreographer

Awards and Nominations

Outer Critics Circle Awards - 1993 - Best Actor - Musical

Gregory Hines - , Jelly's Last Jam