Tap dance idol Gregory Hines, star of TV, stage and screen, dies

Jet, August 25, 2003

Gregory Hines, lauded by critics and fans alike as the greatest tap dancer of his generation, recently died of cancer in Los Angeles. He was 57.

Hines, who also was a recording artist, choreographer and director, enjoyed tremendous success in such hit movies as Cotton Club, Running Scared and Waiting to Exhale as well as on the small screen in his own short-lived series, and with a recur ring role on the long-running sitcom "Will and Grace."

His death shocked and surprised many because unlike many illnesses of celebrities in Hollywood, it was kept completely secret from entertainment peers and fans. CNN reported that Hines' publicist was not even aware his client was sick and called the death "sudden and unexpected."

Certainly, he kept the tap art form viable and exposed it to several generations, but Hines gave audiences tremendous energy and acting diversity, ranging from comedy in Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I and The Preacher's Wife to his depiction of a con man in A Rage in Harlem.

He made his directorial debut in 1994 in the independent movie Bleeding Hearts.

And there were plenty of roles that showcased those swiftly pounding feet. He co-starred with Russian dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov in White Nights, a movie that had the two acting and dancing. He also was featured in the 1989 movie about tap called Tap, which also featured Savion Glover, the dancer to whom many felt Hines passed his torch.

Hines' tap career began more than 50 years ago when he and older brother Maurice wowed audiences around the country with their effortless mastery of tap. Reportedly, his mother urged the boys to dance as a way out of the ghetto.

One of the brothers' early stops was the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem where they performed for two weeks when Gregory was 6. In 1954, the brothers hit the "big white way" as they were cast in the Broadway musical The Girl in Pink Tights. The duo later was joined on the drums by their father (Maurice Sr.) and became known as Hines, Hines and Dad. The trio appeared on the top programs of the times, including the "Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Tonight Show."

The brothers danced together in the smash Broadway revue Eubie! in 1978 and again on the big screen in Cotton Club.

Hines also appeared on Broadway in Sophisticated Ladies and won a coveted Tony Award for his role as legendary jazz musician "Jelly Roll" Morton in Jelly's Last Jam in 1992.

A Daytime Emmy Award came his way in 1999 when he was honored for his voice in the animated television series "Little Bill." He received an Emmy nomination for his role in Bojangles, a television biography about one of his major idols, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Other movie-acting roles included The Muppets Take Manhattan, Renaissance Man and Deal of the Century. His tapping was also showcased on the television specials "I Love Liberty," "Motown Returns to the Apollo" and "Gregory Hines' Tap Dance in America." All three of those programs received Emmy nominations.

Hines often pointed out that he was inspired by the hoofing of Sammy Davis Jr., the Nicholas Brothers and "Bojangles" Robinson. Shortly before Davis died, JET witnessed a severely weakened Davis symbolically passing the tap torch to Hines at his home in Beverly Hills.

"I don't remember not dancing," Hines told the Associated Press two years ago. "When I realized I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance."

George C. Wolfe, who directed Hines in Jelly's Last Jam, said, "He was the last of a kind of immaculate performers-a singer, dancer actor and personality. He knew how to command."

Broadway star Bernadette Peters, who co-hosted the 2002 Tony Awards with Hines, issued a statement that said: 'His dancing came from something very real. It came out of his instincts, his impulses and his amazing creativity. His whole heart and soul went into everything he did."

Glover wrote in his book Savion: "For me, knowing Gregory is like knowing you have a pops but not meeting him until you're 20, and it turns out he's been very cool all this time ... That relationship made it easy for me to, like, complete my education as a tap dancer."

The L.A. Times reported that arguably Hines' greatest importance was bridging the nightclub tradition of his mentors and the kind of stardom that no Black tapper had enjoyed since Robinson's heyday in the 1930s.

At the time of his death, Hines was engaged to Negrita Jayde. In addition to his father and brother, he is survived by his daughter Daria, son Zach, grandson Lucian, and stepdaughter Jessica Koslow.