Gregory Hines

He received many accolades, including a Daytime Emmy Award, a Drama Desk Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for a Screen Actors Guild Award and four Primetime Emmy Awards.

Savion Glover is recorded as having studied under Gregory Hines. The recorded working language is English. Distinctions recorded are Theatre World Award, Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.

• Name — Gregory Hines • Birth Name — Gregory Oliver Hines • Born — 14 February 1946 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 9 August 2003 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Resting Place — Saint Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery Oakville, Ontario, Canada • Occupation — * Dancer • actor • choreographer • singer • Years Active — 1948–2003 • Partner — Negrita Jayde (2000–03) • Children — 2 • Relatives — Maurice Hines (brother)

Hines was born in New York City, on February 14, 1946, to Alma Iola (Lawless) and Maurice Robert Hines, a dancer, musician, and actor, and grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem. He began tap dancing when he was two years old, and began dancing semi-professionally at age five. After that, he and his older brother Maurice performed together, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang. Gregory and Maurice also studied with veteran tap dancers such as Howard Sims and The Nicholas Brothers when they performed at the same venues. The brothers were known as The Hines Kids, making nightclub appearances at venues in Miami, Florida, with Cab Calloway. They were later known as The Hines Brothers. When their father joined the act as a drummer, their name changed again in 1963 to Hines, Hines, and Dad.

Hines was 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 to fit the unfolding sound. A laid-back dancer, he usually wore loose-fitting pants and a tighter shirt. Although he inherited the roots of traditional black rhythmic tap, he also promoted contemporary black rhythmic tap. "He purposely obliterated the tempos," wrote tap historian Sally Sommer, "throwing down a cascade of taps like pebbles tossed across the floor. In that moment, he aligned tap with the latest free-form experiments in jazz and new music and postmodern dance." Throughout his career, Hines wanted and continued to be an advocate for tap in America. He successfully petitioned the creation of National Tap Dance Day in May 1989, which is now celebrated in forty cities in the United States, as well as eight other nations. He was on the board of directors of Manhattan Tap, a member of the Jazz Tap Ensemble, and a member of the American Tap Dance Foundation, which was formerly called the American Tap Dance Orchestra. In 1989, he created and hosted a PBS special called Gregory Hines' Tap Dance in America, which featured various tap dancers such as Savion Glover and Bunny Briggs. In 1990, Hines visited his idol (and Tap co-star) Sammy Davis Jr., who was dying of throat cancer and was unable to speak. After Davis died, an emotional Hines spoke at Davis' funeral of how Davis made a gesture to him, "as if passing a basketball... and I caught it." Hines spoke of how honored he had been that Davis thought that he could carry on from where Davis left off. Through his teaching, he influenced tap dancers such as Savion Glover, Dianne Walker, Ted Levy, and Jane Goldberg. In an interview with The New York Times in 1988, Hines said that everything he did was influenced by his dancing: "my singing, my acting, my lovemaking, my being a parent."

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 performed as the lead singer and musician in a rock band called Severance based in Venice, Los Angeles, in 1975 and 1976. Severance was one of the house bands at an original music club called Honky Hoagies Handy Hangout, otherwise known as the 4H Club. Severance released their self-titled debut album on Largo Records (a subsidiary of GNP Crescendo) in 1976. In 1986, he sang a duet with Luther Vandross called "There's Nothing Better Than Love", which reached the No. 1 position on the Billboard R&B charts. Encouraged by his first success on the chart, Hines subsequently released his self-titled debut album on Epic in 1988 with much support from Vandross. This album produced a Vandross-penned single "That Girl Wants to Dance with Me", which peaked at #6 on the R&B charts in June 1988.

Hines co-hosted the Tony Awards ceremony in 1995 and 2002.

Hines' marriages to Patricia Panella and Pamela Koslow ended in divorce. He had a daughter, Daria, with Panella, and a son, Zachary with Koslow. For the last three years of his life, he was engaged to bodybuilder Negrita Jayde, who was based in Toronto.

Hines died of liver cancer on August 9, 2003, en route to a hospital from his home in Los Angeles. He was diagnosed with the disease a year earlier, but informed only his closest friends. At the time of his death, production of the television show Little Bill was ending. He was survived by his fiancée Jayde, children Daria and Zachary, stepdaughter Jessica, and grandson Lucian. His funeral was held at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California. He was buried at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Oakville, Ontario.

• Finian's Rainbow (1968) – Child Extra • Sesame Street (TV) (1979–80) – Himself • History of the World, Part I (1981) – Josephus • Wolfen (1981) – Coroner Whittington • Deal of the Century (1983) – Ray Kasternak • The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) – Roller Skater • The Cotton Club (1984) – 'Sandman' Williams • White Nights (1985) – Raymond Greenwood • Faerie Tale Theatre: "Puss in Boots" (1985) – Edgar • Amazing Stories: (TV) "The Amazing Falsworth" (1985) – Falsworth • About Tap (1985) – Himself • Running Scared (1986) – Detective Ray Hughes • Off Limits (1988) – Albaby Perkins • Tap (1989) – Max Washington • Gregory Hines' Saigon (1987) – Himself • Gregory Hines' Tap Dance in America (1989) – Himself • Eve of Destruction (1991) – Colonel Jim McQuade • A Rage in Harlem (1991) – 'Goldy' • White Lie (1991) – Len Madison Jr. • T Bone N Weasel (1992) – 'T-Bone' • Dead Air (1994) – Mark Jannek / Jim Sheppard • Renaissance Man (1994) – Sergeant Cass • Kangaroo Court (1994) • Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (1995, Episode "Beauty and the Beast") – The Beast / Prince Koro (voice) • A Stranger in Town (1995) – Barnes • Waiting to Exhale (1995) – Marvin King • Good Luck (1996) – Bernard 'Bern' Lemley • Mad Dog Time (1996) – Jules Flamingo • The Preacher's Wife (1996) – Joe Hamilton • The Cherokee Kid (1996) – Jedediah Turner / The Undertaker • Subway Stories: Tales From the Underground (1997) – Jack (segment "Manhattan Miracle") • The Gregory Hines Show (1997–98) – Ben Stevenson • Blue's Clues (1999, Episode Blue's Big Treasure Hunt) – Jack • The Tic Code (1999) – Tyrone Pike • Will & Grace (TV) (1999–2000) – Ben Doucette • Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (2000) – Robert (segment "Fantasies About Rebecca") • Who Killed Atlanta's Children? (TV) (2000) – Ron Larson • Once in the Life (2000) – Ruffhouse • Bojangles (2001) – Bojangles • Venice: Lost and Found (2002) – Himself • The Red Sneakers (TV) (2002) – Zeke • Law & Order: (TV) "Suicide Box" (2003) – Carl Helpert • Lost at Home (TV) (2003) – Jordan King • The Root (2003) • Little Bill (TV) (1999–2004, until his death) – Bill 'Big Bill' (final television appearance) • Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photography of Milt Hinton (2004) – Himself • Love That Girl, Sally (2004) – Fred (final film role; dedicated production)

Gregory Hines is recorded as having received Theatre World Award, Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.

• | Year — | Award — | Category — | Work — | Result • 1982 — Primetime Emmy Award — Outstanding Individual Achievement - Special Class — I Love Liberty • 1985 — Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program — Motown Returns to the Apollo • 1989 — Tap Dance in America • 2001 — Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie — Bojangles • 2003 — Daytime Emmy Awards — Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program — Little Bill • Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special — The Red Sneakers • Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special

• | Year — | Category — | Work — | Result • 1986 — Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture — Running Scared • 1988 — Off Limits • 1989 — Tap • 1996 — Waiting to Exhale • 1998 — Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series — The Gregory Hines Show • 2002 — Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special — Bojangles

• | Year — | Category — | Work — | Result • 1979 — Best Featured Actor in a Musical — Eubie! • 1980 — Best Actor in a Musical — Comin' Uptown • 1981 — Sophisticated Ladies • 1992 — Jelly's Last Jam • Best Choreography

• | Year — | Award — | Category — | Work — | Result • 1989 — Theatre World Award — Eubie! • 1992 — Drama Desk Award — Outstanding Actor in a Musical — Jelly's Last Jam • Outstanding Choreography • 1998 — Flo-Bert Award — Lifetime Achievement Award — Himself • American Comedy Awards — Funniest Male Guest Appearance in a TV Series — Will & Grace • 2000 — Online Film & Television Association Award — Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series • 2002 — Black Reel Awards — Outstanding Actor, TV Movie or Limited Series — Bojangles • Screen Actors Guild Awards — Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie