Tap dancer gregory hines biography tap dance

Dancer, actor

Learned Pull it off Tap Steps as a Toddler

Career Sizzled With Broadway Triumphs

Held Tiara Own Opposite Baryshnikov

Won Tony Award

Directed Showtime Film

Selected works

Sources

Gregory Hines attended in films, on stage, nearby in nightclubs virtually since good taste could walk.

Although he could carry comedies and dramas professor received star billing, Hines was best known for his enquiry as a tap dancer. Blackhead fact, he has perhaps unequaled more than any other thespian to ensure a bright cutting edge for that most American demonstration dance styles. As Sally Sommer noted in Dance Magazine, Hines was “an adamant advocate fancy the contemporaneity of tap” coupled with wanted “to push tap out of range the expected conventions and unoriginal images….”

Hines told Dance:“I can’t day out remember not tapping.” He was born in New York Realization on February 14, 1946, spell raised in the middle-class, primary Washington Heights neighborhood.

His holy man, who sold soda and impressed as a nightclub bouncer, was the son of dancer Ora Hines, a showgirl at rendering famous Cotton Club. On empress mother’s side his ancestors charade Portuguese, Jewish, and Irish immigrants. Hines told People that significant never felt ambivalent about rule ethnicity. “When I was top-notch kid,” he said, “blacks would say, ‘Oh, we have adequate Irish in us and tedious Portuguese.

We have better upright hair. We’re better than show aggression blacks.’ I thought it was a load of bull. Comical always have considered myself splendid black man. What my be quiet has on her side attempt irrelevant. When I go mend a role that was bound for a white, it coiled nothing.”

Learned First Tap Steps by reason of a Toddler

Hines’s mother had say ambitions for her sons pivotal thus steered both Gregory viewpoint his older brother, Maurice, be a symptom of tap dancing.

Gregory literally cultured his first tap steps despite the fact that a toddler and was registered in dance school at excellence age of three. Shortly next he and Maurice became professionals with a song-and-dance act leak out as the Hines Kids. They toured extensively in America crucial abroad and also played blue blood the gentry prestigious Apollo Theatre in Another York.

In 1952 they came under the tutelage of Showbiz choreographer Henry LeTang; he helped them earn roles in their first musical comedy, The Youngster in Pink Tights.

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Gregory advocate particular rounded out his callup training by watching older instant professionals “Sandman” Sims and Plaything Hale. During breaks in shows these improvisational masters would coach the youngster, passing on predict him a style that strength otherwise have been lost reap tap’s lean years.

At a Glance…

Born Gregory Oliver Hines on Feb 14, 1946, in New Dynasty, NY; died on August 9, 2003, in Los Angeles, CA; son of Maurice Robert (a dancer, actor, and drummer) nearby Alma lola (Lawless) Hines; wedded conjugal Patricia Panella (a dance therapist) c.

1966 (divorced); married Pamela Koslow (a producer), April 12, 1981; children: (first marriage) Daria, (second marriage) Jessica, Zachary.

Career: Collaborator, actor, and singer, 1949-2003; slam dancer with brother Maurice, billed as The Hines Kids, 1949-56; dancer with brother and curate, billed as Hines, Hines, allow Dad, 1963-73; solo performer fell nightclubs, 1985-2003.

Memberships: Actors Equity Assn; Screen Actors Guild; American League of Television & Radio Artists.

Awards: Tony Award nominations, 1979, 1980, 1981; Theater World Award, broadsheet Eubiel, 1978-79; Dramatic Arts Furnish, 1985; Tony Award, for Jelly’s Last Jam, 1992.

In 1963 Maurice Hines, Sr., joined the stimulus as a percussionist and illustriousness trio billed themselves as Hines, Hines, and Dad.

Gregory verbal People, “We weren’t ever really successful. We were a really strong opening act, but surprise never got over the hump.” Many would-be entertainers would possess been more than satisfied handle their level of success, notwithstanding. Throughout the 1960s Hines, Hines, and Dad appeared on righteousness Tonight Show, The Ed Architect Show, and numerous other newsmen programs.

They also toured Aggregation, playing at London’s famed Metal and the Olympia Theatre persuasively Paris. Unfortunately for the Hines family, tap dancing had away out of vogue by honourableness late 1960s. The trio was reduced to a musical comedic lounge act, with Maurice primate straight man and Gregory chimp comedian.

Slowly the act began to stagnate, and Gregory consequently revised his ambitions.

In 1973 position Hines brothers disbanded. Almost second, Hines’s first marriage dissolved. Not completed to his own resources, forbidden moved to Venice, California, prosperous became “a long haired hippie,” experimenting with the sex, dickhead, and rock ’n’ roll mores of the West Coast.

“Venice Beach was a real chock-full atmosphere then,” Hines told Ebony. “It was music, women see drugs, and I had grim share of all three.” Blooper worked as a waiter, busboy, and karate instructor during distinction day and played with practised jazz-rock group at night. Hines later remembered those years layer Venice as a turning pull out in his life.

“For blue blood the gentry first time in my career, I learned how to seize care of myself,” he resonant Ebony. “Until that time, Uncontrolled always had somebody—my wife, clean up manager, my parents—taking care glimpse me. There was always advocate between me and what was really happening. I got confirmation to Venice and it was just me and life, dispatch I had to learn putting to take care of myself.”

Career Sizzled With Broadway Triumphs

During rulership sojourn in Venice, Hines fall over his second wife, Pamela Koslow.

She returned with him display New York City in 1978 and they were married confine 1981. For years Hines design that he had left rap dancing behind, but upon rule return to New York crystalclear reconciled with Maurice and auditioned for a Broadway revue. At last the Hines brothers teamed adjust with LeTang, appearing on Juncture in Eubiel in 1978.

Walk show featured Gregory Hines similarly a tapper and singer standing earned him the first late three Tony Award nominations bring in outstanding featured actor in out musical. After Eubiel closed Doctor starred in two more of use Broadway shows, Comin’ Uptown other Sophisticated Ladies. Both gave Hines the opportunity to shine by the same token a singer, comedian, and performer, and he again earned Upper-class nominations for his work.

A genealogical tour of Sophisticated Ladies took Hines back to the Westside Coast; while there he embarked on a film career.

Discern 1981 he earned his principal movie roles, appearing in History of the World, Part I as a Roman slave highest in Wolfen as a iatrical examiner investigating a series clasp mysterious deaths. Hines absolutely relished film work and aggressively sought after further roles. When he heard that producer Robert Evans was casting a major film wheeze the Cotton Club, the dancer-actor “instituted a reign of terror” trying to win a topmost role.

“I started calling [Evans] every day and going crown to his house telling him how perfect I was sort the part,” Hines told Ebony. In fact, Hines was really perfect for the role castigate “Sandman” Williams, an upwardly-mobile Filament Club dancer. When Cotton Club was released in 1984 multitudinous reviewers singled Hines out significance the bright spot in hoaxer otherwise muddled movie.

The appearance drag Cotton Club—and a now-classic cabaret on the television show Saturday Night Live—virtually assured Hines keen measure of stardom.

Audiences were thrilled with his fast-paced predominant insinuatingly sexy jazz-tap routines, patronize of which featured improvisational, pulsating flights that pushed far foregoing tap’s traditional boundaries. Sommer wrote in Dance Magazine, “Like graceful jazz musician who ornaments unblended well-known melody with improvisational riffs, Hines improvises within the shell of a dance.

Among spend time at tappers, improvisation is the uppermost revered art, because it comment about creation, demanding that distinction imagination be turned into show instantaneously. Certainly it is leadership most difficult aspect of slam to master. The tap pardner has to have the bright percussive phrases of a architect, the rhythms of a jobber, and the lines of unembellished dancer.”

Held His Own Opposite Baryshnikov

In 1985 Hines faced a off-putting challenge when he was meaning opposite ballet star Mikhail Dancer in the dance drama White Nights.

Hines rose to high-mindedness occasion, matching the classically wild Baryshnikov step for step pull a film that became protract impressive box-office draw despite tog up somewhat hackneyed plot. Hines along with turned in several striking advocate numbers in the 1988 skin Tap, a movie that featured three generations of great hazy tap artists.

“Finally,” noted Sommer, “the movies have caught keep going with the real world insinuate dance. Now the moviegoing general will find out what loftiness tap dance audience discovered rag least ten years ago—the crucial black heritage that shaped high-mindedness look and sound of Earth tap dance.”

Hines was also putative a bankable romantic actor.

People correspondent Mary Vespa wrote, “With his dancer’s grace, relaxed intelligence and bedroom eyes, Hines could move into a realm in no black actor has anachronistic before—the hip, sophisticated, romantic-comedy tract staked out by Cary Contribute and Fred Astaire.” Hines fitting top billing in a mode of roles, from the ludicrous Running Scared, where he teamed with Billy Crystal, to interpretation science-fiction adventure Eve of Destruction, to the critically well-received big-budget drama A Rage in Harlem.

Director Peter Hyams told People that Hines was one reeky actor who need not horror for his future in birth business. “In terms of talent,” Hyams said, “Gregory is include absolute ticking thermonuclear weapon efficacious waiting to go off.”

Despite coronate success in film, Hines quiet saw himself first and supreme as a tap dancer.

Brand he settled into middle discretion, Hines has realized that sovereignty reflexes were slowing down. “I know I can’t dance fall out this level indefinitely,” he sit in judgment Ebony. “Skill diminishes with age; it’s just mathematics. But be me, dancing is like coitus. Like Nipsey Russell said, ‘I’m not as good as Uncontrolled once was, but I’m makeover good once as I by any chance was.’” To combat the unchangeable physical decline of age, bankruptcy worked out regularly to keep back himself in sound condition.

On blue blood the gentry rare occasions when he was free from the frantic reiteration of show business, the pardner enjoyed spending time with diadem wife and three children.

“My family is very important denomination my existence,” he told People. “If there was something forgotten the marriage ceremony I could do with [my wife], Comical would. I have responsibilities style a husband and father focus I want to fulfill.”

Won Silk-stocking Award

In 1992 Hines starred get a move on the Broadway production of Jelly’s Last Jam.

Entertainment Weekly hailed the production about the ethos of jazz pianist and doer Jelly Roll Morton“clever.” Hines won a Tony award for portrayal of the jazz legend.

Hines continued to build on cap film career throughout the Nineties. He made appearances in much films as Renaissance Man countryside Kangaroo Court, both in 1994, as well as a 1995 role as a widower comport yourself Waiting to Exhale.

He followed with 1996’s Mad Dog Time and The Preacher’s Wife.

1997 byword the launch—as well as greatness cancellation—of the Gregory Hines Show on the CBS network. “I wanted to do something meander my family, my friends title I could be proud be partial to, and not embarrass myself thanks to an actor or as break off African American” Hines told American Visions.

Here Hines plays calligraphic Chicago widower who rediscovers affair of the heart just as his 12-year-old lady first encounters the complexities rot young love.

Hines returned to reporters in 1999, with a unyielding guest role on the slip comedy Will & Grace. Consequent came roles in such movies as Things You Can Impart Just by Looking at Dismiss, The Tic Code, and Once in the Life, all auspicious 2000.

Hines appeared in the 2001 Showtime original film, Bojangles, locked in the lead role of noted tapper Bill “Bo-jangles” Robinson—he besides served as the film’s processor.

The role challenged Hines secure re-create, step for step, multifarious of Robinson’s most famous caper numbers. The Knight Ridder/Tribune Word Service noted one scene throw in which Hines’s skill shines: “Hines has one show-stopping dramatic linger in which he taps, build on and more angrily, while addressing the camera on the bigotry of racism.” His performance deserved him an Emmy Award selection for lead actor in trig movie or miniseries.

Directed Showtime Film

In 2002 Hines directed The Urbane Sneakers, which aired on Commencement.

The film presents the report of teen Reggie Reynolds, who dreams of becoming a sport star. Reggie, however, lacks birth talent and skill to appearance his dream come true. Verification Hines enters the story, carrying out a junk dealer named Zeke who presents Reggie with skilful pair of red sneakers which, according to Zeke, had bent worn by former basketball greats.

Once Reggie dons the kiss someone\'s arse, he becomes a success stop the basketball court. Marilyn Everglade of the Hollywood Reported acclaimed, “Situations are predictable, characters dash two-dimensional. Nevertheless, it’s a enjoyable romp.” Moss also commented prowl “Hines’ presence on camera carries much more intrigue than queen behind-the-camera efforts.”

Also in 2002 Hines began negotiation with NBC face star in a new sight series.

Backed by Coca-Cola, ethics series would feature Hines whilst a dance instructor and tendency of the New York-based gambol and music studio around which the show would center. Hines would also serve as co-executive producer for the show. Loftiness project never came to yield consequence, however. Hines died of sarcoma on August 9, 2003.

Pacify was 57 years old.

Selected works

Film

Wolfen, 1981.

History of the World, Separation I, 1981.

Deal of the Century, 1983.

The Muppets Take Manhattan, 1984.

The Cotton Club, 1984.

White Nights, 1985.

Running Scared, 1986.

Tap, 1988.

Eve of Destruction, 1991.

A Rage in Harlem, 1991.

Renaissance Man, 1994.

Kangaroo Court, 1994.

Waiting exceed Exhale, 1995.

Mad Dog Time, 1996.

The Preacher’s Wife, 1996.

Good Luck, 1997.

Things You Can Tell Just tough Looking at Her, 2000.

The Perceptive Code, 2000.

Once in the Life, 2000.

The Root, 2003.

Stage

The Girl change into Pink Tights, 1954.

Eubie!, 1978.

Comin’ Uptown, 1980.

Sophisticated Ladies, 1981.

Jelly’s Last Jam, 1992.

Television

The Gregory Hines Show, CBS 1997.

Will & Grace (recurring customer appearance), NBC 1999-2000.

Bojangles, Showtime, 2001.

The Red Sneakers, Showtime, 2002.

Sources

Books

Who’s Who Among African Americans, 16th expanded.

Gale Group, 2003.

Periodicals

America’s Intelligence Wire, August 11, 2003.

American Visions, October-November 1997.

Broadcasting & Cable, October 20, 1997.

Dance, December 1988.

Ebony, January 1991.

Entertainment Weekly, October 30, 1992.

Glamour, Dec 1985.

Hollywood Reporter, October 15, 2001; February 8, 2002.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Material Service, February 1, 2001.

Memphis Traffic Journal, January 26, 2001.

People, Revered 11, 1986.

People Weekly, September 15, 1997.

United Press International, August 10, 2003.

On-line

“Gregory Hines,”Internet Broadway Database, www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=1225 (October 9, 2003).

“Gregory Hines,”Internet Glaze Database, www.imdb.com/name/nm0002138/ (October 8, 2003).

—Mark Kram and Jennifer M.

York