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Gregory Hines 1946 - 2003

Gregory Hines was born on February 14, 1946 in New York, New York United States, and died at age 57 years old on August 9, 2003 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA.

Gregory Hines

Gregory Oliver Hines

February 14, 1946

New York, New York, United States

August 9, 2003

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States

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Gregory Hines Gregory Hines (1946 - 2003)

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Gregory Hines' History: 1946 - 2003

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Introduction

Gregory Hines Born February 14, 1946 in New York City, New York, USA Died August 9, 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA (liver cancer) Birth Name Gregory Oliver Hines Height 6' (1.83 m) Gregory Hines was born on February 14, 1946 in New York City, New York, USA as Gregory Oliver Hines. He was an actor, known for Running Scared (1986), History of the World: Part I (1981) and Waiting to Exhale (1995). He was married to Pamela Koslow and Patricia Panella. He died on August 9, 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Spouse (2) Pamela Koslow (12 April 1981 - 2000) ( divorced) ( 2 children) Patricia Panella (1968 - ?) ( divorced) ( 1 child) Trade Mark (1) An accomplished tap dancer. Many of his films feature his dancing
02/14

1946

Birthday

February 14, 1946

Birthdate

New York, New York United States

Birthplace

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Nationality & Locations

United States
Religious Beliefs

Protestant
Professional Career

Movie Star. Broadway Star. Night Club Star. Gregory Hines Born February 14, 1946 in New York City, New York, USA Died August 9, 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA (liver cancer) Birth Name Gregory Oliver Hines Height 6' Gregory Hines was born on February 14, 1946 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for History of the World: Part I (1981), Running Scared (1986) and Renaissance Man (1994). He was previously married to Pamela Koslow and Patricia Panella. He died on August 9, 2003 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Family (2) Spouse Pamela Koslow (12 April 1981 - 2000) (divorced) (1 child) Patricia Panella (1968 - ?) (divorced) (1 child) Parents Maurice Hines Sr. and Alma Hines. He was also an accomplished tap dancer & many of his films feature him dancing He grew up as a member of "Hines, Hines, and Dad" with his father, Maurice Hines Sr. and brother, Maurice Hines in a tap dancing act. (The first time I saw him in person was at the Playboy Club in Manhattan as part of Hines, Hines and Dad" and they were just spectacular tap dancing and singing. Great entertainers. He won a Tony in 1992 for "Jelly's Last Jam". Was the first choice to play the Eddie Murphy role in 48 Hrs. (1982) but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with The Cotton Club (1984). His own stage show has taken him from New York's Bottom Line to spots as far-flung as Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Japan and Monte Carlo. Father of Daria Hines with Patricia Panella, born in 1971. He had a reunion with brother Maurice Hines when they were both hired for the Broadway musical, "Eubie!" in 1978. (I met Eubie Blake so the show was exceptionally enjoyable.) It earned him a Tony nomination, as did his role in another musical, "Sophisticated Ladies". He and Maurice Hines were cast as brothers in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984), set in the Harlem club where their grandmother had been one of the elite black entertainers performing for a whites-only audience in the twenties and thirties. Coppola encouraged the brothers to improvise so they based one scene on their real-life reunion in "Eubie!" and admitted the tears were real. In the late '60s he decided to try his hand at performing rock 'n' roll music, and writing his own songs. Was aged six when he and brother Maurice Hines performed, as the Hines Kids, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Had his professional debut when only 5 years old. His mother's name was Alma. When he was in his twenties he worked on a farm. Buried in the family plot of Carmela and Michael Truszyk in St. Volodymyr's Ukrainian Catholic cemetery in Oakville, Ontario, west of Toronto. Was considered for the part of "Winston Zeddemore" in Ghostbusters (1984). Won Broadway's 1992 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "Jelly's Last Jam," for which he also shared a Best Choreographer nomination with Hope Clarke and Ted L. Levy. Gregory was also nominated for Tonys three other times: as Best Actor (Featured Role - Musical) in 1979 for "Eubie!", which he recreated in the television version with the same title, Eubie! (1981); and as Best Actor (Musical), in 1980 for "Comin' Uptown" and in 1981 for "Sophisticated Ladies." "There's nothing better than love" is a duet song he recorded with friend Luther Vandross back in the 80s. Gregory is known for his smooth silky voice and recorded his own self-titled album on Epic/Sony in 1987. In 1954 he and brother Maurice Hines they were cast in the Broadway musical "The Girl in the Pink Tights". Sings on the title track, "So Nobody Else Can Hear", of a recording by legendary jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb (Miles Davis' "Kinda Blue"). Appeared with Eubie Blake on a 1979 episode of Saturday Night Live (1975), hosted by Gary Busey. He sang two Eubie Blake songs and danced as well. Inducted into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2004. Hines made his feature film debut in Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I (1981). He was a last minute replacement for Richard Pryor, who had to cancel due to his freebasing accident. He was the son of Alma Iola (Lawless) and Maurice Robert Hines. Gregory's father was of African-American background. Gregory's maternal grandparents, Lionel Sidney Lawless and Bernice A. Walker, were from Trinidad and Saint Kitts. Gregory's mother had Afro-Caribbean, and smaller amounts of Welsh, Portuguese, English, and Irish ancestry. He was awarded the 1992 Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for Best Actor in a Musical for "Jelly's Last Jam" on Broadway. Hope Clarke, Ted L. Levy and he were awarded the 1993 New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography in a Musical for "Jelly's Last Jam" on Broadway in New York City. In 1985, Gregory Hines was paired up with Mikhail Baryshnikov, another well-known dancer at the time, in an Academy Award winning Taylor Hackford film called "White Nights". Pictured on a USA nondenominated "forever" postage stamp in the Black Heritage series, issued 28 January 2019. Price on day of issue was 55¢. Father of Zachary Hines with Pamela Koslow, born in 1983. Former stepfather of Jessica Koslow.
Personal Life & Family

Mr. Hines's marriages to Patricia Panella and Pamela Koslow ended in divorce. In addition to his father and brother, he is survived by his fiancée, Negrita Jayde; a daughter, Daria Hines; a son, Zach; a stepdaughter, Jessica Koslow; and a grandson.
08/9

2003

Death

August 9, 2003

Death date

Liver Cancer

Cause of death

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States
Death location

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Obituary

Gregory Hines, Versatile Dancer and Actor, Dies at 57 By JENNIFER DUNNING AUG. 11, 2003 Gregory Hines, the genial, suave dancer, singer and actor who for many personified the art of classical tap in the 1980's and 90's, died late Saturday on his way to a hospital from his home in Los Angeles. He was 57. The cause was cancer, said Yvette Glover, a longtime friend and the mother of the tap-dancer Savion Glover, who frequently described Mr. Hines as a mentor. Mr. Hines began dancing professionally as a young child but went on to become an unusually successful crossover actor in theater, film and television. He won a Tony Award as best actor in a musical in 1992 for his portrayal of Jelly Roll Morton, the pioneering jazz composer, his fourth Tony nomination as a performer, and he was host, with Bernadette Peters, for the Tony Award ceremony last year. He appeared in major films, including Francis Ford Coppola's ''Cotton Club,'' and ''White Nights,'' with Mikhail Baryshnikov, in which Mr. Hines played an American defector to the Soviet Union. He had his own sitcom, ''The Gregory Hines Show,'' on CBS in 1997 and played recurring characters on ''Will & Grace'' on NBC and ''Lost at Home'' on ABC. Mr. Hines never forgot his dance origins, however, and was a tireless advocate for tap in America. In 1988 he lobbied successfully for the creation of a National Tap Dance Day, now celebrated in 40 cities in the United States and in eight other nations. In his acceptance speech in 1996 for an award given him by Career Transition for Dancers at its annual benefit gala, he berated the gala's organizers for not including tap on the program. ''Anyone who has watched his superb virtuosity over the years would notice how the dancer's weight-shifting style is now ornamented with a jaunty rhythmic filigree,'' Anna Kisselgoff, dance critic of The New York Times, wrote of Mr. Hines's guest performance in 1995 in a benefit for Eliot Feld's New Ballet School. ''Visual elegance, as always, yields to aural power. The complexity of sound grows in intensity and range.'' Mr. Hines encouraged hosts of younger tap-dancers, including Mr. Glover, Dianne Walker, Ted Levy and Jane Goldberg, in their careers and frequently proclaimed the talents of the old-time stars. He was steeped in tap history from childhood. In his foreword to Rusty E. Frank's book, ''Tap!,'' Mr. Hines recalls an informal three-hour lesson in the history given him and his brother, Maurice, by the master dancer Bunny Briggs late one night as the two children lay in their bunk beds on a train speeding the three performers to an out-of-town show. Though he had had formal training in dance, Mr. Hines spoke often of the older stylists who influenced him in tap, an art that is largely handed down rather than taught. ''Gregory always thought of himself as a student with the old guys, Chuck Green, Jimmy Slyde, Buster Brown, Lon Chaney, all of the old hoofers, and Sammy Davis Jr.,'' Ms. Glover said. Ted Levy, one of Mr. Hines's protégés, described him as ''the Pied Piper of modern tap.'' Born in New York, Mr. Hines began training in dance at 3 with Henry LeTang and made his professional debut two years later with his older brother, Maurice Jr., in an act called the Hines Kids (later the Hines Brothers and, when his father, Maurice Sr., joined the act in 1963, Hines, Hines and Dad). Gregory Hines left the act in 1973 and formed a rock band called Severance in Venice, Calif. It was not until he reached his late 30's, Mr. Hines said in ''Gregory Hines's Tap Dance in America,'' a 1989 program in the public-television series ''Great Performances,'' that he began to ''relax and reach true expression.'' It was around that time, in 1978, that he had his first Broadway success, starring in the musical ''Eubie,'' for which he received his first Tony nomination. He followed up that success with Tony-nominated performances in ''Comin' Uptown'' (1980) and ''Sophisticated Ladies'' (1981), and had featured roles in two films that year, playing a Roman slave in his film debut in Mel Brooks's ''History of the World -- Part I'' and a coroner in ''Wolfen,'' an allegorical mystery directed by Michael Wadleigh. Mr. Hines was generally more successful on Broadway, establishing himself as a first-rate actor with his portrayal of Morton, a chill, egocentric genius, in ''Jelly's Last Jam.'' (He also shared a Tony nomination for choreography for that show with Hope Clarke and Mr. Levy.) But Vincent Canby, then senior film critic for The Times, singled Mr. Hines out as a noteworthy performer in 1984, writing of his ''rare screen presence'' in ''The Cotton Club'' in a description that captures Mr. Hines's essence. ''He doesn't sneak up on you,'' Canby wrote. ''He's so laid back, so self-assured and so graceful, whether acting as an ambitious hoofer or tap-dancing, alone or in tandem with his brother, Maurice, that he forces YOU to sneak up on HIM. The vitality and comic intelligence that have made him a New York stage favorite in 'Eubie' and 'Sophisticated Ladies' translate easily to the screen.'' In addition to ''White Nights'' (1985), Mr. Hines's films included ''Tap'' (1989), ''Eve of Destruction'' (1991) and ''The Tic Code'' (1998). Mr. Hines, who was black, said in a 1987 interview that he made a point of looking for roles written for white actors, preferring their greater scope and dynamics. His portrayal of Ben Stevenson, the single father of a young son, in ''The Gregory Hines Show'' drew on Mr. Hines's natural warmth and charm. In ''Will & Grace'' he played a tough boss who, like the character of Stevenson, made no reference to race. Mr. Hines's marriages to Patricia Panella and Pamela Koslow ended in divorce. In addition to his father and brother, he is survived by his fiancée, Negrita Jayde; a daughter, Daria Hines; a son, Zach; a stepdaughter, Jessica Koslow; and a grandson. In addition to his work on the dance and theater stage, in film and on television, Mr. Hines's wide-ranging career also included an appearance in an all-star industrial show for Apple Computer in 1997, directing films (including ''Bleeding Hearts'' and ''Red Sneakers''), making a 1987 album called ''Gregory Hines,'' and writing introductions for books like Constance Valis Hill's ''Brotherhood in Rhythm,'' a biography of the Nicholas Brothers, and ''Savion! My Life in Tap,'' a biography of Mr. Glover for children. Known as an elegant dresser, Mr. Hines was on a first-name basis with Giorgio Armani and once served as a runway model for the designer Yohji Yamamoto. But everything in his life was influenced by his dancing, Mr. Hines told Stephen Holden in a 1988 interview in The Times. ''Everything I do,'' he said, including ''my singing, my acting, my lovemaking, my being a parent.''

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Gregory Hines lived 14 years shorter than the average family member when died at the age of 57.

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20 Memories, Stories & Photos about Gregory

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.7k+ favorites

12/24/2022

Fan Story - San Antonio, Texas

Charles W. Thorschmidt
Was lucky enough to see him twice at the Laurie Auditorium in San Antonio, 1st two rows both times. He always invited several young, local tap students to join him onstage at the end of his performance. The dance floor was mic'd too.

Comments

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.7k+ favorites

12/23/2022

This comes from his memorial. He was buried in Canada in a Catholic Ukrainian Cemetery.

Actor, Dancer. He was born in New York City, New York and became one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time, as well as an award winning star of stage and screen. He started performing as a member of the dance troupe "Hines, Hines, and Dad", with his father and brother. He first appeared on the Broadway stage at the age of eight, performing as a shoe shine boy in the musical comedy "The Girl in Pink Tights", from March fifth to June twelfth, 1954. He received his first Tony nomination (Best Featured Actor in a Musical) in 1979 for his next Broadway role in the musical revue "Eubie!". He won the 1979 Theatre World Award for the same performance. He had starring roles in three musicals, "Comin' Uptown" (1979-80), "Sophisticated Ladies" (1981-83), and "Jelly's Last Jam" (1992-93). He was nominated for the Best Actor in a Musical Tony Award for all three roles, and won in 1992 for his performance as Jelly Roll Morton in "Jelly's Last Jam". He also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for this performance, and was nominated for both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his choreography for this show. His movie credits included roles in "History of the World: Part 1," "White Nights", "Tap", "Renaissance Man", "Waiting to Exhale", "Running Scared", and "The Preacher's Wife". Television credits included the TV movies "Eubie!" and "The Cherokee Kid"; guest roles on shows such as "Faerie Tale Theatre", "Amazing Stories", and "Law & Order"; and recurring roles in "The Gregory Hines Show", "Little Bill", "Will & Grace", and "Lost at Home". He recorded a duet of "There's Nothing Better Than Love" with Luther Vandross, and also released a self-titled album in 1987.

Bio by: Dustin Oliver

Comments

Amanda S. Stevenson

17.7k+ favorites

12/23/2022

I met Gregory Hines several times.

He was always extremely pleasant. I like him in all of his efforts: in night clubs, on Broadway and in the movies.
It was as an actor in movies that he proved to be exceptionally talented as a character actor.
He never portrayed just an ordinary guy and he always gave convincing performances.
I was the first person to give him a tribute right here on ancientfaces.

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Amanda S. Stevenson

17.7k+ favorites

06/24/2019

Gregory Oliver Hines and Judith Jamison

A photo of Gregory Oliver Hines and Judith Jamison
Judith Ann Jamison was born May 10, 1943 to Tessie Brown Jamison and John Jamison Sr. She is an American dancer and choreographer, best known as a ballet dancer and as the Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Wikipedia
Born: May 10, 1943 (age 76 years), Philadelphia, PA
(Still alive.)

Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.

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