Stage and Screen Star Gregory Hines Dead at 57

Gregory Hines, a well-known actor and dancer who starred on Broadway, on television, and in films, died in Los Angeles yesterday of cancer. He was 57.

Hines was born in New York City in 1946 and studied dancing at the behest of his mother. He performed at the Apollo Theater at age six and, with his brother Maurice, made his Broadway debut in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954.

He won a Tony for his portrayal of legendary jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton in the 1992 Broadway musical Jelly’s Last Jam. Hines also appeared on Broadway in Comin’ Uptown, Sophisticated Ladies, and the Eubie Blake revue Eubie! with his brother Maurice. Hines co-hosted the 2002 Tony Awards with Bernadette Peters; he had previously co-hosted the 1995 ceremony with Glenn Close and Nathan Lane, with whom Hines sang a medley of the greatest musical theater songs they would never get the chance to sing (because they were written for women).

The Hines brothers performed together on film in The Cotton Club (1884). Gregory Hines made his film debut in the 1981 Mel Brooks comedy History of the World Part I, later appearing in White Nights (with Mikhail Baryshnikov), Running Scared (with Billy Crystal), Waiting to Exhale (with Angela Bassett), Tap, and The Muppets Take Manhattan. His television credits include his own sitcom, The Gregory Hines Show in 1997; a recurring role on the popular sitcom Will and Grace; and Bojangles, a TV movie about the esteemed tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, which earned Hines an Emmy Award nomination. He won a Daytime Emmy in 1999 for his work in the Bill Cosby animated TV series Little Bill.

Hines is survived by his fiancée Negrita Jayde, a daughter, a son, a grandson, and a stepdaughter, along with his father and brother.