Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Lamont Holder (August 1, 1930 – October 5, 2014) was a Trinidadian-American actor, dancer, musician, director, choreographer, and artist. He was a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, before his film career began in 1957 with an appearance in Carib Gold. For his theatre work, he won two Tony Awards, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Costume Design in a Musical for the original Broadway production of The Wiz.
In 1973, he played the villainous Baron Samedi in the James Bond film Live and Let Die. He also appeared in such films as Doctor Dolittle (1967), Annie (1982), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and was the voice of Ray the Sun on the children's television series Bear in the Big Blue House (1998–2002). He also carried out advertising work as the pitchman for 7 Up.
Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on August 1, 1930, Holder was one of four children of Barbadian and Trinidadian descent born to Louise de Frense and Arthur Holder. He was educated at Tranquility School and Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain. He made his performance debut at the age of seven in his brother Boscoe Holder's dance company.
After seeing Holder perform in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands the choreographer Agnes de Mille invited him to work with her in New York. Upon arriving, he joined Katherine Dunham's dance school, where he taught folkloric forms for two years.
From 1955 to 1956, he performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet as a principal dancer. Previously, he made his Broadway debut in the 1954 Harold Arlen and Truman Capote musical House of Flowers. While working on House of Flowers, Holder met Alvin Ailey, with whom he later worked extensively, and Carmen de Lavallade, his future wife. After the show closed he starred in an all-black production of Waiting for Godot in 1957.
Holder began his movie career in the 1962 British film All Night Long, a modern remake of Shakespeare's Othello. He followed that with Doctor Dolittle (1967) as Willie Shakespeare, leader of the natives of Sea-Star Island. In 1972, he was cast as the Sorcerer in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask). The following year he was a henchman—Baron Samedi—in the Bond movie Live and Let Die. Holder contributed to the film's choreography. In the film, his character was meant to fall into a coffin of live snakes, about which Holder had a phobia. He considered refusing to do the stunt but agreed to do it when it was revealed that Princess Alexandra would be visiting the set.
In addition to his movie appearances, Holder was a spokesman in advertising campaigns for the soft drink 7 Up in the 1970s and 1980s, declaring it the "uncola", and, in the 1980s, calling it "crisp and clean, and no caffeine; never had it, never will".
In 1975, Holder won two Tony Awards for direction and costume design of The Wiz, the all-black musical version of The Wizard of Oz. Holder was the first black man to be nominated in either category. He won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design. The show ran for 1672 performances.
As a choreographer, Holder created dance pieces for many companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, for which he provided choreography, music, and costumes for Prodigal Prince (1967), and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, for which he provided choreography, music, and costumes for Dougla (1974), and designed costumes for Firebird (1982). In 1978, Holder directed and choreographed the Broadway musical Timbuktu! Holder's 1957 piece "Bele" is also part of the Dance Theater of Harlem repertory.
Holder portrayed Jupiter, the hulking manservant of an ill-fated treasure-hunter (Roberts Blossom), in a 1980 made-for-television adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Gold-Bug which also starred Anthony Michael Hall. In John Huston's 1982 film adaptation of the hit stage musical Annie, Holder played the role of Punjab, Albert Finney's bodyguard. Holder portrayed the Ghost of Christmas Future in John Grin's Christmas, a 1986 variation on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol directed by its star, Robert Guillaume. Holder portrayed Nelson in the 1992 film Boomerang with Eddie Murphy. He was also the voice of Ray in Bear in the Big Blue House and provided narration for Tim Burton's 2005 film version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He reprised his role as the 7 Up spokesman in the 2011 season finale of The Celebrity Apprentice, where he appeared as himself in a commercial for "7 Up Retro" for Marlee Matlin's team.
In 1990, Holder performed at the 62nd Academy Awards, singing "Kiss the Girl" and "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid.
In 1993, Holder did a series of commercials for the Armory Auto Group auto dealership in Albany, New York.
Holder was a prolific painter (patrons of his art included Lena Horne and William F. Buckley, Jr.), ardent art collector, book author, and music composer. As a painter, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship in fine arts in 1956. A book of his photography, Adam, was published by Viking Press in 1986.
In 2024, the Victoria Miro Gallery in London showed the joint exhibition Boscoe Holder | Geoffrey Holder, in which, according to The Guardian's reviewer, "radiant, sensual paintings of black men and women reflect just how far ahead of their time the Holder brothers were", and which was described by Nicole-Rachelle Moore as "full of magic that is both familiar and incredible". A new text by Attillah Springer entitled Vetiver and Turpentine accompanied the show.
Holder married Carmen de Lavallade in 1955. They spent their lives in New York City and had one son, Léo. They were the subject of a 2005 documentary, Carmen & Geoffrey. His elder brother Boscoe Holder was a dancer, choreographer, and artist, whose son Christian Holder also won acclaim as a dancer, choreographer, and entertainer.
Geoffrey Holder died in New York City of complications from pneumonia on October 5, 2014, aged 84.