Gregory Hines

**Gregory Oliver Hines** (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American dancer, actor, singer, and choreographer. Hines performed as the lead singer and musician in a rock band called Severance based in Venice, California during the years 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, which released their 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.[3]

Hines made his movie debut in Mel Brooks's *History of the World, Part I*. Critics took note of Hines's comedic charm, and he later appeared in movies such as *Wolfen*, *The Cotton Club*, *White Nights*, *Running Scared* with Billy Crystal, *Tap,* and *Waiting to Exhale*. On television, he starred in his own series in 1997 called *The Gregory Hines Show* on CBS, as well as in the recurring role of Ben Doucette on *Will & Grace*. In 1999, he would return to voice Big Bill, in Nick Jr.'s television show *Little Bill*. In 2000, he starred in *The Tic Code*.

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!*. 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. He also co-hosted the Tony Awards ceremony in 1995 and 2002.[4][5]

In 1990, Hines visited his idol Sammy Davis Jr., who was dying of throat cancer and was unable to speak. After Davis died, an emotional Hines spoke at Davis's funeral of how Sammy had made a gesture to him, "as if passing a basketball … and I caught it." Hines spoke of the honor that Sammy thought that Hines could carry on from where he left off.[6]

Hines was an avid improviser who did a lot of improvisation of tap steps, tap sounds, and tap rhythms alike. His improvisation was like that of a drummer, doing a solo and coming up with all sorts of rhythms. He also improvised the phrasing of a number of tap steps that he would come up with, mainly based on sound produced. A laid back dancer, he usually wore nice pants and a loose fitting shirt. Although he inherited the roots and tradition of the black rhythmic tap, he also influenced the new black rhythmic tap, as a proponent. "'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.'"[7]

Throughout his career, Hines wanted and continued to be an advocate for tap in America. In 1988, he successfully petitioned the creation of National Tap Dance Day, which is now celebrated in 40 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. He was a good teacher, influencing tap dancers such as Savion Glover, Dianne Walker, Ted Levy, and Jane Goldberg.[7] 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."[7]