Gregory Hines

Five years after his death from cancer at 57, I can never watch Gregory Hines (1946-03) in a movie or TV rerun without missing him. It's common knowledge that he was one of the top tap dancers of his generation, but how many appreciate what a talented actor he was – how natural and funny and cool? I admired him tremendously for both his dancing and acting, but also simply by the warm, open personality he radiated. Every movie with Hines in the cast benefited from his warm and open personality, including the creepy WOLFEN (1981), the witty and action-packed RUNNING SCARED (1986), the colorfully textured THE COTTON CLUB (1984), and the lovingly crafted homage TAP (1989). In the first two he plays a wisecracking sidekick; in the second two, he dances – gloriously! – alongside other giants of tap including Sammy Davis, Jr., Harold Nicholas and Howard "Sandman" Sims. Hines made his movie debut in Mel Brooks’ goofy HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART ONE (1981) as a last-minute replacement for Richard Pryor. He played the anachronistically hip Roman slave Josephus.

Auctioneer: "Where are you from, slave?"
Josephus: "Ethiopia."
Auctioneer: "What part?"
Josephus: "125th Street."