'Immaculate Performer' Hines Dies

As soon as he could walk and talk, Gregory Hines said, he knew he could dance.

His dazzling feet kicked off a career that stretched from gigs in New York clubs when he was five to Tony Award glory on Broadway and Hollywood stardom.

Hines, considered the greatest tap dancer of his generation, died of cancer Saturday in Los Angeles at age 57.

"I don't remember not dancing," Hines said in a 2001 interview with The Associated Press. "When I realized I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance."

With his elegant tap style that evoked Fred Astaire and Sammy Davis Jr., Hines became internationally known at a young age as part of a jazz tap duo with his brother, Maurice.

Hines and his brother performed together in the musical revue "Eubie!" in 1978, in Broadway's "Sophisticated Ladies" and on film in 1984's "The Cotton Club."

His role in "The Cotton Club" led to more offers from Hollywood. He starred with Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1985's Cold War-era dancers' story "White Nights" and with Billy Crystal in 1986's "Running Scared" and he appeared with Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett in 1995's "Waiting to Exhale," among other movies.

He won a 1992 Tony Award for the musical "Jelly's Last Jam."

"He was the last of a kind of immaculate performer — a singer, dancer, actor and a personality," said George C. Wolfe, who directed "Jelly." "He knew how to command."

"His dancing came from something very real," said Bernadette Peters, who appeared with Hines as co-hosts of the 2002 Tony Awards show. "It came out of his instincts, his impulses and his amazing creativity. His whole heart and soul went into everything he did."

Gregory Oliver Hines was born on Feb. 14, 1946, in New York City. He has said his mother urged him and his older brother toward tap dancing because she wanted them to have a way out of the ghetto.

When he was a toddler, his brother was already taking tap lessons and would come home and teach him steps. They began performing together when Gregory Hines was 5, and they performed at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for two weeks when he was 6. In 1954, they were cast in the Broadway musical "The Girl in Pink Tights," starring French ballerina Jeanmaire.

Davis was one of young Gregory Hines' inspirations, as were the Nicholas Brothers and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Hines drew on Robinson's style for some of his work in "Jelly's Last Jam."

Hines had a falling out with his older brother in the late 1960s because the younger boy was becoming influenced by counterculture and wanted to perform to rock music and write his songs. In 1973, the family act disbanded and Hines moved to Venice Beach.

He returned to New York in 1978, partly to be near his daughter, Daria, who was living with Hines' first wife, dance therapist Patricia Panella. His brother, with whom he had reconciled, told him about an audition for the Broadway-bound "The Last Minstrel Show." He got the part, but the show opened and closed in Philadelphia.

The brothers reunited onstage for "Eubie!" a homage to composer Eubie Blake. Gregory Hines was lauded for his singing of "Low Down Blues" and his rat-tat-tat tapping during "Hot Feet." Hines also earned Tony nominations for "Comin' Uptown" and "Sophisticated Ladies."

Hines landed his first film role in the 1981 Mel Brooks comedy "History of the World Part I," in which he played a Roman slave as a last-minute replacement for Richard Pryor.

On television, he had his own series in 1997 called "The Gregory Hines Show," as well as a recurring role on "Will and Grace." He was nominated for an Emmy in 2001 for his lead role in the miniseries "Bojangles" and in March appeared in the spring television series "Lost at Home."

Hines was engaged to Negrita Jayde and, in addition to his father and brother, is survived by his daughter Daria, son Zach, grandson Lucian and stepdaughter Jessica Koslow.