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."
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