Actor, dancer Geoffrey Holder dies in NYC
Egan-Chin,Debbie/Egan-Chin,Debbie Geoffrey Holder smiles warmly in his Manhattan studio. The dancer, actor, painter and director died Sunday at 84. Geoffrey Holder, a dancer, painter, director and actor who was similarly comfortable saving Stray Annie or menacing James Bond, died Sunday in New York. He was 84.
He was suffering from complications of pneumonia.
A self-described “free spirit,” Holder had a voice that could boom or lilt. His feet could stomp or dance. On the screen, he could be your best friend or your worst nightmare.
He was best known as the gentle giant Punjab in the 1982 film version of “Annie” and the villainous if dapper Baron Samedi in 1973 Bond movie “Live and Let Die,” which was also Roger Moore’s first Bond role.
In those same years he became a familiar television face as the on-camera spokesman for 7Up’s “Uncola” commercials.
From left, Geoffrey Holder and wife Carmen De Lavallade married in 1955 after meeting and appearing in ‘Household of Flowers’ on Broadway. In New York, Holder was also well known for his work on Broadway and in the dance world.
He won a pair of Tony Awards in 1975 for management and costumes in “The Wiz.” His costumes also won a Drama Desk award that year.
Son of a middle class family in Trinidad, he started his career as a dancer and traveled to England as a teenager for some of his first roles.
He formed his own dance troupe, which was performing in the Virgin Islands in 1952 when he was noticed by Agnes De Mille.
She arranged an audition with Sol Hurok and Holder sold 20 of his paintings to pay for the troupe to travel to New York.
He arrived at an uncle’s household in Brooklyn and fell in like with the city, he later said. By 1955 he was teaching at the Katherine Dunham School, and in 1955 and 1956 he was a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
A year earlier, in 1954, he appeared in Broadway shows “Josephine Baker” and “Household of Flowers,” and came away with a wife.
He married Carmen De Lavallade, a dancer from “Flowers,” in 1955. They settled in New York, had a son, Leo, and were still married at Holder’s death.
Holder and Bond girl Jane Seymour appear in 1973 tap ‘Live and Let Die.’ A movie about their lives, “Carmen and Geoffrey,” was released in 1994.
Holder appeared in an all-black revival of “Waiting for Godot” on Broadway in 1957, then didn’t work there again in anticipation of “The Wiz.”
He launched his movie career in 1962 in “All Night Long,” a modern version of “Othello,” and also appeared in 1967 hit “Doctor Dolittle.”
In addition to performing and choreographing, he was a painter, photographer and composer. A book of his photos was published in 1986 and he wrote or co-wrote books on Caribbean folklore and cooking.
Geoffrey Holder and Carmen De Lavallade had a son, Leo. The actor’s wife and child survive him.
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Geoffrey Holder and Carmen De Lavallade had a son, Leo. The actor’s wife and child survive him.
