fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Geoffrey Lamont Holder (August 1, 1930 – October 5, 2014) was a Trinidadian-American actor, dancer, musician, and artist.[2][3] He was a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet before his film career began in 1957 with an appearance in Carib Gold. In 1973, he played the villainous Baron Samedi in the Bond film Live and Let Die. He also carried out advertising work as the pitchman for 7 Up.[4]

Geoffrey Holder
Holder at the Big Apple Con 2008
Born	Geoffrey Lamont Holder (1930-08-01)August 1, 1930 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Died	October 5, 2014(2014-10-05) (aged 84) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Queen's Royal College
Occupation	Actor, voice actor, singer, dancer, composer, choreographer, director
Years active	1957–2014
Spouse	Carmen de Lavallade ​ (m. 1955)​
Children	1 son
Family	Boscoe Holder (brother) Christian Holder (nephew) Ralph McDaniels (second cousin)[1]
Awards	Outstanding Costume Design 1975 The Wiz Best Direction of a Musical 1975 The Wiz Best Costume Design 1975 The Wiz

Early life

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad,[5] Holder was one of four children of Bajan and Trinidadian descent.[6] He was educated at Tranquility School and Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain. He made his performance debut at the age of seven in his brother Boscoe Holder's dance company.

Career

After seeing him perform in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands the choreographer Agnes de Mille invited Holder to work with her in New York.[7] Upon arriving he joined Katherine Dunham's dance school where he taught folkloric forms for two years.[8]

From 1955 to 1956, he performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet as a principal dancer.[9] He left the ballet to make his Broadway debut in the Harold Arlen and Truman Capote musical House of Flowers.[10] While working on House of Flowers, Holder met Alvin Ailey, with whom he later worked extensively, and Carmen de Lavallade, his future wife. After the show closed he starred in an all-black production of Waiting for Godot in 1957.[10]

Holder began his movie career in the 1962 British film All Night Long, a modern remake of Shakespeare's Othello. He followed that with Doctor Dolittle (1967) as Willie Shakespeare, leader of the natives of Sea-Star Island. In 1972, he was cast as the Sorcerer in Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask). The following year he was a henchman—Baron Samedi—in the Bond movie Live and Let Die.[5] He contributed to the film's choreography.

In addition to his movie appearances, Holder was a spokesman in advertising campaigns for the soft drink 7 Up in the 1970s and 1980s, declaring it the "uncola", and, in the 1980s, calling it "crisp and clean, and no caffeine; never had it, never will".[11][12]

In 1975, Holder won two Tony Awards for direction and costume design of The Wiz, the all-black musical version of The Wizard of Oz. Holder was the first black man to be nominated in either category. He won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design. The show ran for 1672 performances.[13]

As a choreographer, Holder created dance pieces for many companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, for which he provided choreography, music, and costumes for Prodigal Prince (1967),[14] and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, for which he provided choreography, music, and costumes for Dougla (1974), and designed costumes for Firebird (1982). In 1978, Holder directed and choreographed the Broadway musical Timbuktu![15][16][17] Holder's 1957 piece "Bele" is also part of the Dance Theater of Harlem repertory.

Holder portrayed Jupiter, the hulking manservant of an ill-fated treasure-hunter (Roberts Blossom), in a 1980 made-for-television adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Gold Bug which also starred Anthony Michael Hall. In John Huston's 1982 film adaptation of the hit stage musical Annie, Holder played the role of Punjab, Albert Finney's bodyguard. Holder portrayed the Ghost of Christmas Future in John Grin's Christmas, a 1986 variation on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol directed by its star, Robert Guillaume. Holder portrayed Nelson in the 1992 film Boomerang with Eddie Murphy. He was also the voice of Ray in Bear in the Big Blue House and provided narration for Tim Burton's 2005 film version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He reprised his role as the 7 Up spokesman in the 2011 season finale of The Celebrity Apprentice, where he appeared as himself in a commercial for "7 Up Retro" for Marlee Matlin's team.

In 1993 Holder did a series of commercials for the Armory Auto Group auto dealership in Albany, New York.

Holder was a prolific painter (patrons of his art included Lena Horne and William F. Buckley, Jr.),[18] ardent art collector, book author, and music composer. As a painter, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship in fine arts in 1956.[19] A book of his photography, Adam, was published by Viking Press in 1986.[20]

Personal life

Holder married Carmen de Lavallade in 1955. They spent their lives in New York City and had one son, Léo. They were the subject of a 2005 documentary, Carmen & Geoffrey. His elder brother Boscoe Holder was a dancer, choreographer, and artist. Boscoe's son Christian Holder has also won acclaim as a dancer, choreographer, and entertainer.

Death

Holder died in Manhattan of complications from pneumonia on October 5, 2014, aged 84.

Productions

Broadway

• House of Flowers, Original Musical, 1954 – Banda dance choreography, performer
• Josephine Baker, musical review, 1954 – Performer
• Waiting for Godot, revival (all black cast), 1957 – Performer
• The Wiz, original musical, 1975 – Direction, costume design (Tony Award for Best Costume Design and Best Direction of a Musical, 1975)
• Timbuktu!, original musical, 1978  – Direction, choreography, costume design, playbill cover illustration
• The Wiz, revival, 1984 – Direction, costume design
• The Boys' Choir of Harlem and Friends, staged concert, 1993 – Staging

Radio

• KYOT-FM in Phoenix, Arizona, 1994–2011 – Voiceover

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	Carib Gold	Voo Doo Dancer	Film debut
1959	Porgy and Bess	Dancer	Uncredited
1962	All Night Long	Himself	Uncredited
1967	Doctor Dolittle	Willie Shakespeare
1968	Krakatoa, East of Java	Sailor
1972	Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask	The Sorcerer
1973	Live and Let Die	Baron Samedi	Also choreography
1975	The Noah	Friday	Voice
1976	Swashbuckler	Cudjo	Also choreography
1982	Annie	Punjab
1987	Where Confucius Meets the New Wave	Narrator
1992	Boomerang	Nelson
1998	Hasards ou coïncidences	Gerry
1999	Goosed	Dr. Bowman
2005	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Narrator	Voice
2006	Joséphine Baker. Black Diva in a White Man's World[3]
2008	The Magistical	Narrator
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Aladdin	The Genie
1967	Androcles and the Lion	The Lion
1968	A Gun for Jai	Mayko
1973	The Man Without a Country	Slave on ship
1983	Alice in Wonderland	The Cheshire Cat
1986	John Grin's Christmas	Ghost of Christmas Future
1988	The Cosby Show	Choreography	Choreographed the season 5 opening credits
1990	The 62nd Annual Academy Awards	Performing
1998–1999	Bear in the Big Blue House	Ray the Sun	Voice
2002–2003	Cyberchase	Master Pi	Voice, Episode 118, "Problem Solving in Shangri-La"
			Voice, Episode 209, "Double Trouble"
2011	Celebrity Apprentice	Himself
Video games
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller	Jean St. Mouchoir	One of only two live actors in the game (as opposed to voice only)
2005	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Narrator	Voice

References

Bibliography

• Holder, Geoffrey; Harshman Tom (1959). Black Gods, Green Islands. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-8371-2789-0.
• Holder, Geoffrey (1973). Geoffrey Holder's Caribbean Cookbook. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-670-33662-3. OCLC 2700931.
• Holder, Geoffrey (1986). Adam. New York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-81028-2.
• Holder, Geoffrey; University Art Museum. (1995). Geoffrey Holder: the painter. Albany, New York: State University of New York at Albany. ISBN 0-910763-13-5.
• Holder, Geoffrey; Falke, Stefan; Lovelace, Earl (2004). The Dancing spirits of Trinidad: Moko Jumbies. New York: Pointed Leaf Press. ISBN 0-9727661-3-8.

External links

• Geoffrey Holder at IMDb
• Geoffrey Holder at the Internet Broadway Database
• "Geoffrey Holder: Visionary Videos: NVLP: African American History". The National Visionary Leadership Project. Retrieved May 9, 2008.
• Geoffrey Holder's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• Leo Holder, "'This Impromptu Dance': Geoffrey Holder's Son Tells One More Story", NPR, October 29, 2014.
• Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Geoffrey Holder and Carmen De Lavallade papers, circa 1900–2018

На других языках

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- [en] Geoffrey Holder

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[fr] Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Lamont Holder est un acteur, chorégraphe, metteur en scène, danseur, peintre, costumier et chanteur trinidadien, né le 1er août 1930 à Port-d'Espagne et mort le 5 octobre 2014 à Manhattan[1],[2] d'une infection pulmonaire[3].

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[it] Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Richard Holder (Port of Spain, 1º agosto 1930 – New York, 5 ottobre 2014) è stato un attore, coreografo, regista teatrale, cantante, ballerino e pittore trinidadiano.

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[ru] Холдер, Джеффри

Джеффри Ламонт Холдер (англ. Geoffrey Lamont Holder; 1 августа 1930 — 5 октября 2014) — тринидадско-американский актёр , танцор и хореограф . Лауреат премий «Тони» и «Драма Деск».

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