Gregory Hines, one of the most celebrated entertainers of his generation, died at just 57 years old while being rushed to a hospital in August 2003. The tap dancing legend had been diagnosed with liver cancer the previous year, a diagnosis he shared only with his closest friends. Born in New York City on February 14, 1946, Hines grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem and began tap dancing at age two. By five, he was performing professionally alongside his older brother Maurice, with the duo mentored by tap dance icons Cab Calloway and the Nicholas brothers.
The Hines brothers made their Broadway debut together in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954. Gregory went on to earn Tony Award nominations for Eubie in 1979, Coming Uptown in 1980, and Sophisticated Ladies in 1981. He finally took home the Tony in 1992 for Jelly’s Last Jam. Beyond the stage, Hines explored music in multiple forms.
In the mid-1970s, he served as lead singer and musician for a rock band called Severance. During the 1980s, he recorded a duet with Luther Vandross called There’s Nothing Better Than Love, which climbed to number one on the R&B charts. His film career launched in 1981 and would span more than 40 movies. That same year, he appeared in Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part 1, stepping in for Richard Pryor, who had suffered severe burns in a house fire.
Hines also appeared in the horror film Wolfen later that year. One of the most notable what-ifs of his career came when he was the first choice for the role that eventually went to Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours. Hines turned it down to take a major part in The Cotton Club instead. His greatest screen successes came in the mid-1980s.
He co-starred with Mikhail Baryshnikov in White Nights in 1985 and with Billy Crystal in Running Scared in 1986. In 1989, he starred in Tap alongside Sammy Davis Jr. , with whom he shared a memorable stage moment during a television special celebrating Davis’s 60 years in show business. Additional film credits included Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife.
On television, he headlined The Gregory Hines Show in 1997, a CBS sitcom that lasted just one season. Hines married twice, to Patricia Panella and Pamela Koslow, with both marriages ending in divorce. He had two children, a son named Zach and a daughter named Daria. At the time of his death, Hines was engaged to bodybuilder Negrita Jayde.
Jayde herself died of cancer in 2009, at age 51, six years after Hines. In 2019, the United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp. He was buried in the family plot in Oakville, Ontario, west of Toronto, Canada.
Despite his early departure, Hines left a legacy as one of the rare performers who mastered singing, dancing, and acting at the highest levels of show business.
