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Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Lamont Holder (1930-2014) was a Trinidadian-American actor, voice actor, dancer, choreographer, singer, director and painter. Particularly remembered as the villain Baron Samedi in the 197...view moreGeoffrey Lamont Holder (1930-2014) was a Trinidadian-American actor, voice actor, dancer, choreographer, singer, director and painter. Particularly remembered as the villain Baron Samedi in the 1973 Bond-movie Live and Let Die and for his role of Punjab in the 1982 film Annie, he was also known for his 7 Up commercials of the 1970s and ‘80s. A star of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, he also appeared in House of Flowers and Waiting for Godot, on television, and had three successful one-man shows of his paintings.
Born on August 1, 1930 in Port of Spain, Trinidad to parents who had emigrated to Trinidad from Barbados, Holder attended Tranquillity School and then secondary school at Queen’s Royal College in Port of Spain. At the age of seven, he made his debut in the dance company of his elder brother Boscoe, from whom he had been receiving lessons in dancing and painting. In 1952, choreographer Agnes de Mille saw Geoffrey dance in St. Thomas. She invited him to New York, where he taught at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance for two years.
Holder began his movie career in the 1962 British film All Night Long, a modern remake of Shakespeare’s Othello. This was followed by Doctor Doolittle (1967) as Willie Shakespeare, leader of the natives of Sea-Star Island, and numerous other movie appearances followed.
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. He also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design.
Holder was a prolific painter, ardent art collector, book author, and music composer. As a painter, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship in fine arts in 1956.
Holder died in Manhattan of complications from pneumonia on October 5, 2014, aged 84.view less