Geoffrey Holder, award winning director, choreographer, actor and dancer passes away at age 84

Geoffrey Holder, stage and film actor, dancer, choreographer, painter, writer, Tony award winner, and well known voice over artist died on Sunday, October 5, 2014. Mr. Holder is said to have passed away due to complications from pneumonia. He is survived by his wife, Carmen de Lavallade and their son, Léo.

Geoffrey Holder, the dancer, choreographer, actor, composer, designer and painter who used his manifold talents to infuse the arts with the flavor of his native West Indies and to put a singular stamp on the American cultural scene, not least with his outsize personality, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 84.

While many of us know Mr. Holder from his iconic “un-cola” advertising campaign for 7-up in the 1970s, the series of commercials was a minor piece of  his legacy. Among his many accomplishments were 2 Tony awards, a 2-year stint as a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Dance Company, choreography for Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey, and multiple film, stage, and television roles.

TV watchers will remember him as the pitchman for the soft drink 7-Up, which he called “the un-cola,” while movie buffs will remember him as tribal chief Willie Shakespeare in the original Doctor Dolittle, the ominous Baron Samedi in the 007 caper Live and Let Die and the mystical Punjab in the 1982 musical Annie.

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