Standing at over six feet tall, Geoffrey Holder was a force to be reckoned with on Broadway and the big and small screens. In his 84 years of life, Holder managed to accomplish what some of us only fantasize about. He was a Tony Award-winning dancer, a Bond villain, the “Un-Cola Man,” a composer, a designer, and a painter, and put his stamp on the arts and entertainment for many generations. Holder died from pneumonia in New York, but had been a resident at the Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund in Englewood, New Jersey.
Regardless of your generation, it’s pretty safe to say that Holder made an impression on you — even if you didn’t know it until now. Millions know him as Baron Samedi, a Bond villain, in 1973′s Live and Let Die, opposite Roger Moore and Jane Seymour. In 1975, Holder won two Tonys for directing and costuming The Wiz. Then, in the early-1980s, he took on the role of Punjab in the film adaptation of the Annie musical. In 1992, Holder appeared in Boomerang as Nelson, the creator of the too-hot-for-TV Kissable commercial. Most recently, Holder narrated Tim Burton‘s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was released in 2005. People magazine once described Holder’s voice as “deep as Othello and as smooth as Caribbean rum.” That was quite an apt description as Holder was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Not only did Holder make his mark on Broadway and Hollywood, he also became an advertising phenomenon when he took on the role of the “Un-Cola Man” in a popular 7-Up commercial.
Holder came to New York with his own folk dance company for the first time in 1953. A year later, he appeared in Truman Capote‘s House of Flowers, in which he met his future wife, dancer Carmen de Lavallade. In 1957, de Lavallade birthed their son Léo.
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I met Geoffrey during the Philadelphia run of House of Flowers. Alvin Ailey and I had just joined the cast. Three days after Geoffrey and I met, he proposed to me. Four months later I said yes. And it’s been a fabulous adventure ever since. Happy Anniversary to us! #AsIRememberIt #vintageblackglamour
Holder’s impressionist paintings have hung in Barbados Museum and Washington’s Corcoran Gallery. And Lena Horne and William F. Buckley were patrons.
Holder was a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and choreographed productions for the Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey.
However, the stage and the screen weren’t the only places Holder’s talents shined. He was also known for throwing down in the kitchen and authored Geoffrey Holder’s Caribbean Cookbook.