Geoffrey Holder, who played the James Bond villain Baron Samedi in Live And Let Die, has died aged 84.
The Trinidad-born actor, dancer and Tony award-winning director died on Sunday of complications relating to pneumonia at Mount Sinai St Luke’s Hospital in New York, according to Anna Glass, a family friend.
He played the top-hatted voodoo baddie in 1973’s Live And Let Die – the first of the 007 movies to star Roger Moore.
His other film roles included playing Punjab in the 1982 film version of Annie, a role in 1967’s Doctor Dolittle with Rex Harrison, opposite Eddie Murphy in Boomerang and as narrator of Tim Burton’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory,
Holder had an eclectic career in showbusiness, winning Tony Awards in 1975 for directing and designing the costumes for his retelling of The Wizard Of Oz with an all black cast.
In 1978, he directed and choreographed the lavish Broadway musical Timbuktu! starring Eartha Kitt and earned another Tony nomination for best costumes.
On TV, Holder played roles in Tarzan, voiced the leader on the animated show Cyberchase and pitched 7-Up as “the un-cola” in a commercial in which he wore a white suit and hat, purring “maaarvelous” as he drank the soda.
During 1955 and 1956, Holder was a principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York.
Having painted for most of his life, in 1957 Holder received a Guggenheim fellowship in painting. He also sculpted and took photographs.
His work was exhibited at New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Washington’s Corcoran Gallery.
He is survived by his wife, the dancer Carmen de Lavallade and their son, Leo.
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