There are versatile artists and there is Geoffrey Holder. Born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad in 1930, Mr. Holder danced with his brother Boscoe's dance troupe as a child. He arrived in New York in 1952 at the invitation of the legendary choreographer, Agnes de Mille and to pay his fare, sold 20 of his paintings. He went on to win a Guggenheim Fellowship for painting in 1957. A few years prior, he was a principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and appeared on Broadway in Truman Capote's "House of Flowers," where he would meet his wife of 57 years, the dancer Carmen de Lavallade.
In 1975, Mr. Holder won 2 Tony Awards on the same evening for directing and choreographing the Broadway musical, "The Wiz." He is best known for his film and commercial roles, as Baron Samedi in the 1973 James Bond film, "Live and Let Die" and of course, as the "Un-cola Man" in the ubiquitous 1970s 7-Up commercials.
In 1975, Mr. Holder won 2 Tony Awards on the same evening for directing and choreographing the Broadway musical, "The Wiz." He is best known for his film and commercial roles, as Baron Samedi in the 1973 James Bond film, "Live and Let Die" and of course, as the "Un-cola Man" in the ubiquitous 1970s 7-Up commercials.
Mr. Holder still paints and creates art today, the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago currently has an exhibition featuring Mr. Holder and Ms. de Lavallade. In this picture, Mr. Holder sits in front of one of his paintings in the 1960s.
Photo: Bradley Smith/Corbis.See More
Dancers Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder followed by Ms. de Lavallade's sister, Elaine de Lavallade and Emery Lewis on their wedding day, June 26, 1955. The wedding was hosted by theater legend Lucille Lortel at her estate in Westport, Connecticut and notables like Diahann Carroll, Josephine Premice, and Carl Van Vechten. Mr. Van Vechten's assistant at the time, Saul Mauriber, took this photograph.
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