Geoffrey Holder Biography

Fast Facts

• In 1957, he was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship to study painting
• Married fellow actress Carmen De Lavallade in 1955 and had a son named Léo
• Began his dancing career at the age of 7 when he joined the Holder Dancing Company
• Got his big break when he was discovered by choreographer Agnes de Mille, who invited him to New York in 1954
• Made his Broadway debut alongside Diahann Carroll in "House of Flowers" in 1954
• Quote: "I create for that innocent little boy in the balcony who has come to the theater for the first time․ He wants to see magic, so I want to give him magic․ He sees things that his father couldn't see․"
• Was the "the Uncola" television pitchman for the soft drink 7Up in the 1970s and 1980s
• During the 1950s, he taught dance classes at the Katherine Dunham School
• Appeared as the Voodoo villain Baron Samedi in "Live and Let Die" and the Indian servant Punjab in 1982's "Annie․"
• Published a book on Caribbean folklore called "Black Gods, Green Islands" in 1959
• In order to make the trip to New York in 1954 he had to sell 20 of his paintings