"Take me away from all this death"
From Bram Stoker's Dracula kind of the marty scorsese version of "Calgon, take me away!"

It my regrettable duty to inform you that Gregory Hines is dead. Is it me or this a particularly bad year in terms of celebrity death? And Hines wasn't even that old. I mean with Hope, not a big surpise dying at 100 and Hepburn was up there too. But Hines was only 57.

And yet he managed to do quite a bit. I think the first time I saw Hines was in History of the World Part I as Josephus ( the Eunuch test schtick was classic). He was also in Running Scared with Billy Crystal. I can't remember any classic lines from that movie, which says a lot, but let's also keep in mind it came out in '86 ( Hines was originally up for Eddie Murphy's role in 48 hours, but in what can I only call some spectacularly bad judgement dropped out to be in the Cotton Club. The role he played with Billy Crystal might have been an attempt to make up for that mistake.). I would have been only 12 years old. Well I remember every line of dialogue in Goonies and that came out before hand, but then I've seen Goonies a lot more since then too. ( And whoever thought that Sean Astin's career would be resurrected by playing a hobit?) Ok clearly I am the theraflu is making it hard for me to focus.

Hines was also in the Muppets Take Manhattan, Wolfen, and Deal of the Century. ( For those who don't remember that last movie on the list-the cast included Sigourney Weaver and Chevy Chase and the plot revolved around a weapons show-I remember there being a spate of goofy "defense" movies including Best Defense which starred Eddie Murphy and Dudley Moore. When I look back at those movies, I am filled with wonder because if you tried to make one of those films today you would summarily executed in the public as being "non partiotic") On Broadway, he was in the original cast of Jelly's Last Jam dedicated to the life of Jelly Roll Morton. He won a Tony for his role in that play 1992. He was beyond a doubt a fabulous entertainer. I remember him appearing on numerous sitcoms in the eighties. To children of the eighties, like myself, Hines and Ben Vereen were well known for their performances on award shows and specials. (Again for those who remember the age of the "battle of the network stars" and who can still hum the opening to "Falcon Crest"-Ohhhhhh the shame.)

Unfortunately I can't come up with a good movie tag line for Hines ( hard to come up with when most of performances had to do with dancing). Maybe silence is better anyway.