Geoffrey Holder dies aged 84

Actor, dancer and choreographer Geoffrey Holder, known as Baron Samedi in Bond movie Live and Let Die, has died at 84.

Born in Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago, Geoffrey Holder was also a composer, a designer and a celebrated painter.

Geoffrey Holder will be best remembered to many as the cackling Voodoo villain who dogged Roger Moore’s footsteps in his first outing as secret agent James Bond.

His other films included 1982 musical Annie, in which he played Punjab.

Often cast in exotic roles, Geoffrey Holder played a tribal chieftain in 1967 film Doctor Dolittle and a sorcerer in Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About S** (But Were Afraid to Ask).

More recently, his distinctive bass voice was heard narrating Tim Burton’s 2005 film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Geoffrey Holder, one of four children, was taught to dance by his older brother Boscoe, joining his dance company at the age of seven.

He became director of the company in the late 1940s after Boscoe moved to London, before moving to the US in 1954.

Geoffrey Holder made his Broadway debut that same year in House of Flowers, a Caribbean-themed musical in which he first played Baron Samedi.

A top-hated spirit of death in Haitian Voodoo culture, the character made full use of the actor’s imposing physique and physical dexterity.

Geoffrey Holder won two Tony Awards for best costume design and musical direction in the original Broadway production of The Wiz, an all-black version of The Wizard of Oz. He also appeared in an all-black version of Waiting for Godot.

According to a family spokesman, Geoffrey Holder died on Sunday, October 4, in New York from complications caused by pneumonia, He is survived by his wife, Carmen de Lavallade, and their son Leo.

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