Uber-renaissance thesp/director/choreographer GEOFFREY HOLDER who menaced 007 in “Live and Let Die” is dead at 84.
Holder died from complications of pneumonia at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York.
He began his long career with with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York and worked with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theatre of Harlem
Holder, a hulking 6-foot-6, won Tonys in 1975 for directing and for designing the costumes for “The Wiz”.
His film roles include top-hatted voodoo villain scene –stealing Baron Samedi in "Live and Let Die" – the first of 007 movies to star Roger Moore, Punjab in the 1982 film version of "Annie," "Doctor Dolittle" with Rex Harrison, "Boomerang" with Eddie Murphy and providing narrating Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".
Holder also gave TV’s “Tarzan” Ron Ely a hard time, voiced PBS Kids animated show "Cyberchase" and pitched 7-Up "the un-cola" in well-remembered series of commercial, saying "Maaarvelous" in his mellifluous style as he downed the beverage.
He also directed and choreographed the lavish Broadway musical "Timbuktu!" starring Eartha Kitt in 1978, garnering another Tony nom for best costumes.
Holder received a Guggenheim fellowship in fine arts in 1956 for his painting.
“I create for that innocent little boy in the balcony who has come to the theater for the first time,” he said in an interview.
“He wants to see magic, so I want to give him magic.”
AND he did – adios, amigo.
