Maurice Hines, seen in 2005, appeared alongside his youthful brother Gregory Hines throughout the first a part of his profession.

Frank Franklin II/AP

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Frank Franklin II/AP

Maurice Hines, seen in 2005, appeared alongside his youthful brother Gregory Hines throughout the first a part of his profession.

Frank Franklin II/AP

Dancer, choreographer and actor Maurice Hines died on Friday at 80 years previous.

The demise was confirmed by Jordan Strohl, the manager director on the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, N.J., the place Hines spent his closing days.

The Broadway star usually appeared alongside his youthful brother Gregory Hines throughout the first a part of his profession. The siblings most famously co-starred within the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola film, Cotton Club. Gregory Hines died of most cancers in 2003.

But most of Maurice Hines’ work was on the Broadway stage.

He made his debut in 1954 within the musical The Girl in Pink Tights, and went on to star in productions of Guys and Dolls, Eubie! and Uptown…It’s Hot!, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for finest actor in a musical.

Hines was additionally an in-demand choreographer and director. His credit embody the nationwide tour of the Louis Armstrong musical biography Satchmo, and the Earth Wind and Fire musical Hot Feet, which he conceived, choreographed and directed in 2006.

“I was so inspired choreographically that it took me places that I never knew I could go,” Hines informed NPR in a 2006 interview in regards to the present.

He additionally turned the primary Black director to stage a manufacturing at New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall — the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Maurice Hines was born in New York in 1943 and began faucet dancing on the age of 5.

“I will always treasure our journey together,” wrote the Emmy Award-winning actor, producer and dancer Debbie Allen, who co-starred with Hines in Guys and Dolls, on Facebook in response to the information of Hines’ demise. “I will always speak your name.”

Charles Randolph-Wright, the manager producer of the 2019 documentary Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back, additionally shared remembrances in regards to the artist on social media.

“No words can describe the pure energy and affection this humble talent showered on others, especially artists with that ‘something extra,’ ” mentioned Randolph-Wright in a Facebook submit. “We are so grateful that Maurice allowed us to document his life and to share both his joy and pain, and his laughter and tears in our documentary film. There will never be another like him.”

The movie’s director, John Carluccio, added on Instagram: “I will deeply miss my charming and lovable friend, who always kept me on my toes.”