by Jon Wolk 

I am saddened at the passing of one of my childhood icons, the distinguished actor, designer, dancer, painter and director, Mr Geoffrey Holder. Known best by some as the 7-UP “Un-Cola Man” (“Never had it, never will”), he appeared in some 30 television and film productions, was an exquisite dancer, voice over actor in cartoons, animated features and even a video game (1995’s HELL: A Cyberpunk Thriller) but most recently as the voice of The Narrator in Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, prolific Painter, but some of his best work was done behind the scenes. In 1975 he was the first African American Man to be Nominated for a Tony Award as a Director or as a Costume designer, and won both.

I had the great honor of meeting him when I was twelve when my father took us to the 1984 touring revival of The Wiz (with nearly the full original Broadway cast!) at the Warner Theater in the late 1980’s. He was seated in our row for the production and when I approached him, before the curtain went up, with my (evil) now-ex-step-mother sure I was just going to be bothering him, he was warm, gracious, with that deep, lyrical baritone that you could FEEL when he spoke. I gushed, being a theater geek, and he could not have been nicer. We actually spoke for several minutes, and he was kind and encouraging to my young dreams of taking the stage one day.

At the end of the night he stopped me and insisted that we take a picture together, and that he sign my Playbill. We had no camera, so he had someone he was with take the picture, insisting he would have it mailed to us. To my pleasure and surprise I received a large envelope a couple weeks later, with an 8×10 glossy of he and I, in all my nearly teen awkwardness, personalized by him and accompanied by a kind, personal, handwritten note. He clearly remembered our conversation, and I was blown away. I have met many famous persons and celebrities, in arts, music, politics and otherwise,  since then over the years, but none was as specifically kind to me, and as gracious and genuinely warm.

That is the man who has left us, as I will remember him, and I am grateful for his contributions to stage, screen, and elsewhere. May he rest in peace, wherever it is that our energies go.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/arts/geoffrey-holder-dancer-choreographer-and-man-of-flair-dies-at-84.html?_r=0