Geoffrey Holder

Geoffrey Holder was a dancer, choreographer, painter, costume designer, composer, director and actor whose worked included theater, film and television. Although most of his work involved live performance, he acquired pop culture renown as the star of a series of TV commercials for the soft drink 7-Up during the 1970s and ’80s.

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Holder took great pride in his heritage and drew upon his Caribbean origins throughout his creative endeavors. As a young man, he was mentored by his older brother Boscoe, who taught him to dance and paint, which led to performances with a group Boscoe had formed, the Holder Dancing Company. After the older sibling left to pursue a career in England, Holder kept the group alive and eventually brought it to New York City in 1954 at the invitation of acclaimed choreographer Agnes de Mille, who had seen a performance in the Virgin Islands.

Holder settled in the city, where he found work as a teacher and danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. He made his Broadway debut in 1954 when he was a featured dancer in the musical House of Flowers, which starred Diahann Carroll and Pearl Bailey.

In the years that followed he made frequent stage appearances, including a revival of Waiting for Godot with an all-black cast and a revival of the Gershwin brothers' Rosalie.

He was also a prolific dancer and choreographer known for such productions as Banda, Prodigal Prince and Dougla.

Holder began appearing on television in the 1950s on live productions such as The United States Steel Hour and The DuPont Show of the Month. His other series roles included Tarzan, It Takes a Thief,  a Great Performances adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (as the Cheshire Cat) and Cyberchase.

But perhaps his most memorable TV legacy were his 7-Up spots. Dressed in a white suit, in a tropical setting, he extolled the refreshing pleasures of the the drink — dubbed "the Un-Cola" — as "absolutely maaarvelous."

He also appeared in several feature films, including Doctor Dolittle, Krakatoa: East of Java, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask and Live and Let Die, actor Roger Moore's first outing as super-spy James Bond.

Also a costume and set designer, he created costumes for the award-winning musical The Wiz and won a Tony Award in 1978 for Timbuktu!

The versatile Holder published books on Caribbean folklore and cooking as well, and his paintings were displayed at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Guggenehim Musem in New York.

He and his wife, Carmen de Lavallade, were the subject of the 2009 documentary Geoffrey & Carmen.

Holder died October 5, 2014, in New York. He was 84.