Active Years: 1946 -

Position: American tap dancer and choreographer

Career Highlights: Hines won the Tony Award for best actor in Jelly’s Last Jam in 1992. He was also nominated for best choreography.

Career Totals: Hines began tap dancing at age 5 and has appeared in commercials, movies and Broadway shows. He has been nominated for the Tony Award five times.

Scouting Report: Hines began performing at an early age with his brother, Maurice. His father later expanded their act and called it “Hines, Hines, and Dad.” After severing ties with his family, Hines moved to Los Angeles and temporarily gave up dancing. When he grew tired of singing in a nightclub for seven dollars a night, Hines returned to New York City.

He was nominated for best actor in the Broadway musicals Eubie! (1979), Comin’ Uptown (1980), and Sophisticated Ladies (1981). From Broadway, Hines took on the big screen in 1984 with the movie The Cotton Club. The movie recreated the famous Harlem nightclub and the gang lords who met there. The following year, Hines starred alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov in White Nights, where Hines played an American dancer who planned an escape from Russia with a defected Soviet ballet dancer. In 1989, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Hines danced in the movie Tap,which told the story of a econd-generation tapper and a paroled jewel thief. He returned to Broadway in 1992 as star and choreographer in Jelly’s Last Jam, for which he received the Tony Award.

Teammates and Contemporaries: Hines has danced with Sammy Davis, Jr., Baryshnikov, Bunny Briggs, Jimmy Slyde, Steve Condos, Harold Nicholas, Sandman Sims, and Savion Glover.

Fun Fact: Hines said one of his favorite places to dance is an empty elevator.