Hinton Battle

Hinton Govorn Battle Jr. (November 29, 1956 – January 30, 2024) was an American actor, singer, dancer, and choreographer whose Broadway career spanned from 1975 to 1999. Born in Neubrücke, Hoppstädten-Weiersbach, West Germany, within the Baumholder Army Military Community, Battle was raised in Washington, D.C., and New York City. His father served as a U.S. Army officer and his mother was a homemaker. His aptitude for performance emerged at age nine, leading him to study ballet at the Jones-Haywood School of Ballet for three years before earning a scholarship to The School of American Ballet, where he trained under George Balanchine until the age of fifteen.

Battle made his Broadway debut as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, which opened at the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in Baltimore on October 21, 1974, before transferring to Broadway's Majestic Theatre on January 5, 1975, with a new cast. He was the first performer to portray the Scarecrow in the stage production, a role later taken by Michael Jackson in the 1978 film adaptation. Battle went on to appear in Dancin', Dreamgirls, and Sophisticated Ladies, the last of which earned him his first Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1981. His performance in The Tap Dance Kid brought him a second Tony Award in the same category in 1984, along with the NAACP Award and the Fred Astaire Award. He claimed his third Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1991 for his portrayal of John Thomas in Miss Saigon, in which he performed the song "Bui Doi." Battle's additional Broadway credits included Chicago, in which he played Billy Flynn, and Ragtime, where he portrayed Coalhouse Walker Jr., a performance that drew strong notices from the Chicago press and earned him an Ira Aldridge Award.

Beyond Broadway, Battle accumulated credits across film and television, appearing in approximately fifteen productions including Quantum Leap, Dreamgirls, and Touched by an Angel. On Quantum Leap, he played Thames, the evil Observer from the future, in the final episode of the Evil Leaper trilogy. He also portrayed the Cat in the first U.S. pilot for the science-fiction sitcom Red Dwarf, based on the British series of the same name. Among his most noted television appearances was his guest role as Sweet, a jazz demon, in "Once More, with Feeling," the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which his character's spell compels the show's characters to sing their deepest secrets and fears. Additional television work included Shine, a one-man show presented at the HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival; The Kennedy Center's 25th Anniversary; These Old Broads, featuring Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins, Debbie Reynolds, and Elizabeth Taylor; and ABC/Disney's Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story, for which Battle served as both choreographer and co-star, playing Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Battle's choreographic work was extensive. He choreographed the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, These Old Broads, and the film Foreign Student with Charles Dutton. He served as Associate Choreographer on the 65th and 66th Annual Academy Awards alongside Debbie Allen and choreographed The Golden Globe Awards and Dance in America. His television choreography also encompassed the sitcoms Fired Up, Sister Sister, The Trouble with Normal, and The Boys, as well as promotional work for Warner Brothers and commercials for Coca-Cola. Off-Broadway, Battle co-directed and choreographed Evil Dead The Musical and in 2014 starred in Cindy: The Musical. He collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on The Buddy Bolden Story, a feature film about one of jazz's originators, and directed the stage musical Respect, a production tracing women's experiences from the 1900s through 2007. He also developed a dance form called Swop, combining swing and hip-hop, which was performed on Dancing with the Stars in 2006. In 2017, Battle founded the Hinton Battle Dance Academy in Japan, which operated until 2022.

In the mid-1980s, Battle recorded the song "Think We're Gonna Make It," featured on the soundtrack to the 1986 film Playing for Keeps, and released a solo album titled Untapped that same year. He had also written a children's book and was working on an autobiography at the time of his death. Battle died following a lengthy illness at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on January 30, 2024, at the age of 67. In his honor, the Broadway League announced that all 41 Broadway theaters would dim their marquee lights on March 12, 2024.