Three-Time Tony winner Hinton Battle is DEAD TO ME!

That's two today (Chita Rivera was the first). One more to go to make the triangle complete. (Rita Moreno best sleep with one eye open if the Grim Reaper is around...).

R1 oh honey, if I die tonight the headlines will read OSCAR & TONY WINNER Rita Moreno, not just Tony winner. Chita can’t relate.

He made his Broadway debut at eighteen, as the Scarecrow in "The Wiz", AMD receieved high acclaim for it. That alone is amazing.

Sad he died so relatively young. I saw him in The Wiz when I was a kid, and thought he was very cute.

R3

I made my Broadway debut at age 18 in 'Your Arms Are Too Short To Box With God' and I got high acclaim, too.

Damn! Broadway losing its best dancers in a single day! :(

RIP, Hinton.

Battle almost unquestionably was one of the three best dancers of that generation, along with Don Correia and Gregg Burge. Watching this from Sophisticated Ladies still brings chills.

OMG! Another major theatrical loss within hours? This, the night the lights will not only dim, but will go out on Broadway.

Rest in Peace, Hinton Battle.

Sucks for him to die the same day as a Broadway legend like Chita.

But did Chita appear on Buffy? I think not.

Did Hinton appear in West Side Story? I think not, R10. You cannot compare these two greats or pit one against the other. They are both deserving of our praise and respect.

The only time I saw him was in Tap Dance Kid.

R10: "I can bring whole cities to ruin, and still have time to get a soft-shoe in!"

Such a great episode of TV.

He was in the first tour of Dancin' with Charles Ward, Vicki Frederick, Valerie Pettiford and Sandahl Bergman. He also did one of the commercials for the Broadway run. He does a bit of Percussion at the end of this footage and it's amazing.

Tap dancing demon.

RIP

Is it just me, or is everybody dying lately?

NOT ME R16! God really does have his favorites 😊

Susan Dey will be sending her regrets.

R8 It's the night that the lights went out in Georgia.

The battle is over.

I didn't know he was living in LA when he died. He was quite ill for a while. He did an interview about a year ago and he looked horrible. It seemed like he was a genuine dance prodigy. He never knew tap dancing until he auditioned for Tap Dance Kid and was coached by Gwen Vernon. When he did The Wiz, they literally pulled him out of the chorus at intermission because the actor playing the Scarecrow quit on the spot.