Actor Geoffrey Holder attends the 2010 Anglo-American Cultural Gala Awards reception at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre at John Jay College on October 25, 2010 in New York City
*Geoffrey Holder, a Tony winner for best director for The Wiz and an actor in numerous film, TV and Broadway roles, died on Sunday at the age of 84, according to The New York Times.
Holder, who also made famous the phrase “crisp and clean and no caffeine” while starring in Coca-Cola’s 7up ad campaign, passed due to “complications of pneumonia,” a family spokesperson told the paper.
Hi career in the entertainment industry spanned more than a half-century, with characters ranging from 1982′s Annie as Oliver Warbucks’ employee Punjab to a James Bond villain in 1973′s Live and Let Die.
His film credits also include Dr. Dolittle (1967), Woody Allen’s Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972), Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang (1992) and as the narrator in the 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
For his work on Broadway, Holder won two Tonys for The Wiz. Several years later, in 1978, he was nominated for a Tony for his work as a costume designer on the musical Timbuktu!