| Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson |
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Bill Robinson quit school at age seven and began work as a professional dancer the following year. Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and was considered one of the world's greatest tap dancers. His film debut was in Dixiana (1930). He worked in fifteen movies, but his movie fame came primarily from the films he made with Shirley Temple -- Little Colonel, The (1935), Littlest Rebel, The (1935), and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). In 1989 the US Congress named his birth date as National Tap Dancing Day.
Used wooden taps on his shoes. The world's pre-eminent tap dancer of his day, he is remembered for his appearances as trouper with the moppet Shirley Temple in three of her 1930s films. He took his brother's name (William); his real name was Luther. During World War I, Robinson was the drum major of the 369th Infantry Regiment, the so-called "Harlem Hellfighters." Appeared in 4 movies with Shirley Temple: The Little Colonel, The Littlest Rebel, Rebecca of Sunybrook Farm, and Just Around the Corner. He donated a traffic light to the City of Richmond, Virginia. In appreciation, the City of Richmond presented him with an engraved key to the City. source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0732408/bio |