The Broadway star who portrayed The Scarecrow passed away at L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Tuesday following a lengthy disease.
Hinton Battle, the Tony-winning performer who originated the character of The Scarecrow in Broadway‘s The Wiz, has died. He was 67 year old.
The actor passed away on Tuesday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles following a farterm disease. In a statement, a rep said The Hollywood Reporter that his family has no plans to disclose his cause of passing.
Battle made his Broadway debut in the original production of Broadway’s The Wiz and then won three Tonys — all in the category of featured actor in a musical — for his work in Sophisticated Ladies (1981), The Tap Dance Kid (1984) and Miss Saigon (1991). An NAACP image Award winner, the actor, director, producer and choreographer was also a SAG and Critics Choice nominee, honored for his work as part of the ensemble of 2007’s film musical Dreamgirls.
Born in 1956, Battle studied at the prestigious Jones Haywood School of Ballet in Washington, D.C. and the School of American Ballet in New York City before starting his Broadway stage career in The Wiz at just 15.
His New York stage career would span 3 decades, with performances in the Broadway productions of Dancin’, Dreamgirls, Chicago, and Ragtime.
Battle’s off-Broadway credits added Respect, the musical, and serving as the co-director and choreographer for Evil Dead The Musical and more nearly starring in Cindy: The Musical.
Battle would eventually cross over to TV and movie, making appearances in Dreamgirls, Smash, These Old Broads, Quantum Leap, Touched by an Angel, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He would also memorably appear as a jazz demon in one episode — the series’ fan-favorite musical episode “Once More, With Feeling” — which he also choreographed.