Bill Henderson
Bill Henderson was an actor and jazz vocalist, who performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones Count Basie and many more. His 1963 album, Bill Henderson With the Oscar Peterson Trio, is considered a jazz classic.
As a Jazz vocalist, Henderson performed at the Playboy Club, the Kennedy Center, the Hotel Algonquin’s Oak Room and at Lincoln Center. He recorded a vocal version of the popular instrumental song “Señor Blues” for Blue Note Records, which was a hit and is still one of the biggest-selling singles in the label’s history.
In 1967, he moved to Hollywood and pursued an acting career. He performed on the television series Happy Days, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Harry O, The Jeffersons, What’s Happening!, Good Times, Diff’rent Strokes, Hart to Hart, The Incredible Hulk, Cagney & Lacey, Benson, Hill Street Blues, Dreams, The Facts of Life, The Twilight Zone, Valerie, MacGyver, Picket Fences, In the Heat of the Night, NYPD Blue, Mad About You, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, ER, 7th Heaven, Cold Case and My Name Is Earl.
Bill Henderson was an actor and jazz vocalist, who performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Quincy Jones Count Basie and many more. His 1963 album, Bill Henderson With the Oscar Peterson Trio, is considered a jazz classic.
As a Jazz vocalist, Henderson performed at the Playboy Club, the Kennedy Center, the Hotel Algonquin’s Oak Room and at Lincoln Center. He recorded a vocal version of the popular instrumental song “Señor Blues” for Blue Note Records, which was a hit and is still one of the biggest-selling singles in the label’s history.
In 1967, he moved to Hollywood and pursued an acting career. He performed on the television series Happy Days, The Bill Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Harry O, The Jeffersons, What’s Happening!, Good Times, Diff’rent Strokes, Hart to Hart, The Incredible Hulk, Cagney & Lacey, Benson, Hill Street Blues, Dreams, The Facts of Life, The Twilight Zone, Valerie, MacGyver, Picket Fences, In the Heat of the Night, NYPD Blue, Mad About You, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, ER, 7th Heaven, Cold Case and My Name Is Earl.
He also appeared in the films Silver Streak, starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor; Fletch, starring Chevy Chase; Clue, with Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, and Madeline Kahn; Cousins, with Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini; City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal; Maverick, with Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner; Ghosts of Mississippi, with Alec Baldwin, James Woods and Whoopi Goldberg; Conspiracy Theory, with Gibson, Julia Roberts and Patrick Stewart; and Lethal Weapon 4, with Gibson, Danny Glover and Joe Pesci.
Henderson died April 3, 2016, in Los Angeles. He was 90.
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