Hilton Battle, who played the dancing demon, Sweet, in Buffy‘s musical episode, Once More, With Feeling, has passed after a lengthy illness, his family have confirmed.

Hinton was a trained ballet dancer and made his debut on Broadway as the scarecrow in the original production of The Wiz when he was just 18. He would go on to be the only person to win three Tony awards for featured actor in a musical, for his performances in Sophisticated Lades (1981), The Tap Dance Kid (1984) and Miss Saigon (1991).

As well as Buffy, his TV credits included Quantum Leap and Touched by an Angel. He was also active behind the scenes and his chorography credits included Idlewild, Boldena nd Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.

He will be sadly missed.