Dennis Hines

Dennis Hines grew up on 110th Road in Hollis, Queens, the son of Theresa Merritt Hines — the actress known to millions as Mama Curtis on ABC’s That’s My Mama and celebrated for her Broadway triumphs in The Wiz and August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Following in his mother’s footsteps, Dennis took up acting and appeared in Sidney Poitier’s landmark western Buck and the Preacher.

A Young Actor in the Early 1970s

The first few years of Dennis Hines’s acting career were remarkably productive. Over 1972 and 1973, he appeared in several major television and film projects that placed him at the heart of a transformative era in American entertainment.

His most historically significant role was as one of the two leads in the ABC Afterschool Special Follow the North Star, broadcast on November 1, 1972. The episode told the story of a white Pennsylvania boy who helps a young enslaved boy (played by Hines) escape from Maryland via the Underground Railroad. The New York Times praised the production for handling a difficult topic with “exceptionally keen brush strokes of writing” and for its “untheatrical” young leads who “look and behave like real boys.” It was one of the earliest nationally televised children’s dramas to confront the horrors of slavery with such directness, and Hines’s performance was central to its impact.

That same year, Hines appeared as “Little Toby” in Buck and the Preacher, the landmark 1972 western that marked Sidney Poitier’s directorial debut. The film, starring Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Ruby Dee, is remembered for expanding the scope of Black representation in the western genre. In another major production, Hines played the role of “Vandy” in To All My Friends on Shore, a television movie created by and starring Bill Cosby, about a father struggling to support his family.

His other credits from this period include the television movie A Dream for Christmas (1973), the TV series Madigan (episode “The Midtown Beat”), and the international film Um por Deus, Outro pelo Diabo (1972).

The Hines Family of 110th Road

The Hines family was one of the deep‑rooted families of Hollis — the kind that helps define a neighborhood not only through public achievement, but through decades of presence, community involvement, and the steady accumulation of bonds that hold a place together.

Theresa Merritt Hines and her husband Benjamin Hines were married for 52 years. They had four children: Norman, Benjamin Jr., and twins Dennis and Denise. By 1974, Dennis had already launched his own acting career, with his siblings cheering him on. The family gathered for the premieres of his films, including Buck and the Preacher, celebrating the achievements of their youngest son.

The family home at 190-15 110th Road was a sanctuary where scripts were rehearsed, jazz and blues scores were analyzed, and generations of neighborhood children were shown what was possible when roots were planted deeply in stable, supportive soil. In 1998 The New York Times noted that Theresa Merritt “lived in the Hollis section of Queens” — a confirmation that the family’s roots in this neighborhood were deep and abiding.

Theresa Merritt’s career spanned five decades, from the original 1943 production of Carmen Jones to an episode of N.Y.P.D. Blue. The New York Times critic Frank Rich called her “Ma Rainey incarnate — a singing actress of both wit and power.” She originated the title role in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (earning a Tony nomination in 1985) and appeared as Aunt Em in the original run of The Wiz and in the 1978 film version. On television she became beloved as Mama Curtis on That’s My Mama (1974‑75).

Theresa and Benjamin are both buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, Queens, where the Friends of Maple Grove Cemetery help preserve their memory. In 2025, Theresa Merritt Hines’s legacy was publicly honored through a street co‑naming in Queens — official recognition of what neighbors and family had long known: the Hines name belongs in the cultural memory of Southeast Queens.