Which actor plays the hotel chef Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining?

Scatman Crothers plays hotel chef Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Hallorann is the Overlook Hotel’s head chef and shares the psychic ability called “the shining” with Danny Torrance. Crothers gives the character a warm, reassuring presence, making Hallorann an important source of information and help for Danny before the winter isolation becomes dangerous.

The role is sometimes confused with other adult characters in the film. Philip Stone plays Delbert Grady, the former caretaker; Barry Nelson plays hotel manager Stuart Ullman; and Joe Turkel plays the unsettling bartender Lloyd. These characters occupy very different parts of the story.

The Shining was adapted from Stephen King’s 1977 novel, but Kubrick’s film changes several details, including aspects of Hallorann’s role and fate. Crothers’s performance remains one of the film’s clearest links between Danny’s supernatural perception and the hotel’s history.