In the world of hip-hop, Adolfo Quiñones was a trailblazer who went by the stage name of Shabba Doo and helped bring the art of breakdancing into the mainstream. He died on Dec. 30 at age 65.

A choreographer and actor, Quiñones is best known for his film role as Ozone Barco in the 1980s breakdance movies “Breakin’” and “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” 

In June, Quiñones was one of a handful of cast members from those movies who reunited to look back on the legacy of the cult classics.

“I didn’t particularly care for ‘Breakin’ 2,’” Quiñones said at the virtual event staged by Yahoo Entertainment. He said he thought the story was “going more toward a cartoony point of view.” He also said there might be a third film in the works and outlined the basic premise. “I’ve been in negotiations with people who can help make the movie. In today’s world, the king of street dancing should be a woman, first of all…We hope to not recapture what we did before, but do something much greater.”

Quiñones died at his Los Angeles home a day after testing negative for coronavirus, his publicist, Biff Warren said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The next day he’s dead,” Warren told The Reporter. “It opens up all kinds of questions.”

The day before he died, Quiñones told followers on social media that he was feeling better after having a cold, Yahoo reported. He also shared he had tested negative for covid-19.

No official cause of death has been released so far.

Quiñones was born in Chicago in 1955 to an African-American mother and Puerto Rican father. He co-founded the dance troupe The Lockers, which specialized in the pre-hip-hop dance known as locking, The New York Daily News reported. Among the dance troupe’s earliest members were “Mickey” singer Toni Basil and “What’s Happening!!” star Fred Berry, both of whom went on to fame.

Basil broke the news of Quiñones’ death, Yahoo reported.

Quiñones often spoke of his love of dance and his dance icons, including Fred Astaire, Jackie Wilson, and Cab Calloway.

“When I was 3 or 4 year old, I used to dance for my family at parties and holidays for change,” he recalled during one interview. “I grew up in a mixed household . . . so I would listen to James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Tito Puente, all in the same moment.”

Quiñones became a regular on the entertainment scene in the 1980s. He appeared as a dancer on the popular weekly show “Soul Train” and backed Bette Midler’s “Bette! Divine Madness” Broadway show in the early 1980s. He toured with Madonna on her 1987 Who’s That Girl? Tour, according to The Reporter.

His TV appearances during the 1980s and ’90s included “Miami Vice” and “Kids Incorporated.”

Quiñones also wrote and directed the 1993 feature film “Rave, Dancing to a Different Beat,” according to IMDb. 

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.

In 2006, he choreographed the Academy Awards dance routine for Three 6 Mafia’s “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” which won the Oscar for original song that year.

Quiñones married “Waiting to Exhale” actress Lela Rochon in 1982. They divorced five years later. He had two marriages.

He is survived by two children.