It was Bojangles who taught the 6-year-old Shirley Temple how to tap dance. He was in his 50s at the time, but the age difference didn't seem to matter to the young star. She told NPR, "Bill Robinson treated me as an equal, which was very important to me. He didn't talk down to me, like to a little girl. And I liked people like that. And Bill Robinson was the best of all."

The pair would share the screen for a monumental moment. When Bojangles and Temple performed their tap-dancing scene in the 1935 film "The Little Colonel," it was the first time an interracial dancing pair was shown on the silver screen. That means a 6-year-old Temple paved the way for more actors and actresses to share the screen regardless of their race.

According to Temple, Bojangles lovingly referred to her as "darlin'" while she called him "Uncle Billy." She maintained great respect and admiration for the acting and dancing legend long after his death in 1949.