Gavin Creel, the Broadway actor who won a Tony Award for his performance in “Hello, Dolly!”, died Monday. He was 48.
Creel died at his home in Manhattan from metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that he was diagnosed with in July, according to his publicist Matt Polk.
In addition to his much-lauded performance in “Hello, Dolly!”, Creel was nominated for Tonys in 2002 and 2009 for his work in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Hair”, respectively.
Creel also won a Laurence Olivier Award, the highest honor in British theater, for his performance in “The Book of Mormon” in London in 2014.
“Today, we mourn the devastating loss of Tony Award winner Gavin Creel, whose extraordinary talent, kindness, and passion lit up the stage and our hearts,” the official Tony Awards account wrote on Twitter.
Gavin Creel (center, in yellow coat) performs in “Into The Woods” on Broadway in 2022. (Photo by Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)
Born April 18, 1978, in Findlay, Ohio, Creel fell in love with theater and musicals in high school and graduated from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 1998.
Creel made his Broadway debut as Jimmy Smith in the 2002 stage adaptation of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” His breakthrough performance earned him a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.
In the following years, Creel found consistent work on and off Broadway, including as Jean-Michel in 2004’s revival of “La Cage aux Folles.” His performance in 2009’s revival of “Hair” earned him another Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.
In 2014, his work with “The Book of Mormon” took him to London’s West End, where he stunned audiences as Elder Price and won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
After the two prior nominations, Creel finally secured a Tony Award in 2017 for playing Cornelius Hackl in “Hello, Dolly!”, taking home the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.
Later in his career, Creel also branched out to TV, appearing in two episodes of “American Horror Stories” in 2021.
“I love being able to play a gay man. I want to tell more gay stories,” he told Theatrely at the time. “I’m so excited to have been an interesting, weird, and complex gay character, and it’s not just the standard stereotypical ones.”
With News Wire Services
