Gavin Creel, Tony Award Winner and Musical Broadway Veteran, Dies at 48

Gavin Creel poses at a photo call for <i>Waitress</i> on Broadway at Sardi's on Jan. 4, 2019 in New York City. Credit - Bruce Glikas/WireImage— Getty Images

NEW YORK (AP) — Gavin Creel, a Broadway veteran who won a Tony Award for Hello, Dolly! and nominations for Hair and Thoroughly Modern Millie, died Monday of a rare and aggressive form of cancer. He was 48.

Publicist Matt Polk said Creel died at his home in Manhattan of metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma.

Creel performed the role of Dr. Pomatter in Sara Bareilles’ musical Waitress on Broadway in 2019 and on the West End in 2020. He won an Olivier Award for The Book of Mormon.

He played Steven Kodaly in the 2016 production of She Loves Me at Studio 54. The following season, Creel was tapped for the role of Cornelius Hackl, opposite legends Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce, in the smash 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly! directed by Jerry Zaks.

He also played the singing waiter Bill in the films Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime alongside Julie Andrews. In 2021, he was cast in Ryan Murphy’s miniseries American Horror Stories opposite Matt Bomer. His 2022 solo concert was filmed for the premiere episode of PBS’s Stars Onstage at Westport Country Playhouse.

He is survived by his mother, Nancy Clemens Creel, and father, James William Creel; his sisters, Heather Elise Creel and Allyson Jo Creel; and his partner, Alex Temple Ward.

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