Gavin Creel, Tony-winning theater actor, dies at 48 from cancer

The stage star was diagnosed in July.

Gavin Creel, the Tony and Olivier Award-winning theater actor, has died from cancer. He was 48.

The Broadway staple died Monday in Manhattan from a rare and aggressive form of sarcoma, his publicist confirmed to Entertainment Weekly. Creel was diagnosed with cancer in July.

A small private gathering for friends and family will be announced at a later date. His family is requesting gifts in his memory be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Creel made his Broadway debut in 2002, starring opposite Sutton Foster in the breakout role of Jimmy Smith in a production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. The performance garnered him his first best lead actor Tony Award nomination. He’d then go on to originate the role of Hollis Bessemer in Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce and play Jean-Michel in the revival of La Cage aux Folles.

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It was Creel's performance as Cornelius Hackl opposite Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce in the 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly! that ultimately nabbed him not just his first Tony win, but also Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards. He also starred in Hair, Waitress, Into the Woods, She Loves Me, and The Book of Mormon, the latter of which earned him an Olivier Award for his performance as Elder Price.

Speaking about his journey from Ohio to New York City in a documentary short from Broadway Collection released earlier this year, Creel said it was a high school production of Camelot that ultimately led him to the Broadway stage.

"I knew I got bit by the bug because when that show ended, I was depressed," Creel recounted. "The show was fun, the music was great, but it was about the people I was with. We were all in a common, passionate goal to tell a story. I wanted that for a living. I wanted to be a part of that for my life."

The stage actor also ventured into television and film, appearing in Ryan Murphy's American Horror Stories in 2021 and the TV movies Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime.

Creel is survived by parents Nancy Clemens Creel and James Wiliiam Creel; sisters Heather Elise Creel and Allyson Jo Creel and her wife Jen Kolb; partner Alex Temple Ward; and his dog, Nina.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.