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Louise Thomas
Editor
Gavin Creel, the Tony Award-winning Broadway actor, has died. He was 48.
Creel won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2017 for Hello, Dolly! and had also previously been nominated for his roles in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Hair.
The New York Times reports that his death was caused by a metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a type of nerve cancer which the actor learned he had in July.
His death was confirmed by his partner, Alex Temple Ward, via publicist Matt Polk.
Creel was born in Findlay, Ohio on April 18, 1976. He graduated from Findlay High School in 1994 and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 1998.
He began his career in regional theatre, and in 1998 he played Nick Piazza in a production of Fame that toured the United States and Canada.
Creel made his Broadway debut in 2002, originating the role of Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie. His performance was a breakout success, and he was nominated for the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.
The following year, Creel was introduced to a broader audience when he played Bill in the television adaptation of the popular children’s book Eloise at the Plaza and its sequel Eloise at Christmastime.
He returned to Broadway in 2004 in a revival La Cage aux Folles. In 2006, he made his West End debut in Mary Poppins and released his debut pop album Goodtimenation. He self-released a second album, Get Out, in 2012.
In 2009, Creel played Claude in the Broadway revival of Hair, a performance that earned him his second Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. He remained in the cast when the production transferred to London in 2010.
Creel starred in the hit musical The Book of Mormon from 2012 to 2015, winning the award for Best Actor in a Musical at the 2014 Laurence Olivier Awards.
In 2016 he joined a revival of She Loves Me, playing salesman Steven Kodaly opposite Jane Krakowski.
The following year he won a Tony for his performance as Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly!, in which he starred opposite Bette Midler.
In 2021, he appeared in two episodes of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Stories. He played Troy Winslow, the husband of Matt Bomer’s Michael Winslow. “I love being able to play a gay man,” Creel told Theatrely. “I want to tell more gay stories. Ryan Murphy is the hero of putting especially the gay community and stories on screen. I’m so excited to have been an interesting, weird, and complex gay character, and it’s not just the standard stereotypical ones.”
He is survived by his partner, Ward; his parents, Nancy Clemens Creel and James William Creel and his sisters Heather Elise Creel and Allyson Jo Creel.
