Gavin Creel, Tony-winning Broadway actor, dies at 48

Gavin Creel, a Tony Award-winning Broadway actor who starred in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Hello, Dolly! and “Into The Woods,” among other hit musicals, died Monday at age 48.

Creel’s death was first confirmed to the New York Times by his partner Alex Temple Ward via theater publicist Matt Polk. The cause was metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare type of cancer, which the actor was diagnosed with in July.

News of Creel’s death sparked widespread condolences from other stage and screen actors, including several of his former co-stars.

“Gavin was my first role model, idol and hero,” Ben Platt wrote on his Instagram Stories. “He took me backstage after I saw my first Broadway show. I couldn’t believe that someone so supernaturally talented could also be everyone’s favorite person. I wanted to sing like him and be like him.”

Bette Midler shared similar views on X, formerly Twitter.

“He played Cornelius Hackl for my Dolly in Hello Dolly and I looked forward to working with him every night. He was amazing,” she wrote. “I can’t believe he’s gone. What a loss.”

A native of Findlay, Ohio, Creel graduated from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance in 1998. Four years later, he made his Broadway debut opposite Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie, which earned him the first of three Tony Award nominations. He then showcased his talent in musicals such as “Hair,” “She Loves Me,” and “Waitress.”

He received an Olivier Award – the British equivalent of a Tony Award – in 2014 for his portrayal of Elder Price in the London production of “The Book of Mormon,” a role he later reprized on Broadway. In 2017, he won a Tony for his outstanding performance in “Hello, Dolly!”, starring Midler.

Although best known as a stage actor, Creel appeared on television several times, most notably in the holiday-themed family films “Eloise at the Plaza” and its sequel “Eloise at Christmastime.” In 2021, he had a supporting role in Hulu’s “American Horror Story” spinoff series “American Horror Stories.”

Behind the scenes, Creel was known as a staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2009, he co-founded Broadway Impact, an advocacy group promoting same-sex marriage, with producer Jenny Kanelos and fellow actor Rory O’Malley. That same year, he persuaded the producers of “Hair” to cancel an appearance so that he and his cast could attend an LGBTQ+ rights march in Washington, DC

Creel’s final Broadway role came in 2022, when he portrayed Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in the Tony-nominated revival of “Into the Woods.” His last appearance on the New York stage was in “Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice,” a semi-autobiographical musical he wrote and commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In the show, which had a successful off-Broadway run at the MCC Theater last December, Creel used some of the Met’s best-known works as conduits for deeper revelations about his relationships, his Christianity and his sexuality.

Speaking to HuffPost last year shortly after “Walk on Through” premiered, Creel said he envisioned bringing the show to Broadway and later adapting it as both a documentary and a podcast.

“I grew up in the Midwest and we don’t talk about our feelings, politics, sex or religion,” he said. “I talk about all these things in a play. I try to vigorously embody myself, and that’s difficult because I was just trying to make characters that aren’t me as real as possible.”

“My parents saw the show for the first time and my dad beautifully said to my director, ‘I wish I had known the pain he was in when he was younger.’ “I didn’t know he needed this help,” he continued. “And I thought, ‘How wonderful is it that I can give a little insight into my experiences.’ I’m going to go there and tell you the truth and try to open up to you so that you feel empowered to open up to someone else.”