Gavin Creel, Tony Award Winner & Broadway Star, Dies at 48

Gavin Creel, an accomplished Broadway actor best known for his performance in Hello, Dolly!, has died. He was 48 years old.

The star’s publicist told The Associated Press that Creel died at home in NYC after a two-month battle with metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma. Per Mayo Clinic, the rare form of cancer starts in the nerves that run from the spinal cord into the body.

Creel was born and raised in Findlay, Ohio, and as a young adult, toured and did regional work before landing his first big role as Jimmy Smith in Broadway’s Thoroughly Modern Millie. He also portrayed Claude Hooper Bukowski in the Public Theater’s revival of Hair in 2009. Creel won an Olivier Award in 2014 for his role as missionary Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, starring in the show’s first national tour and in London’s West End.

Most notably, in 2017, he starred opposite Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce as Cornelius Hackl in the popular 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly!, for which he won the Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical. He was previously nominated in 2002 and 2009 for best actor in a musical for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Hair, respectively.

Creel also worked in television, portraying Bill in 2003’s Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. He voiced Matthews in Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure and appeared on Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Stories as Troy.

Following the news of his death, Lin-Manuel Miranda took to social media to reveal that Creel was his first King George III when Hamilton was being workshopped, noting that he “wrapped the audience around his finger with nothing but a Burger King crown and his mind-blowing charisma and talent.” Miranda added, “He is so loved and it is unimaginable that he’s no longer with us.”

Idina Menzel mirrored the sentiment, writing on Instagram, “Sweet sweet Gavin Creel. An angel among the angels. I love you so much.”