Tony Winner Gavin Creel Dead at Age 48: Cause of Death Revealed

Tony Award-winning actor Gavin Creel died at the age of 48.

Creel died at his home in New York on Monday, September 30. His death was confirmed to Us Weekly by his partner, Alex Temple Ward, through a publicist.

The cause of his death was metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, which Creel was diagnosed with in July. Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors are a very rare form of cancer that starts in the spinal cord and runs into the body via nerves, Mayo Clinic reports.

Per Playbill, Creel underwent treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering before starting home hospice care.

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Creel made his broadway debut in 2002, playing Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie. He received a Tony Award nomination for the role.

During his career, Creel starred in productions of Hair — for which he received a Tony Award nomination — La Cage Aux Folles, She Loves Me, The Book of Mormon and Waitress. He earned a Tony Award for his performance in Hello, Dolly! as Cornelius Hackl in 2017.

Creel reflected on his award during a 2018 interview with The San Francisco Chronicle. “The Tony really felt like a hug from the community I’ve been in for 20 years,” he said. “That feels good. I can literally do nothing else in my life and I’m still a Tony winner. I will never not have done that.”

Aside from Broadway, Creel also dabbled in roles on TV, including in Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. He also appeared in Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Stories.

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In 2021, Creel opened up about his role as a gay man in the horror series — which he called his favorite part about the experience of working on the show.

“I want to tell more gay stories,” he told Theaterly at the time. “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’s writing and making and producing all different kinds of stories like that. If I never play a straight person, that’s fine with me. I want it to be interesting or some complicated, beautiful, deep, rich, weird, horrifying character who just happens to love men, you know? And I’m really happy to have gotten to do just that.”

Creel is survived by Ward, his parents Nancy Clemens Creel and James William Creel and his sisters Heather Elise Creel and Allyson Jo Creel.