Gavin Creel, the musical theater actor who won a Tony Award for it Hello, Dollie! and was nominated for Her And Thoroughly modern Milliedied Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 48.

Creel’s death was confirmed by his partner, Alex Temple Ward, through a publicist, Matt Polk. The cause was metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare form of cancer that Creel only learned he had two months ago.

Born April 18, 1976 in Findlay, Ohio, Gavin Creel began his career in musical theater tours and regional work before landing the breakout role of Jimmy Smith opposite Sutton Foster in the Broadway production of Thoroughly modern Millie.

After touring in the Chicago production of Stephen Sondheim’s RoadshowCreel made his acting debut in the 2003 film Eloise on the Plaza and its sequel, Eloise at Christmas time.

Creel returned to Broadway in the 2004 revival La Cage aux Folles. Two years later he made his West End debut in Maria Poppins. He returned to Broadway in 2009 in the revival of Her and transferred to London until 2010, when the production transferred to the West End. Next Herhe starred in the world premiere of Prometheus bound at the American Repertory Theater.

In 2014, Creel won an Olivier Award for his role as missionary Elder Price The Book of Mormonstarring in the show’s first national tour and in London’s West End.

In 2017, he starred opposite Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce as Cornelius Hackl in the revival of Hello, Dollie!for which he won the aforementioned Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Creel’s other stage credits included La Cage aux Folles (2004), She loves me (2016), Waitress (2019), and In the forest (2022), among many others. On television he appeared in two episodes of Ryan Murphy’s American horror stories on FX on Hulu.

The Shubert Organization, the oldest professional theater company in the United States, wrote on X that the “lights on Broadway will shine a little less” after Creel’s death.

SAG-AFTRA, the actors union of which Creel was a member, noted that one of “Broadway’s brightest lights has left us.”

Other tributes on social media include…

“I looked forward to working with him every night. He was fantastic. I can’t believe he’s gone. What a loss,” Bette Midler wrote on X.

Idina Menzel shared a photo of Creelm on Instagram and wrote: “Dear sweet Gavin Creel. An angel among angels.”

“Rest now @realgavincreel,” cheerfulness alum Lea Michele wrote on Instagram. “I send my love and prayers to his family and all those who were fortunate enough to know his light.”