Alex Temple Ward and Gavin Creel. Courtesy of Alex Temple Ward/Instagram
Gavin Creel’s longtime partner, fellow actor Alex Temple Ward, has broken his silence after the late Broadway star died at 48.
“I will continue falling in love with you every day for the rest of my life,” Ward captioned a recent Instagram upload. “Forever, my love.”
Ward shared a carousel of photos of the couple, who were together for more than 10 years.
Many of Ward and Creel’s fellow Broadway stars shared their support in the comments section.
Unique Nicole/Getty Images Celebrities are mourning the loss of Tony Award winner Gavin Creel. Adam Lambert and Rosie O’Donnell were amongst the famous faces to offer their condolences to Creel’s family, friends and loved ones after his death. He was 48. “Heartbreaking — what an amazingly talented, loving, fun man,” O’Donnell captioned a tribute to […]
“You brought Gavin such happiness and joy, Alex,” Audra McDonald wrote. “The two of you were sweet magic together. We’re here for you. Love you.”
Several of Creel’s Hello, Dolly! costars were among the celebrities to pay their respects.
Alex Temple Ward and Gavin Creel. Courtesy of Alex Temple Ward/Instagram
“Sending you all the love in the world ❤️,” Beanie Feldstein added.
Donna Murphy, for her part, wrote, “Sending you much love and light Alex. Holding you high in my thoughts & fully in my ❤️.
Us Weekly confirmed on September 30 that the Tony Award winner died at the couple’s home in New York following his battle with metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, which he’d been diagnosed with in July. (Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors are rare forms of cancer that start in the spinal cord and run into the body via nerves, according to the Mayo Clinic.)
Hollywood mourned many celebrities in 2024. Speed Racer star Christian Oliver (born Christian Klepser) died at the age of 51 during a fatal plane crash on January 5. Oliver was traveling home from a Caribbean vacation with his two daughters — Madita and Annik, whom he shared with wife Jessica Klepser — on January 4. […]
Creel underwent treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering before receiving home hospice care.
Creel was a prolific Broadway star who appeared in productions of Hair, La Cage Aux Folles, She Loves Me, The Book of Mormon, Waitress and Into the Woods. He won his first Tony Award in 2017 for his supporting role as Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly!
“The Tony really felt like a hug from the community I’ve been in for 20 years,” Creel told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2018. “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.”
Creel is survived by Ward, as well as his parents and sisters. The Broadway community has also rallied around the family.
“Don’t meet your heroes … Unless they are Gavin Creel,” Aaron Tveit wrote via Instagram last month. “When I was studying to become an actor, I only wanted to be Gavin. And then, I was fortunate enough to meet him and become his friend. And since then, I’ve only wanted to try and be more like him. The best of everything that’s good in this world.”
Many New York City theaters also dimmed their marquee lights earlier this week in Creel’s honor, and a candlelight vigil was held at the Actor’s Church in London on October 2.
