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.
“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.
“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.)
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.
