Ken Page, the formidable Broadway actor and voice of Oogie Boogie in the film “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” has died.
He was 70.
Page’s rep, Lance Kirkland, told TMZ that he died “very peacefully” in his home in St. Louis Monday.
“He was a beautiful, talented man who was larger than life. Ken was loved and adored by so many and will be missed so much,” Kirkland added.
Page, who had a powerful baritone, is perhaps best known for playing Old Deuteronomy, the leader of the Jellicles, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” in the 1980s.
But more will recognize his voice as that of Oogie Boogie, the villainous Halloween Town baddie in Tim Burton’s 1993 stop-motion movie, “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Page made his Broadway debut as the Lion in “The Wiz,” singing “I’m A Mean Old Lion” and “Ease On Down The Road.”
The actor went on to play Nicely Nicely Johnson in the all-black revival of “Guys and Dolls” at the Broadway Theatre in 1976, and he was in the five-person original cast of the revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’” at the Longacre, alongside Nell Carter and André De Shields.
Then he donned a big furry coat as Old Deuteronmy, the fatherly figure in “Cats,” who wails the tunes “Moments of Happiness” and “The Ad-dressing of Cats.”
Page appeared in other films besides “Nightmare” and the 1998 filmed version of “Cats.”
He voiced King Gator in 1989’s “All Dogs Go to Heaven” and played Max Washington in 2006’s “Dreamgirls” with Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles and Eddie Murphy with Jennifer Hudson.
Page’s final Broadway credit was in the 1999 musical “It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues” at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.
British actress Elaine Page (no relation), who starred as Grizabella in the 1998 “Cats,” opposite Ken Page, paid tribute to her fellow cat.
“My wonderful Old Deuteronomy, Ken Page, in the 1998 theatrical movie version of [‘Cats’], has gone to the heaviside layer,” she wrote. “We certainly are having a sad September. He was a lovely, kind, talented man. RIP Ken.”
