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Page once said he had never been closeted, and he encouraged others to live their truth.
Ken Page, a gay actor who appeared on Broadway in Cats, in the film of Torch Song Trilogy, and as the voice of Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas, has died at age 70.
Agent Todd M. Eskin reported Page’s death to the Associated Press, but no further details were available.
Page’s first Broadway role was the Cowardly Lion in The Wiz in the late 1970s. In other Broadway projects, he originated the role of Old Deuteronomy in Cats in 1982, appeared as Nicely-Nicely Johnson in an all-Black production of Guys and Dolls in 1976, and was in the casts of Ain’t Misbehavin’ and It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. He also acted extensively in regional theaters, including the Muny in his hometown of St. Louis, where he played Old Deuteronomy in 2010.
He was in a 1998 film version of Cats, played drag queen Murray in the 1988 film of Harvey Fierstein’sTorch Song Trilogy, and appeared as Max Washington in the movie of Dreamgirls. He was perhaps most famous for voicing Oogie Boogie, the villain in The Nightmare Before Christmas. That film’s writer, Tim Burton, paid tribute to Page on X, posting, “He was simply one of the best, most generous souls I know. Full of life and overflowing with joy. Talented and then some. Ken, my friend, you will be deeply missed,”
Page voiced Oogie Boogie in video games and did other voice acting, including in All Dogs Go to Heaven, in which he was King Gator. His television work encompassed roles in Charmed, Touched by an Angel, Family Matters, and more.
Page once said he had never been closeted. Speaking of friends he lost at the height of the AIDS epidemic, he told St. Louis magazine in 2012, “It would be a dishonor to them not to be who I am. And after living 58 years on this earth, not to be fully myself would be a dishonor to my own spirit.”
In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprising over police violence against Black Americans, he voiced encouragement to younger people in a video on Broadway World.“These are troubled times, and yet I think we can and should celebrate Pride,” he said. The Stonewall riots of 1969, he noted, “made it easier for my generation who were a little younger to step into the light instead of the shadows. I celebrate who fought and for what. I think we all know that the fight is not over. Now we must fight to keep the strides we have made.”
“Let us march, protest, pray, and fight for that recognition as we look for truth and justice because we know all Black Lives Matter,” he concluded. “Let’s continue to welcome our supporters and advocates in this time of change. If the ‘children’ at Stonewall could do it, we can do it!”
