15 Facts About Lynne Thigpen

Cherlynne Theresa Thigpen was an American actress of stage and screen.

Lynne Thigpen won a Tony Award in 1997 for portraying Dr Judith Kaufman in An American Daughter, and played Ella Farmer on The District.

Lynne Thigpen first gained attention for her role in the 1971 off-Broadway musical Godspell.

Lynne Thigpen was born in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Illinois to George and Celia Lynne Thigpen.

Lynne Thigpen taught high school English briefly while studying theatre at the University of Illinois on an acting fellowship.

Lynne Thigpen moved to New York City in 1971 to begin her career as a stage actress.

Lynne Thigpen had a long and prolific theater career and appeared in numerous musicals including Godspell, The Night That Made America Famous, The Magic Show, Working, Tintypes, and An American Daughter.

In 1994, Lynne Thigpen originated a role in an Adrienne Kennedy short play Motherhood 2000, while in 1995, she served as associate artistic director of the acclaimed off-Broadway theater, Circle Repertory Company, while Austin Pendleton served as artistic director.

Lynne Thigpen portrayed a radio DJ in Walter Hill's The Warriors, and Leonna Barrett, the mother of an expelled student, in Lean on Me, the story of American high school principal Joe Louis Clark.

Lynne Thigpen had a role in the remake of Shaft as the mother of a murder victim, and played the Second President of the World Congress in Bicentennial Man.

Lynne Thigpen played Luna in the television show Bear in the Big Blue House and appeared in many other television series during her career, most notably in a recurring role as Grace Keefer on the ABC daytime drama All My Children and a supporting role as Ella Mae Farmer, a crime analyst for the Washington, DC, police department, on the CBS crime drama The District.

Lynne Thigpen appeared in radio skits of the Garrison Keillor program The American Radio Company of the Air.

Lynne Thigpen's voice was heard on over 20 audio books, primarily works with socially relevant themes.

Lynne Thigpen died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 12,2003, in her Marina del Rey, California, home, outside of Los Angeles, after complaining of headaches for several days.

Lynne Thigpen was posthumously nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for voicing Luna the moon in Bear in the Big Blue House, but lost to Jeff Corwin for his eponymous wildlife reality series The Jeff Corwin Experience.