Ken Web page, a stage and display actor who starred alongside Beyoncé in “Dreamgirls,” launched Broadway audiences to Previous Deuteronomy in “Cats” and scared generations of youngsters because the voice of Oogie Boogie, the villain of the 1993 animated vacation movie ”The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas,″ has died. He was 70.Expertise agent Todd M. Eskin of ATB Expertise Company introduced the demise Tuesday to The Related Press, however no particulars had been instantly obtainable.“He was merely top-of-the-line, most beneficiant souls I do know. Lively and overflowing with pleasure. Gifted after which some. Ken, my good friend, you may be deeply missed,” writer-producer Tim Burton wrote on X.Web page made his Broadway debut in “The Wiz,” taking part in the Cowardly Lion, and went on to painting Properly-Properly Johnson in “Guys and Dolls” with Robert Guillaume. He additionally was featured within the authentic forged of the Fat Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin,'” profitable a Drama Desk Award, and was aboard when it returned to Broadway in 1988.Web page originated the function of sensible Previous Deuteronomy when “Cats” landed on Broadway in 1982 and went on to a then-record run, singing “Previous Deuteronomy,” “The Moments of Happiness” and “The Advert-Dressing of Cats.”Elaine Paige, who originated the function of Grizabella in “Cats” and reprised the function within the 1998 “Cats” movie model, paid tribute to her co-star on X, saying Web page “has gone to the heaviside layer” and including, “He was a beautiful, type, proficient man.”In 2010, Web page revisited the Previous Deuteronomy on the Muny — the Municipal Theatre Affiliation of St. Louis — and the critic for the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch stated: “Web page, a looming light presence, fills the function of the feline spirit information to the hilt,” including, “Perhaps no one’s going to bow to a kitty whereas intoning ‘OH CAT,’ however Web page could make you not less than take into account it.”Web page would maybe make his deepest influence because the voice of Oogie Boogie, the burlap sack with tons of of bugs crawling within him, in Burton’s ”The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas.″ It was his character’s hope to develop into the Seven Holidays King by kidnapping the Vacation Leaders for the opposite holidays. ““It’s hopeless/you’re completed/You haven’t obtained a prayer/’Trigger I’m Mr. Oogie Boogie/And also you ain’t going nowhere,” he sang to Santa.He would go on to reprise the Oogie Boogie function, together with in video video games and on the film’s thirtieth anniversary live performance on the Hollywood Bowl in 2023. He additionally voiced King Gator in Disney’s 1989 animated movie “All Canines Go to Heaven.”His different film credit embody 1988’s “Torch Track Trilogy,” by which he performed the witty drag queen Murray, and 2006’s “Dreamgirls,” by which he performed Max Washington. His TV credit embody “Household Issues,” “Touched by an Angel” and “Charmed.”
Ken Web page, a stage and display actor who starred alongside Beyoncé in “Dreamgirls,” launched Broadway audiences to Previous Deuteronomy in “Cats” and scared generations of youngsters because the voice of Oogie Boogie, the villain of the 1993 animated vacation movie ”The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas,″ has died. He was 70.
Expertise agent Todd M. Eskin of ATB Expertise Company introduced the demise Tuesday to The Related Press, however no particulars had been instantly obtainable.
“He was merely top-of-the-line, most beneficiant souls I do know. Lively and overflowing with pleasure. Gifted after which some. Ken, my good friend, you may be deeply missed,” writer-producer Tim Burton wrote on X.
Web page made his Broadway debut in “The Wiz,” taking part in the Cowardly Lion, and went on to painting Properly-Properly Johnson in “Guys and Dolls” with Robert Guillaume. He additionally was featured within the authentic forged of the Fat Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin,'” profitable a Drama Desk Award, and was aboard when it returned to Broadway in 1988.
Web page originated the function of sensible Previous Deuteronomy when “Cats” landed on Broadway in 1982 and went on to a then-record run, singing “Previous Deuteronomy,” “The Moments of Happiness” and “The Advert-Dressing of Cats.”
Elaine Paige, who originated the function of Grizabella in “Cats” and reprised the function within the 1998 “Cats” movie model, paid tribute to her co-star on X, saying Web page “has gone to the heaviside layer” and including, “He was a beautiful, type, proficient man.”
Walter McBride/Getty Photographs
Ken Web page in 2014
In 2010, Web page revisited the Previous Deuteronomy on the Muny — the Municipal Theatre Affiliation of St. Louis — and the critic for the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch stated: “Web page, a looming light presence, fills the function of the feline spirit information to the hilt,” including, “Perhaps no one’s going to bow to a kitty whereas intoning ‘OH CAT,’ however Web page could make you not less than take into account it.”
Web page would maybe make his deepest influence because the voice of Oogie Boogie, the burlap sack with tons of of bugs crawling within him, in Burton’s ”The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas.″ It was his character’s hope to develop into the Seven Holidays King by kidnapping the Vacation Leaders for the opposite holidays. ““It’s hopeless/you’re completed/You haven’t obtained a prayer/’Trigger I’m Mr. Oogie Boogie/And also you ain’t going nowhere,” he sang to Santa.
He would go on to reprise the Oogie Boogie function, together with in video video games and on the film’s thirtieth anniversary live performance on the Hollywood Bowl in 2023. He additionally voiced King Gator in Disney’s 1989 animated movie “All Canines Go to Heaven.”
His different film credit embody 1988’s “Torch Track Trilogy,” by which he performed the witty drag queen Murray, and 2006’s “Dreamgirls,” by which he performed Max Washington. His TV credit embody “Household Issues,” “Touched by an Angel” and “Charmed.”
