Stage veteran actor, Lynda Gravatt dies at 76

Actor Lynda Gravatt who had her theatrical debuts in shows including Doubt 45 Seconds From Broadway Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The Old Settler and Intimate Apparel has passed away She was 76David Gravatt Lyndas son told The Hollywood Reporter that his mother passed away on Friday at a New Brunswick New Jersey hospitalGravatt a founding member of Robert Alexanders Living Stage at the renowned Arena Stage company in Washington won a Theatre World award in 1999 for her performance as 1940s Harlem resident Quilly McGrath in The Old Settler and an AUDELCO award in 2004 for her role as the bossy landlady Dickson in Intimate ApparelIn 2001 she stood in for Leslie Uggams as Ruby in August Wilsons King Hedley II and she played Bessie James in Neil Simons 45 Seconds From Broadway before appearing as Muller in John Patrick Shanleys Doubt in 2016Her latest Broadway appearance was in 2008 when she understudied the character of Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with James Earl JonesIf Im employed Im happy she told Backstage in a 2019 interview I always wanted to be the ingenue but Im usually cast as the pragmatic grandmother even when I was youngGravatt was born in Harlem on May 24 1947 Her actual father was James Stump Cross a tap dancer and comedian but she was reared by adoptive parentsShe made her Broadway debut at the age of four in the original production of The King and I starring Yul Brynner and Gertrude Lawrence and later played in Carnegie Hall recitals when she was nine years old as per the Hollywood ReporterGravatt attended Fairmont Heights High School in Capitol Heights Maryland and subsequently Howard University where she performed in several shows before graduating in 1971 While in college she performed on the Living Stage which debuted in 1966Her theatrical credits included A Raisin in the Sun Crowns Miss Witherspoon The Little Foxes Skeleton Crew The House That Will Not Stand and in her final theatre appearance in 2018 The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Rolld at The Duke in New YorkGravatt appeared on several television shows including Sex and the City The Good Wife 30 Rock Elementary Madam Secretary Ramy and East New YorkShe was also a regular on the Showtime series The Hoop Life from 1999 to 2000Gravatt was a founding faculty member at Washingtons Duke Ellington School of the Arts and she also taught at Howard and RutgersSurvivors include her sons David a former NBC News writer and Oge grandchildren Josephine Lucas Ishmael Ishana and Isabella and halfsister Peabody Awardwinning documentarian June CrossThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever