Lynn Thigpen
Lynne Thigpen was born on this date in 1948. She was a Black actress.
Born in Joliet, IL, she was first seen on the New York stage in the 1975 "The Night That Made America Famous." She stuck with her craft and, not long thereafter, won a Theatre World Award for her performance in "Tintypes." Thigpen was also in films, including "Warriors" (1979), "Godspell" (1981), "Tootsie" (1981), "Lean on Me" (1985) and "Impulse" (1988). Other films were "Bob Roberts," "Random Hearts," "Shaft," and "The Insider."
By the early 1990s, Thigpen was well-known to TV viewers of all ages. She played the Chief in PBS' "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? And Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?" Thigpen played nurse Grace Keefer on ABC’s "All My Children." Most recently, she played the role of Ella Farmer in the crime drama "The District," a statistics clerk who aided the chief of police of Washington, D.C., in his work. Thigpen won a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway production of "An American Daughter."
She also won an L.A. Drama Critics Award for her role in a Los Angeles production of "Fences." Her additional television credits include the series "Thirtysomething" and "L.A. Law" and the movies "The Boys Next Door and Night Ride Home. Thigpen was also the voice of Luna" in the children's show "Bear in the Big Blue House."
Lynne Thigpen died suddenly at her Los Angeles home on March 12, 2003. No cause of death was immediately announced, but death was later attributed to a heart attack; she was 54.
