Lynda Gravátt, Stage Veteran Known for Intimate Apparel, Skeleton Crew and More, Has Died at 77

Actress, director and teacher Lynda Gravátt, best known for her extensive work off-Broadway, died on February 23. The cause of her death has not been publicized. She was 77.

Born in Harlem in 1946, Gravátt began performing at a young age, reportedly making her Broadway debut at four in the cast of The King and I. As a child, she studied a variety of dance styles, from interpretive and African dance to Russian ballet. She earned a BFA from Howard University in 1971, and became an integral part of the Washington, D.C. theater community as an early member of Robert Alexander’s Living Stage Theatre Company, whose work promoted social justice, progressive ideals and community engagement. She also performed with DC Black Repertory, a company founded by Robert Hooks and Vantile Whitfield.

Throughout her career, Gravátt performed in over a dozen productions off-Broadway including John Henry Redwood's The Old Settler, Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, August Wilson's King Hedley II, Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew, in which she originated the role later played on Broadway by Phylicia Rashad, whom Gravátt knew from her years in D.C. In a piece by Howard University acting professor Vera J. Katz, Rashad is quoted as saying, "Lynda was always intelligent, beautiful, talented, purposeful and clean in her work."

On Broadway, Gravátt stood by for Rashad as Big Mama in Debbie Allen's 2008 revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She also served as a standby for Leslie Uggams as Ruby in the original 2001 production of King Hedley II (a role she performed in a Signature Theatre production off-Broadway in 2007), as well as for Adriane Lenox as Mrs. Muller in the original 2005 production of Doubt. She additionally played Bessie James in Neil Simon's 45 Seconds From Broadway in 2001. 

Gravátt was a founding faculty member at Duke Ellington School of the Arts.