Heath Lamberts, Original Beauty and the Beast Player, Dead at 63

Actor Heath Lamberts died of liver failure on February 22 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Shadyside. He was 63, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Lamberts is best known for New York theatergoers for originating the role of Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway and playing The King Sextimus in the 1996 revival of Once Upon a Mattress.

Born in Toronto, Lamberts began his career as an apprentice at the Vineyard Theatre near Niagara Falls. He trained at the National Theatre School in Montreal. Lamberts began performing at theaters in Toronto and Manitoba and was eventually hired to perform at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals. In addition to his Broadway work, his theatrical credits include One for the Pot, Gunga Heath a one-man comic piece, Peer Gynt, Glengarry Glen Ross, Tartuffe, The Crucible and Cyrano de Bergerac. In 1987, Queen Elizabeth II and the Governor General of Canada made Lamberts a member of the Order of Canada.

Lamberts was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999 and decided to move to Pittsburgh with his partner, artist Louise Silk. Despite the fact that he was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, Lamberts continued to perform. He took roles in mountings of Quills for which the Post-Gazette named him 2000 Performer of the Year, La Bete, By Jeeves, Hamlet, Macbeth and Uncle Vanya. He was next expected to appear as Justice Shallow in a spring production of Henry IV.

Lamberts is survived by Silk, two brothers, five nephews and their children.