The Broadway community has lost a star. Clifton Oliver, who appeared in the stage adaptation of The Lion King and other musicals, has died on Aug. 2, his sister Roxy Hall confirmed. He was 47 years old.
“My baby brother, Clifton Oliver, has had his final curtain call,” Hall wrote on Facebook that day. “It was peaceful. His partner Richard, was singing to him the song Psalm 23 as he took his last breath this morning at 3:20 AM. He had a Gorgeous smile on his Beautiful face!! He went twirling into the afterlife ready to make his Grand Appearance as the Star of his Homecoming Celebration! My heart is sad, and overjoyed at the same time! I will miss him, but he is finally at peace!
Hall noted she will remember her brother as someone who “brought so much life to this world” and to her life.
“He impacted the lives of people throughout the world as he showcased his amazing talent, kind soul, and loving spirit to EVERYONE he met!” she continued. “He will be missed, but never forgotten! He lives within all of us! As the song goes in one of his most prominent roles of Simba in the Lion King on Broadway, He Lives In Me!”
While Hall did not share Oliver’s cause of death, she did note that he had recently been in the hospital.
“I will value my time with him the last six weeks of his life that I spent at his bedside in the hospital and then finally hospice,” Hall concluded. “I was able to love on my baby brother, and I will always cherish the memories of having an honor and privilege to do just that! There will be more information to come, as we begin to plan the Celebration of Clifton Oliver!
Oliver was born in 1975 and grew up in Jacksonville, Fla.—where he attended the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts—before moving to New York in 2010 to pursue a career on Broadway, according to Playbill. In addition to starring in The Lion King, he was an understudy for the part of Fiyero in Wicked and played Benny in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, which also featured Jordin Sparks.
Source: eonline
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