Lynne Thigpen

Cherlynne Theresa "Lynne" Thigpen (December 22, 1948 – March 12, 2003) was a prominent African American actress who voiced "Luna" (The Moon) in children's series Bear In The Big Blue House and portrayed "The Chief" of ACME in various Carmen Sandiego television series and computer games from 1991 to 1997. For her varied television work, Thigpen was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards; she won a Tony Award in 1997 for portraying Dr. Judith Kaufman in An American Daughter.

Born in Joliet, Illinois, Thigpen obtained a degree in teaching. She taught high school English briefly while studying theatre at the University of Illinois on an acting fellowship.

Stage

Thigpen moved to New York City in 1971 to begin her career as a stage actress.She had a long and prolific theater career and appeared in numerous musicals including Godspell, The Night That Made America Famous, The Magic Show, Working, Tintypes, and An American Daughter (for which she won her Tony Award for her portrayal of Dr. Judith Kaufman in 1997).

In 1995, she served as associate artistic director of the acclaimed off-Broadway theater, Circle Repertory Company, while Austin Pendleton served as artistic director.

Film

Her first feature film role was as Lynne in Godspell (1973), co-starring opposite Victor Garber and David Haskell. Thigpen also portrayed a radio DJ (shown only from the nose down) in Walter Hill's The Warriors (1979), and Leonna Barrett, the mother of an expelled student, in Lean on Me (1989), the story of American high school principal Joe Louis Clark. She had a role in the remake of Shaft (2000) as the mother of a murder victim, and played the Second President of the World Congress in Bicentennial Man (1999). Her last film, Anger Management (2003), starring Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, was released only a month after her death and paid tribute to her in the end credits.

Television

Thigpen was perhaps best known to television audiences for playing "The Chief" in the award-winning PBS children's geography game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, which involved education, humor, and an occasional musical performance. She reprised her role as The Chief in the successor show Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?.She also played Luna in the television show Bear in the Big Blue House and also appeared in many other television series during her career, most notably in a recurring role as Grace Keefer on the ABC daytime drama All My Children and a supporting role as Ella Mae Farmer, a crime analyst for the Washington, D.C., police department, on the CBS crime drama The District. She guest-starred in episodes of Gimme A Break!, L.A. Law, Law & Order, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Thirtysomething, and was a regular cast member on the short-lived NBC sketch comedy series The News Is the News.

Audio productions

She appeared in radio skits of the Garrison Keillor program The American Radio Company of the Air. Her voice was also heard on over 20 audio books, primarily works with socially relevant themes.

Computer games

In her association with the Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? television show, Thigpen reprised her role as The Chief in three related computer games.Two were released in 1996: Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (a reboot of the original 1985–1992 game) and Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? The following year, a video game counterpart to the TV series' successor show, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, was released, titled Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time. Thigpen recorded hundreds of QuickTime videos for cut-scenes in the games, and generally received praise for her performances in them; in reviewing the 1997 game, David Colker of the Los Angeles Times enjoyed the "on-screen presence of actress Lynne Thigpen", noting that she "brings a winning presence to her role," while Debbie Maria Leon of the New Straits Times wrote that "the urgency of the [confident Chief's] voice [gives] enough oomph to make [the player] go scurrying to restore history".

Thigpen died of a cerebral hemorrhage on March 12, 2003, in her Marina del Rey, California, home after complaining of headaches for several days. She was 54 years old. Drugs and foul play were ruled out by the coroner's autopsy which found "acute cardiac dysfunction, non-traumatic systemic and spontaneous intraventricular hemorrhage, and hemorrhage in the brain." She was entombed next to her parents at Elmhurst Cemetery in her hometown of Joliet, Illinois.

Response and legacy

After Thigpen died, the third-season finale of The District had a tribute to her character Ella Mae Farmer.

Thigpen's death also led to a three-year hiatus of Bear in the Big Blue House, and a planned film version of Bear was put on hold. Two years after Thigpen's death, Bear star Tara Mooney, who played the character Shadow, stated in an interview withRay D'Arcy on Today FM: "The crew's hearts just weren't in it anymore".

Thigpen was posthumously nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for voicing Luna the moon in Bear in the Big Blue House, but she lost to Jeff Corwin for his wildlife reality series The Jeff Corwin Experience.

Thigpen's friends and family established a non-profit foundation, The Lynne Thigpen - Bobo Lewis Foundation, to help young actors and actresses learn how to survive and succeed in New York theater and to mentor the next generation of Broadway stars.

Her final film, Anger Management (2003), was dedicated to her memory. Lynne Thigpen Elementary School in her hometown of Joliet, Illinois, was named in her honor.

Stage

• Godspell: 1973
• The Night That Made America Famous: 1975
• The Magic Show: 1976
• Working
• But Never Jam Today: 1979
• Tintypes: 1980–81
• Fences by August Wilson: 1988
• Boesman and Lena by Athol Fugard: Obie award, 1992
• A Month of Sundays
• Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter: 1996–97 (Tony Award 1997)
• Jar the Floor
• Playhouse Disney Live on Stage!/Bear in the Big Blue House Live on Stage as Luna the Moon

Radio

• A Prairie Home Companion (1989)

Film

• Godspell (1973) as Lynne
• The Warriors (1979) as D.J. (She appears as the radio announcer; only her lips are seen.)
• Amazing Graces (1981)
• Tootsie (1982) as Jo
• Streets of Fire (1984) as Subway Motorwoman (reading in her train; brief dialogue with the main character.)
• Walls of Glass (1985) as Woman Cop
• Sweet Liberty (1986) as Claire
• Hello Again (1987) as Reporter #2
• Running on Empty (1988) as Contact at Eldridge St.
• Lean on Me (1989) as Leonna Barrett
• Fear Stalk (1989, TV Movie) as Barbara
• Impulse (1990) as Dr. Gardner
• Article 99 (1992) as Nurse White
• Bob Roberts (1992) as Kelly Noble
• Naked in New York (1993) as Helen
• The Paper (1994) as Janet
• Blankman (1994) as Grandma Walker
• Just Cause (1995) as Ida Conklin
• Random Hearts (1999) as Phyllis Bonaparte
• The Insider (1999) as Mrs. Williams
• Bicentennial Man (1999) as President Marjorie Bota
• Shaft (2000) as Carla Howard
• Novocaine (2001) as Pat
• Anger Management (2003) as Judge Brenda Daniels (posthumously released; final film role)

Television

• All My Children (1983-2000) as nurse Grace Keefer, aunt of Noah (played by Keith Hamilton Cobb)
• Gimme A Break (1985-1986) as Loretta Harper
• Frank's Place (1988) as the "good" voodoo woman who helps Frank evict a "bad" voodoo female tenant played by Rosalind Cash
• Roseanne (1989) as Dr. Brice
• thirtysomething (1989) as Rosie
• FM (1989-1990) as Naomi Sayers
• Hunter (1990) as Lt. Marilyn Fowler
• The Cosby Show (1991) as Mrs. Hudson
• Hallmark Hall of Fame The Boys Next Door as Mrs. Tracy
• L.A. Law (1991–1992) as District Attorney Ruby Thomas
• Law & Order (1995-1999) as Judge Ida Boucher
• Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (1996, Video Game) as The Chief
• Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1996, Video Game) as The Chief
• Homicide: Life on the Street (1997) as Regina Wilson
• Bear in the Big Blue House (1997-2003) as Luna
• King of the Hill (1998) as a judge who hears the case when Hank disputes a credit card charge over nonexistent movies he never ordered (voice)
• Sesame Street (1998) as Worm Air and Space Agency (WASA) Training Officer
• The District (2000-2003) as Chief Jack Mannion's Director of Administration, Ella Farmer

Software

• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? as The Chief
• Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego? as The Chief
• Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? as The Chief
• Bear in the Big Blue House: Bear's Sense of Adventure as Luna the moon

Voice

• America's War on Poverty, PBS
• All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, by Maya Angelou
• Reading Rainbow
• The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, by Ernest J. Gaines
• Bear in the Big Blue House, as Luna
• The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
• The House of Dies Drear, by Virginia Hamilton
• Jazz, by Toni Morrison
• One Better, by Rosalyn McMillan
• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler
• Paradise, by Toni Morrison
• People of the Century, by Time magazine editors
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor
• Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
• Sula, by Toni Morrison
• Tar Baby, by Toni Morrison
• Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Trials of Nikki Hill, by Christopher Darden and Dick Lochte
• Zeely, by Virginia Hamilton
• The Women of Brewster Place, by Gloria Naylor
• 2000X: Tales of the Next Millennia, science fiction collection
• The Street, by Ann Petry

Awards

• 1992 Obie Award – Boesman and Lena
• 1997 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play – An American Daughter
• 2000 Obie Award – Jar the Floor

Nominations

• 1987 Los Angeles Drama Critics Award – Fences
• 1994, 1995, 1996 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series - Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
• 1996 NAACP Image Awards for Informational Youth or Children's Series/Special – Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
• 1997 NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series – All My Children
• 1997, 1998 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series - Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
• 2000 AudioFile Awards Golden Voices for the Year
• 2004 Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series – Bear in the Big Blue House (Posthumously nominated)

Honors

• Lynne Thigpen Elementary School, Joliet, Illinois