Ken Page, who starred in ‘Cats’ on Broadway and voiced Oogie Boogie, dies at 70

The Drama Desk Award-winning actor made his Broadway debut in "The Wiz" playing the Cowardly Lion.

Oct 2, 2024

Ken Page, theGrio.com — Ken Page appears at Wizard World in Chicago on Aug. 25, 2019. Page, a stage and screen actor who starred alongside Beyoncé in “Dreamgirls,” and introduced Broadway audiences to Old Deuteronomy in “Cats” has died. He was 70. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Ken Page, a stage and screen actor who starred alongside Beyoncé in “Dreamgirls,” introduced Broadway audiences to Old Deuteronomy in “Cats” and scared generations of kids as the voice of Oogie Boogie, the villain of the 1993 animated holiday film ”The Nightmare Before Christmas,″ has died. He was 70.

Talent agent Todd M. Eskin of ATB Talent Agency announced the death Tuesday to The Associated Press, but no details were immediately available.

“He was simply one of the best, most generous souls I know. Full of life and overflowing with joy. Talented and then some. Ken, my friend, you will be deeply missed,” writer-producer Tim Burton wrote on X.

Page made his Broadway debut in “The Wiz,” playing the Cowardly Lion, and went on to portray Nicely-Nicely Johnson in “Guys and Dolls” with Robert Guillaume. He also was featured in the original cast of the Fats Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin,'” winning a Drama Desk Award, and was aboard when it returned to Broadway in 1988.

Page originated the role of wise Old Deuteronomy when “Cats” landed on Broadway in 1982 and went on to a then-record run, singing “Old Deuteronomy,” “The Moments of Happiness” and “The Ad-Dressing of Cats.”

Elaine Paige, who originated the role of Grizabella in “Cats” and reprised the role in the 1998 “Cats” film version, paid tribute to her co-star on X, saying Page “has gone to the heaviside layer” and adding, “He was a lovely, kind, talented man.”

In 2010, Page revisited the Old Deuteronomy at the Muny — the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis — and the critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said: “Page, a looming gentle presence, fills the role of the feline spirit guide to the hilt,” adding, “Maybe nobody’s going to bow to a kitty while intoning ‘OH CAT,’ but Page can make you at least consider it.”

Page would perhaps make his deepest impact as the voice of Oogie Boogie, the burlap sack with hundreds of bugs crawling inside of him, in Burton’s ”The Nightmare Before Christmas.″ It was his character’s hope to become the Seven Holidays King by kidnapping the Holiday Leaders for the other holidays. ““It’s hopeless/you’re finished/You haven’t got a prayer/’Cause I’m Mr. Oogie Boogie/And you ain’t going nowhere,” he sang to Santa.

He would go on to reprise the Oogie Boogie role, including in video games and at the movie’s 30th anniversary concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 2023. He also voiced King Gator in Disney’s 1989 animated film “All Dogs Go to Heaven.”

His other movie credits include 1988’s “Torch Song Trilogy,” in which he played the witty drag queen Murray, and 2006’s “Dreamgirls,” in which he played Max Washington. His TV credits include “Family Matters,” “Touched by an Angel” and “Charmed.”