Lynne Thigpen

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).[4]

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

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 a month after her death and paid tribute to her in the end credits.

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.[5] 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.

She appeared in radio skits of the Garrison Keillor program The American Radio Company of the Air.[6] Her voice was also heard on over 20 audio books, primarily works with socially relevant themes.[7]

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,"[8] 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".[9]

After Thigpen died, the final three episodes of the third season of The District had a tribute to her character Ella Mae Farmer, with episode 66 (S3:E12) being entitled "Ella Mae."

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 her death, Bear star Tara Mooney, who played the character Shadow, said in an interview with Ray 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 lost to Jeff Corwin for his wildlife reality series The Jeff Corwin Experience.

Thigpen's friends and family established a nonprofit foundation, The Lynne Thigpen–Bobo Lewis Foundation, to help young actors and actresses learn to survive and succeed in New York theater and to mentor the next generation of Broadway stars.[11]

Her final film, Anger Management (2003), was dedicated to her memory. Lynne Thigpen Elementary School in her hometown of Joliet, Illinois, was named for her.[12]

• 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

• A Prairie Home Companion (1989)

• 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 No. 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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