Ann Crumb, a Tony-nominated actress who originated the role of Rose Vibert in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects Of Love, has died at the age of 69.
Her vocal coach, Bill Schuman, said Crumb died on Thursday from ovarian cancer at her parents’ home in Media, Pennsylvania.
She was the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb.
She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of Les Miserables in 1987 and starred in Aspects Of Love opposite Michael Ball in London’s West End in 1989 and on Broadway in 1990.
Crumb received a Tony nomination for the title role in the musical adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina by Daniel Levine and Peter Kellogg, which ran for 18 previews and 46 performances in 1992.
She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from the University of Michigan and studied violin. She ended her violin career after she injured her right arm in a fall from a horse.
She then planned for a career in clinical medicine and was working as a clinician in Philadelphia when she took a job in the national tour of El Grande de Coca Cola and switched to theatre.
Crumb starred opposite John Cullum in a US tour of Man Of La Mancha in 1995. Her television appearances included Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and One Life To Live.
Also known as a classical and jazz singer, Crumb’s rendition of Three Early Songs was on the Grammy Award-winning George Crumb’s 70th Birthday Album.
She is survived by her father; her mother, Elizabeth Crumb, a violinist; and brothers Peter and David, the latter a composer.