Walter Charles

Walter Charles, born Walter Charles Jacobsen on April 4, 1945, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, was an American actor and singer whose Broadway career spanned more than four decades, from 1970 to 2011. He died on August 3, 2023, at the age of 78, from complications related to frontotemporal dementia. He is survived by his wife, Leslie Thompson.

Charles entered Broadway with his debut in Grease in 1972. Over the following decades he accumulated an extensive list of stage credits, among them 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Cats (1982), La Cage aux Folles (1983), Me and My Girl (1987), Aspects of Love (1990), Kiss Me, Kate (2000), The Boys from Syracuse (2002), Big River (2003), The Woman in White (2005), The Apple Tree (2006), and Anything Goes (2011). His role of Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd extended beyond Broadway; he reprised the character in the 2002 Kennedy Center production and again in the 2004 New York City Opera production.

Beyond Broadway, Charles originated the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in 1994. The following year he played Max von Mayerling in the Toronto production of Sunset Boulevard. In 1997 he portrayed Georges in La Cage aux Folles at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, with Tom Helm serving as musical director.

Charles also maintained a presence in film and television. His screen credits include A Fine Mess, Fletch Lives, Weeds, and Prancer, while his television appearances encompassed Cagney and Lacey, Kate and Allie, Law & Order, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.