Ken Page, the voice actor behind Oogie Boogie in the 1993 cult classic The Nightmare Before Christmas, has passed away. He was 70 years old.
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Page’s rep, Lance Kirkland, confirmed the news to TMZ, stating the voice actor passed away “very peacefully” in his St. Louis, Missouri home on Monday, Sept. 30.
Kirkland shared that The Nightmare Before Christmas star sat down in his chair and died in his sleep. “He was a beautiful, talented man who was larger than life. Ken was loved and adored by so many and will be missed so much.”
Page’s longtime friend, Dorian Hannaway, announced his passing on Facebook. “Ken Page has passed onto the next show,” Hannway wrote. “My heart is broken.”
Actress Shari Belafonte also took to Facebook to pay tribute to Ken Page.
“Ken Page One of the sweetest, most talented guys on the planet. Dorian Hannaway just posted that he’s left us. And, I couldn’t believe it… but it’s true,” Belafone wrote. “It feels like it’s coming just a bit too fast and a tad too furiously now…”
“James Earl, Dame Maggie, Kris, Pete Rose, Dikembe, Officer Taggert/John Ashton, Drake H… and now Ken. RIP ALL of you. Heaven is packing it in right now with brilliant talent stepping off that First Class charter…”
Born in Jan. 1954, Ken Page started his acting career in the 1970s. He appeared in musicals Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Aida, The Wizard of Oz, Les Miserables, and Little Shop of Horrors.
Along with playing Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ken Page played roles in All Dogs Go to Heaven, Dreamgirls, And I’ll Do Anything. He reprised his role as Oogie Boogie in the Kingdom Hearts video games as well as The Nightmare Before Christmas video games.
Ken Page Once Recalled Playing Oogie Boogie in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’
During a 2014 interview, Ken Page recalled playing Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
“After seeing the sets and bits and production, I couldn’t imagine at all what the end product would be until it was all done,” Page said. “What really made it amazing was that it was stop motion, which I hadn’t seen in a long time. I was in awe of the process, all the way from seeing some of storyboards and the armatures, to the completed film.”
Ken Page also shared how he was approached for the role. “At first, the filmmakers were looking for someone to just sing ‘Oogie Boogie’s Song,’ and they wanted something like a Cab Calloway-esque, Fats Waller-esque kind of vocalist. Somebody who could characterize the vocal.”
Page continued. “So my lawyer said to Danny Elfman, ‘I know the person for you – there’s nobody else that fits that description other than Ken Page. He’s done these things and embodied many critters.’”
Page went on to praise Disney. “Disney has been wonderful to me over the years. I’ve done a lot of events at the park in California and at the El Capitan Theater around Halloween time before,” he added.
“When I see little kids, because they don’t often connect the person and the voice of a character they see on film, I’ll bend down and go, ‘Well, well, well. What have we here?’ When you see their faces light up, it’s worth a million bucks.”