Broadway star, 5 time Tony nominee Jan Maxwell dies at 61

Broadway star and five-time Tony Award nominee Jan Maxwell has died. She was 61. (Photo By remosurf – originally posted to Flickr as P1010983, CC BY 2.0)

NEW YORK — Broadway star and five-time Tony Award nominee Jan Maxwell has died. She was 61.

Her husband, actor and playwright Robert Emmet Lunney, says she died on Sunday at her Manhattan home following a long battle with cancer.

Maxwell made her Broadway debut as an understudy in the 1989 production of the musical “City of Angels.”

She received five Tony Award nominations over the course of her career, the first in 2005 for the musical “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” She also was nominated for her work in “Coram Boy” in 2007, “Lend Me a Tenor” and “The Royal Family,” both in 2010, and “Follies” in 2012.

Maxwell also appeared on the small screen in episodes of shows including “Law & Order,” “All My Children,” “Gossip Girl” and “The Good Wife.”