Lynne Thigpen (December 22, 1948 – March 12, 2003) was an American actress.

She was born Cherlynne Richmond in Joliet, Illinois, and obtained a degree in teaching. She taught high school English briefly in Joliet, while studying theatre and dance at the University of Illinois, then, in 1971, moved to New York City where she began a prolific theater career, appearing initially in musicals such as Godspell, The Night that Made America Famous, The Magic Show, Working, and Tintypes. Her first film was Godspell in 1973. Her later work emphasized her acting over her singing abilities.

She died, unexpectedly, in Los Angeles, California. She was 54. The cause of death was "acute cardiac dysfunction, nontraumatic systemic and spontaneous intraventricular hemorrhage and hemorrhage in the brain", as well as an enlarged heart. Drugs and foul play were ruled out.

Credits

Stage

• Godspell: 1973
• The Night That Made America Famous: 1975
• The Magic Show: 1976
• Working
• But Never Jam Today
• Tintypes: 1980-81
• August Wilson's Fences: 1988
• Jar the Floor
• Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena: Obie award, 1992
• A Month of Sundays
• Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter:1996-7 (Tony Award 1997)

Radio

• The Garrison Keillor Show

Screen

• The Warriors: 1979 (She appears as the radio announcer, only her lips are seen.)
• The Insider
• Random Hearts
• Tootsie: 1982
• Lean on Me: 1989
• Godspell: 1991
• Bob Roberts: 1992
• Article 99 : 1992
• BLANKMAN : 1994
• Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego?: 1998
• Bicentennial Man: 1999
• Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? II: 2000
• Shaft: 2000
• Anger Management: 2003

Television

• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? as The Chief
• Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? as The Chief
• The District (as Chief Jack Mannion's Director of Administration, Ella Farmer)
• All My Children: as nurse Grace Keefer
• thirtysomething
• L.A. Law
• Law and Order

Software

• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? v.3.0 as The Chief
• Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego? v.3.0 as The Chief
• Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? v.3.0 as The Chief

Voice

• The Bear in the Big Blue House as Luna