Actor Zachary Levi is under fire following comments he made about the death of Broadway star Gavin Creel in an Instagram video.
Creel passed away September 30, 2024 at age 48 of metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare form of cancer with which he was just diagnosed in July.
In his Instagram video, Levi, who has somewhat notoriously made a rightward tilt in recent years, parroting right-wing conspiracy theories and vocally supporting Donald Trump, blamed Creel's death on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Creel was a prolific Broadway star who came to prominence in 2002 original Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, and won a Tony for his performance in the 2017 revival of Hello, Dolly!
The year before, he and Levi co-starred in the 2016 revival of She Loves Me. In his video, Levi talked about his experience working with Creel, whom he called "one of the healthiest people I knew."
He then claimed the vaccine, which he says was "forced on the American public" and had side effects like "turbo cancers," none of which is true, caused Creel's death.
Levi said:
“I know that this is going to offend some people and make some people mad, and I wish it didn’t."
"So, a few weeks ago, my friend Gavin Creel died. He was 48 years old, and he was one of the healthiest people I knew...”
"Without a shadow of a doubt, I believe that Gavin Creel would be alive right now — right fu*king now — he would still be alive if that stuff didn’t get put into his body.”
Levi's comments were not welcomed, and folks on Instagram let him know just how they felt.
Levi has been actively campaigning for Donald Trump, a move he claims could end his Hollywood career. He has also implored other "closeted conservatives" in Hollywood to speak out in favor of Trump and the MAGA movement, but few have done so.
