Written by Rick Ellis, Thursday, March 13th, 2003

Lynne Thigpen, a Tony Award-winning actress for "An American Daughter" and co-star of the CBS drama The District, has died, the network said Thursday. She was 54. Thigpen died suddenly Wednesday night in her Los Angeles home. She had been in good health and the cause of death was not immediately known, CBS spokeswoman Beth Haiken said.

Production was shut down Thursday on The District, which stars Craig T. Nelson as Washington, D.C., police Chief Jack Mannion. Thigpen played Mannion's secretary, Ella Farmer. "I'm in shock. She was a wonderful actress and a friend," Nelson said in a statement.

"We are all in shock and in mourning," said John Wirth, the drama's executive producer. "The beauty, compassion and talent that you saw on the screen was not just superb acting, it was the very essence of this wonderful woman. We will miss her terribly."

The 20th episode was in production this week, Haiken said. A total of 22 was planned for the season. "Producers, cast and crew are in mourning and no decision has been made yet about how this will affect the show, because our first concern is Lynne's family," she said.

Thigpen, who was born and raised in Joliet, Ill., and made her home in New York, had a distinguished stage career and also worked steadily in films and televisiion.

She won a Tony Award for the drama "An American Daughter" and scored another nomination for "Tintypes." Her stage work also earned her two Obie Awards for the off-Broadway productions "Jar the Floor" and "Boesman and Lena" and an L.A. Drama Critics Award for "August Wilson's Fences."

She also appeared in such films as Tootsie, Bob Roberts, The Insider, Bicentennial Man and the 2000 remake of Shaft. One of her final film roles is as the judge who sentences Adam Sandler to live with Jack Nicholson in "Anger Management," due out April 11th.

But she is probably known best by the American public for her television roles. She had recurring roles in Gimme a Break!, thirtysomething, L.A. Law and Law & Order, and had stints as two different characters on All My Children, playing Flora Baxter in the 1983 season and then returning as "Grace Keefer" from 1993 to 2000, when she landed her District gig.

She was also the Chief on PBS' two Carmen Sandiego series and popped up in several made-for-TV flicks, including "The Boys Next Door", "A Mother's Instinct," "Chance of a Lifetime" and "Night Ride Home".

Details on survivors and funeral services were not immediately available.