Stage Thigpen moved to New York City in 1971 to begin her career as a stage actress. She had a long and prolific theater career and appeared in numerous
musicals including
Godspell,
The Night That Made America Famous,
The Magic Show,
Working,
Tintypes, and
An American Daughter (for which she won her
Tony Award for her portrayal of Dr. Judith Kaufman in 1997). In 1994, Thigpen originated a role in an
Adrienne Kennedy short play
Motherhood 2000, while in 1995, she served as associate artistic director of the acclaimed off-Broadway theater,
Circle Repertory Company, while
Austin Pendleton served as artistic director.
Film Her first feature film role was as Lynne in
Godspell (1973), co-starring opposite
Victor Garber and
David Haskell. Thigpen also portrayed a radio DJ (shown only from the nose down) in
Walter Hill's
The Warriors (1979), and Leonna Barrett, the mother of an expelled student, in
Lean on Me (1989), the story of American high school principal
Joe Louis Clark. She had a role in the remake of
Shaft (2000) as the mother of a murder victim, and played the Second President of the World Congress in
Bicentennial Man (1999). Her last film,
Anger Management (2003), starring
Adam Sandler and
Jack Nicholson, was released a month after her death and paid tribute to her in the end credits.
Television Thigpen was most known to television audiences for playing the Chief in the
PBS children's geography game show
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, which involved education, humor, and an occasional musical performance. She also reprised her role as The Chief in the successor show
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? She also played Luna in the television show
Bear in the Big Blue House and also appeared in many other television series during her career, most notably in a recurring role as
Grace Keefer on the
ABC daytime drama
All My Children and a supporting role as
Ella Mae Farmer, a crime analyst for the Washington, D.C., police department, on the
CBS crime drama
The District. She guest-starred in episodes of
Gimme A Break!,
Roseanne,
Thirtysomething,
The Cosby Show,
L.A. Law,
Law & Order,
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,
Homicide: Life on the Street, and
Sesame Street, and was a regular cast member on the short-lived
NBC sketch comedy series
The News Is the News.
Where in the Universe Is Carmen Sandiego? is the last show to feature Lynne Thigpen as The Chief before she died.
Audio productions She appeared in radio skits of the
Garrison Keillor program
The American Radio Company of the Air. Her voice was also heard on over 20 audio books, primarily works with socially relevant themes.
Computer games In her association with the
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? television show, Thigpen reprised her role as The Chief in three related computer games. Two were released in 1996:
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (a reboot of the original 1985–1992 game) and
Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? The following year, a video game counterpart to the TV series' successor show,
Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, was released, titled ''
Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time. Thigpen recorded hundreds of QuickTime videos for cut-scenes in the games, and generally received praise for her performances in them; in reviewing the 1997 game, David Colker of the Los Angeles Times
enjoyed the "on-screen presence of actress Lynne Thigpen", noting that she "brings a winning presence to her role," while Debbie Maria Leon of the New Straits Times'' wrote that "the urgency of the [confident Chief's] voice [gives] enough oomph to make [the player] go scurrying to restore history". ==Death==