It is with great sadness that we report that Broadway actor, author, and California State University professor Josh Grisetti took his own life this past Friday, July 10.
The news of his sudden passing was first reported through Instagram posts by his friends and co-stars Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid, The Phantom of the Opera) and Rob McClure (Beetlejuice, Something Rotten!).
“It is with a shattered heart that I share that the brilliant Josh Grisetti took his own life on Friday,” McClure writes. “I’m not even ready to even attempt to understand. My heart is with his wife and family as they try to deal with the reality of this.”
“It is with the deepest grief that I am sharing with you that our beloved friend Josh Grisetti took his own life on Friday morning,” Boggess writes. “Nothing I can say will make this hurt any less. We all loved him so unbelievably much. He created light and thought and humor everywhere he went. He was a BRILLIANT actor and director and writer. His students are so lucky they had him as their teacher. I loved the way he looked at the world and how he challenged ideals and norms. I loved his humor and his brain and deep deep philosophical conversations. Our It Should Have Been You family was as close as can be and this is so heartbreaking I will be processing with the show family and all of you for a very long time. And all the other show families he made along the way. My heart aches with all of his chosen family and family and wife @mackenziegrisetti …
You have left such a space in all the lives of everyone who knows you and loves you. We will have more details on celebration of life but for now, we love you Josh. If “whatever” means “we love you” then “I’ll take whatever, whenever with you” ♥️💔”
Grisetti was probably best known to television audiences as Ralph Emerson, a writer for the fictitious Gordon Ford Show alongside Rachel Brosnahan’s Midge Maisel, in the fifth and final season of Amazon Prime’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Other notable movies and television series that Grisetti appeared in include Revolutionary Road, Nurse Jackie, Men in Black III, and The Good Fight. Earlier in his career, Grisetti starred opposite Sofia Vergara in the short-lived ABC Sitcom The Knights of Prosperity.
In 2015, Grisetti starred alongside Boggess and several others in the short-lived Broadway musical comedy It Shoulda Been You.
The following year, he starred alongside McClure in Something Rotten! And later spent more than a year touring with the production alongside him.
Grisetti also authored the spiritual memoir God in My Head, the story of his accidental hallucinogenic journey to God and back.
In addition to acting, Grisetti also devoted much of himself to teaching the next generation of artists. Serving as the head of the musical theatre program at California State University, Fullerton.
He is survived by his wife of six years, Mackenzie Grisetti.
Photos courtesy of social media
