Tony Award-Winning Composer William Finn Dies at Age 73 — Details
"Bill was brilliant, quirky, compassionate and very funny, and he understood the truth of people — the true emotions that led them to do what they were doing."
Published April 9 2025, 11:05 a.m. ET
Composer William Finn was a man of incredible talent but he was not without his struggles. The same year that he accepted two Tony Awards for his first Broadway show, Falsettos, William was experiencing bouts of dizziness. This was back in 1992, and it escalated to issues with his vision as well as partial paralysis, per The New York Times. Six years later, William was writing about that time and his arteriovenous malformation (AVM) diagnosis in a musical called A New Brain.
AVM, which is a neurological disease, is curable. William was able to recover after surgery, though it was quite an ordeal. This allowed the composer to continue with a long and storied career, which included the Tony Award-winning musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. William died on April 7, 2025, at the age of 73. Here's what we know about his cause of death.
William Finn's cause of death was revealed.
William's longtime partner, Arthur Salvadore, told The New York Times that the composer died from pulmonary fibrosis at a hospital in Bennington, Vt. At the time of his death, William was developing a song cycle about the COVID-19 pandemic titled Once Every Hundred Years. He famously loved the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts and had a house in Pittsifeld, which is where The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee premiered in a school cafeteria.
William's love of theater and Western Massachusetts came together at the musical theater lab he established at Barrington Stage. This program helped young artists find their voice, literally and figuratively. William was an associate artist there until his death. Julianne Boyd, the former artistic director of Barrington Stage, told The Times that "Bill was brilliant, quirky, compassionate and very funny, and he understood the truth of people — the true emotions that led them to do what they were doing."
Tributes to William were shared on social media by people who never knew him personally but were touched by his work. One X user posted, "Farewell to William Finn, whose musicals were truly unlike anyone else's. On Broadway in 1992, his Falsettos offered a sweet, wrenching, and much-needed catharsis in the darkest depths of the AIDS crisis. I remember leaving the theater with my shoulders heaving; I wasn't alone."