Sammy Williams, who won a Tony Award in the original 1976 Broadway production of A Chorus Line, has died, aged 69.

Family spokeswoman and friend Brandee Barnaby says Williams died of cancer Saturday in Los Angeles.

Williams won best featured actor in a musical in 1976 for the role of Paul in A Chorus Line. The pioneering musical with music by Marvin Hamlisch told of the inner lives of actors auditioning for a big show. Paul was a young Puerto Rican performer starting to feel comfortable about being gay.

Williams had other earlier smaller parts on Broadway in Applause and The Happy Time. He was later a choreographer, director and actor in Los Angeles, who appeared in Follies in 2012.