Kyle Jean-Baptiste, 21-Year-Old Broadway Star, Dies in Fire Escape Accident

Brooklyn resident and Broadway actor Kyle Jean-Baptiste, 21, died early Saturday morning when he fell off his mother’s fire escape in Bed-Stuy near Clinton Hill, police said.

Jean-Baptiste was sitting on the fourth-floor fire escape on Greene Avenue at 4:15 a.m., an NYPD spokesman said, “when he accidentally fell off to the street below.”

The young actor was declared dead at 5:25 a.m. at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Bed-Stuy, police said. An initial NYPD investigation determined there was nothing suspicious about his death.

“He shook the world with his voice and broke barriers with a smile,” Jean-Baptiste’s sister, Kelsey, wrote on Instagram. “He was a blessing to me, you, and many people in the world.”

Jean-Baptiste, who played Constable and Courfeyrac and practiced as an understudy for the starring role of Jean Valjean in Broadway’s current run of ”Les Miserables,” made history this summer when he went on stage as Valjean.

In doing so, he became the youngest actor, and the only black actor, to play Valjean on Broadway.

Below, a clip from the history-making performance.

“Today I go on as my dream role,” he tweeted on his first night as Valjean. “No words. Guna remember this night.”

“Today is the day,” he had written on Instagram earlier that morning. “Trying to clear my mind. It’s racing. So many emotions. Concrete jungles where dreams are made of.”

Jean-Baptiste gave his final performance as Valjean on Aug. 27, just one night before his tragic death. That entire performance can be downloaded here.

On an NYC sidewalk after the show, he sang a song from Les Miserables called ”The Confrontation.” (Video below.)

BroadwayWorld.com has also compiled a video playlist of various Jean-Baptiste performances over the years.

Upon learning of his death, Jean-Baptiste’s company released the following statement.

“The entire LES MISERABLES family is shocked and devastated by the sudden and tragic loss of Kyle, a remarkable young talent and tremendous person who made magic — and history — in his Broadway debut. We send our deepest condolences to his family and ask that you respect their privacy in this unimaginably difficult time.”

Shocked messages from friends and fans, including Debra Messing and Josh Groban, began streaming onto social-media feeds Saturday afternoon.

Patch reader Ana Medrano-Dorta wrote on Facebook: “My daughter and him were classmates in [Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, in Manhattan]. She was so excited for his Broadway debut...she’s so sad right now. May he RIP and condolences to his family.”

Days before the accident, Jean-Baptiste and his sister, Kelsey, had posted matching photos on Instagram of the two of them sitting on a stoop in Bed-Stuy.

“Years later my bro and I are still Brooklyn stoop kids,” Kelsey wrote.

On Saturday afternoon, Kelsey returned to Instagram to memorialize her brother.

“I closed my eyes last night and woke up with tears,” she wrote. “My best friend, my heart, my 1st reason for existence, my brother, passed this morning.”